United States Supreme Court Decides Key Equal Pay Case in Favor of Employers
Posted by Vanessa W. Whang
On May 29, 2007, the United States Supreme Court decided Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Inc., a case involving a Title VII claim for sex discrimination. Lilly Ledbetter worked for Goodyear for 19 years and claimed that her past performance evaluations were discriminatory based on her sex because they caused her to be earning significantly less than her male counterparts at the time of her retirement in 1998. Ledbetter filed a EEOC questionnaire in March 1998. Relying on the "paycheck accrual rule," she claimed that the paychecks she received up to the date of her retirement were unlawful because they would have been larger is she had been evaluated in a non-discriminatory way prior to the EEOC charging period (180 days prior to her filing her EEOC questionnaire).
A split (5-4) U.S. Supreme Court held that because Ledbetter did not assert that any of the pay decisions made within 180 days of her filing of her EEOC questionnaire were discriminatory, her claims were time-barred. The Supreme Court held that "the EEOC charging period is triggered when a discrete unlawful practice takes place. A new violation does not occur, and a new charging period does not commence upon the occurrence of subsequent non-discriminatory acts that entail adverse effects resulting from past discrimination. But of course, if an employer engages in a series of acts, each of which is intentionally discriminatory, then a fresh violation takes place when each act is committed."
This decision is helpful to employers as it helps define how statutes of limitations will be analyzed in discrimination cases where continuous violations are alleged. In addition, it will likely help eliminate employees from bringing stale claims back to life simply by adding continuous violations type allegations that are not supported with real evidence. However, this decision may have the practical effect of prompting employees to file Title VII charges more quickly because of the Supreme Court's strict statute of limitations ruling. It should be noted that this case is limited to Title VII pay claims and it is unclear whether the reasoning of Ledbetter will be adopted in other contexts. In addition, employees may still make disparate pay claims under other federal and state laws which may have different statute of limitations and administrative exhaustion requirements.