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Opinion: Obama’s first bill -- equal pay, equal work

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Lilly Ledbetter, now 70, discovered late in her career that the male supervisors at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber plant where she worked in Alabama were making 40% more for doing the same work. Though a jury found the company liable, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, found that she could only recover for the first 180 days of the disparity.

Candidate Barack Obama told the story often during the presidential campaign, citing the principle of equal pay for equal work as one of the changes he hoped to bring to Washington. He and First Lady Michelle Obama got to know Ledbetter, and Democrats invited her to address delegates at their convention.

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Today, with Ledbetter looking on, Obama signed a bill that essentially overturned the Supreme Court decision by allowing workers who have experienced discrimination to recover for longer periods of time. Calling it ‘a wonderful day,’ Obama said he signed the bill in the presence of the first female speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and in honor of his two daughters.

Signing this bill today is to send a clear message: that making our economy work means making sure it works for everybody; that there are no second-class citizens in our workplaces; and that it’s not just unfair and illegal, it’s bad for business to pay somebody less because of their gender or their age or their race or their ethnicity, religion or disability; and that justice isn’t about some abstract legal theory, or footnote in a casebook. It’s about how our laws affect the daily lives and the daily realities of people: their ability to make a living and care for their families and achieve their goals.

Not everyone was a fan of the legislation. Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona opposed it on grounds it would lead to more lawsuits. ‘I am all in favor of pay equity for women, but this kind of legislation, as is typical of what’s being proposed by my friends on the other side of the aisle, opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems,’ he told reporters during the campaign. ‘This is government playing a much, much greater role in the business of a private enterprise system.’

National Public Radio reported this morning that Ledbetter’s husband, who died in December, supported his wife’s cause, voting for a Democrat for president in November for the first time in his life.

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-- Johanna Neuman

Register here for Twitter alerts on each new Ticket item? RSS feeds are also available here. And we’re on Amazon’s Kindle as well.

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