iOn January 9, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act of 2009.” The law overturned the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which held that the statute of limitations for filing a Title VII disparate pay discrimination claim begins to run on the day that the employer makes a discriminatory pay decision – not when the employee receives paychecks based upon that decision.
Under the new law, filing deadlines begin when: (1) “a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice is adopted”; (2) “when an individual becomes subject to a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice”; or (3) “when an individual is affected by application of a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice, including each time wages, benefits, or other compensation is paid, resulting in whole or in part from such a decision or other practice.” Thus, each paycheck that an employer issues based upon a discriminatory compensation decision re-starts the employee’s filing deadline.
The new law applies to claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The law applies retroactively as of May 28, 2007.
