Next week the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is due to be passed by Congress and sent to the President

[obama democrat]

For incoming White House staff, the past few days have been a
singularly thrilling -- and learning -- experience. Wide-eyed staffers
roam the halls of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building with thick
stacks of HR paperwork in hand, new phone numbers are being memorized
-- and the line for coffee and club sandwiches is starting to grow as
word spreads about the White House Mess. It's safe to say that working
at the White House isn't something anyone can prepare for, but the
career staff continue to work tirelessly to make the first few days as
smooth as possible.

The new media team is coming online as well and our first priority is
digging into this new website: improving some of the basic press
office functions (like the timely posting of press releases, executive
orders, etc.), developing content from other parts of the
Administration to share with you and mapping out a plan for technology
development. Thanks to heroic supporting roles by the Office of
Administration's web and IT team (career government employees who span
administrations), we were able to launch the new website. Now we begin
the task of moving it forward.

Congress isn't waiting for the dust to settle though -- and neither is
the President. Next week the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is due to be
passed by Congress and sent to the President. The language within the
Senate's version (S.181 [check it out on THOMAS, a service provided by
the Library of Congress]) is likely to be the version that arrives on
the President's desk for signature, and includes this summary:

A bill to amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age
Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and to modify the operation
of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973, to clarify that a discriminatory compensation decision or
other practice that is unlawful under such Acts occurs each time
compensation is paid pursuant to the discriminatory compensation
decision or other practice, and for other purposes.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act will restore the law to where it was
before the Supreme Court's decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire &
Rubber Co. Justice Ginsberg's dissent summarizes the facts of
Ledbetter's complaint:

Lilly Ledbetter was a supervisor at Goodyear Tire and Rubber’s plant
in Gadsden, Alabama, from 1979 until her retirement in 1998. For most
of those years, she worked as an area manager, a position largely
occupied by men. Initially, Ledbetter’s salary was in line with the
salaries of men performing substantially similar work. Over time,
however, her pay slipped in comparison to the pay of male area
managers with equal or less seniority. By the end of 1997, Ledbetter
was the only woman working as an area manager and the pay discrepancy
between Ledbetter and her 15 male counterparts was stark: Ledbetter
was paid $3,727 per month; the lowest paid male area manager received
$4,286 per month, the highest paid, $5,236.

The Court ruled that employees subject to pay discrimination like
Lilly Ledbetter must file a claim within 180 days of the employer's
original decision to pay them less -- even if the employee continued
to receive reduced paychecks and even if the employee did not discover
the discriminatory reduction in pay until much later (check out
Justice Alito's arguments in the Court's opinion). Restoring these
rules means that complaints can be filed 180 days after any
discriminatory paycheck.

President Obama has long championed this bill and Lilly Ledbetter's
cause, and by signing it into law, he will ensure that women like Ms.
Ledbetter and other victims of pay discrimination can effectively
challenge unequal pay.