You Go, Lilly

Dear friends,

I was still a corporate HR person when the Lilly Ledbetter case made the news in 1998. Lilly sued her employer for sex-based pay discrimination that had gone on for 20 years. Too bad for Lilly, she lost at the Supreme Court level because the law said that a claimant had to file a claim within 180 days of the discriminatory event. Meaning the date that the first unequal paycheck was cut. Too bad that companies don't tell you when they're illegally discriminating against you by paying men more than women (or women more than men, etc.).

Not that I was a babe-in-the-woods naif in 1998, but I was shocked by that, well, idiotic decision. I guess the Supremes had no choice; the law essentially said that if an employer can hide its discriminatory pay practices for six months, the illegal pay structure can survive forever.

Congress passed a bill today, 11 years later, making it possible for employees to sue for pay discrimination even when they didn't know the discrimination was occurring at the time that it occurred. Duh. Hurrah for Congress and for Lilly. Here's the story.

If you're interested in stuff like this, check out the Ask Liz Ryan HR Ning group