Week #4 Learning Activity - Essay Example

The Lily Ledbetter Act and the Eradication of Pay Discrimination While Orman (2009) talked about financial management issues that women face today, another critical financial concern is pay discrimination. The Lily Ledbetter Act is a law that seeks to close pay gap between men and women. The Act will help eliminate pay discrimination by enabling victims of pay discrimination to seek redress because of the extended time period for filing claims and by potentially broadening applications to other cases where pay discrimination happens, although narrower interpretations may still result to continued pay discrimination in other forms and degrees.

The Lily Ledbetter Act will help abolish pay discrimination because it extends time period for filing claims and expands the application of pay discrimination claims; however, it also has its limitations. The Act reinstates the interpretation of the regulation that a pay discrimination claim accumulates whenever an employee experiences pay discrimination (U.S. Department of Labor, 2014, p.1). The Act overturns the Supreme Court’s decision that stated that people subject to pay discrimination merely have 180 days from the date the employer first chooses to pay them less to file a discrimination claim (U.S. Department of Labor, 2014, p.1). Moreover, the Act allows some courts to interpret "compensation decision or other practice” for broader applications (National Women’s Law Center, 2011).

For instance, in Gentry v. Jackson State University, a Mississippi district court ruled that denial of tenure can meet the criteria as a compensation decision or “other practice,” if it shapes the plaintiffs salary (National Women’s Law Center, 2011). A broad interpretation of the law ensures that pay discrimination does not happen in other indirect forms. On the contrary, narrower interpretations can still lead to pay discrimination, despite the existence of the Act. For instance, some courts do not find “failure to promote” as part of compensation claims.

Promotion directly affects pay discrimination, and yet, some courts may choose to not treat it as important to pay equity.The Lily Ledbetter Act greatly helps in reducing pay discrimination because of broadened filing of claims and interpretations. Nevertheless, it may not be enough to stop employers from applying pay discrimination through other means that the Act does not specifically include. Hence, the Act is only one of the many steps that society must take to ensure the full eradication of pay discrimination.

ReferencesNational Women’s Law Center. (2011). The Lilly Ledbetter Act of 2009: Emerging issues. Retrieved from http://www.nwlc.org/resource/lilly-ledbetter-act-2009-emerging-issuesOrman, S. (2009). Money matters. In H. Boushey & A. O’Leary (Eds.), The Shriver Report (pp.232-235).United States Department of Labor. (2014). Fact sheet: Closing the gender wage gap. Retrieved from http://www.dol.gov/wb/equal-pay/WH-Equal-Pay-fact-sheet.pdf