The EPA argument's unavailing

Stuart Taylor has this article over at National Journal, pointing out how detached from the actual Ledbetter v. Goodyear ruling a lot of the hysteria has been. Regular readers will infer from our previous coverage of the case that I agree with emphatically with most of this piece, but I part ways with Stuart on one point. Stuart says:

[T]he suggestions by Ginsburg and the media that the decision leaves women such as Ledbetter with no adequate remedy for pay discrimination -- because they may not even know what their male peers are paid until more than 180 days after the allegedly discriminatory pay-setting decision -- are vastly exaggerated.

It's true that some victims of pay discrimination will be initially ignorant of their peers' pay and thus out of luck as far as Title VII is concerned. But Ledbetter, who waited six or more years to sue after learning of the pay disparities, is not one of them.

Besides, Title VII is not the only remedy for sex-based pay discrimination. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 requires employers to pay women as much men doing "equal work" in the same establishment, with exceptions including merit pay. This law does not require proof of intentional discrimination. And it has a much longer, three-year statute of limitations.

Well, that's true, as far as it goes. But even assuming that the EPA provides as good a remedy as Title VII for discrimination, the EPA only provides a remedy to women who have been discriminated against in terms of pay. What about those who have been victims of other discrimination barred by Title VII - "race, color, religion, ... or national origin"? The Ledbetter ruling may have been in the context of gender discrimination, but it applies with equal force to any other proscribed category. On this much, I agree with what LCCR's Wade Henderson told Congress this week, that "The impact of the Court's decision in Ledbetter will be widespread, affecting pay discrimination cases under Title VII affecting women and racial and ethnic minorities...."

HT: Gretchen

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Ledbetter again... liberal versus conservative judicial philosophies
Reactions to Ledbetter
Ledbetter v Goodyear