US Court Backs Goodyear in Pay Discrimination Case
A ruling handed down by the US Supreme Court has set a precedent limiting employees’ ability to sue an employer for pay discrimination in cases relating to decisions made years earlier. The court decided in a 5-4 ruling on a case centred upon the application of deadlines for complaining about discriminatory pay decisions that it would become too difficult for employers to mount a defence against any claims “arising from employment decisions that are long past.”
The plaintiff, Lilly Ledbetter, instigated legal action against Goodyear Tire & Rubber based upon her claims that after 19 years of employment at the company’s facility in Gadsden, Alabama she was earning US$6,000 a year less than the lowest-paid male employee performing the same work. Ms Ledbetter argued that her gender was the primary causal factor for this pay inequality, which she claimed been ongoing for a number of years. A jury initially made a decision in Ledbetter’s favour and awarded her $3.8 million, later reduced to $360,000.