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The court deals a blow to pay discrimination plaintiffs.

Article Excerpt
For lawyers representing plaintiffs in civil rights cases, Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., was one of the most important--and troubling--decisions of the year. (1) In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court held that the statute of limitations for pay discrimination claims under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act begins running when the pay is set. The Court rejected the plaintiff's claim that each additional paycheck is a separate violation.

Generally, discrimination claims must be filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) within 180 days of the discriminatory act. Often, however, people do not know the salary of other employees in the workplace. In fact, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her dissenting opinion, pointed out that "one-third of private-sector employers have adopted specific rules prohibiting employees from discussing their wages with coworkers; only one in 10 employers has adopted a pay openness policy." (2)

The crucial question for litigation now is whether the statute of limitations is tolled until the employee reasonably could have known of the pay discrimination and, if so, how that point is to be determined.

Lilly Ledbetter worked as a supervisor at Goodyear's Gadsden, Alabama, plant from 1979 until 1998. In March...

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