US Supreme Court rules in Goodyear's favor in pay discrimination case

Washington, DC - The statute of limitations in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prevents a former Goodyear employee from suing over gender-based pay inequities, the US Supreme Court has ruled in a 5-4 decision.

Lilly Ledbetter, a retired supervisor at Goodyear's Gadsden, Alabama, plant, claimed that discrimination in her earliest salary reviews at the plant caused her to be paid 15 percent less than the lowest paid male supervisor in the plant by the time she retired in 1998.

Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, said the high court has held consistently that Title VII claims are invalid if the employee doesn't file a complaint within 180 days of the discriminatory act, and future decisions can't be construed as continuations of the original violation.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the minority, said the majority decision overlooks common characteristics of pay discrimination.

“Pay disparities often occur, as they did in Ledbetter's case, in small increments,” Justice Ginsburg wrote. “Cause to suspect that discrimination is at work develops only over time.”

Goodyear officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment, but both the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said they were delighted with the ruling.

“Allowing an employee to wait years before they file a disparate pay claim is simply unfair to the defendant business,” said Karen Harned, executive director of the NFIB Legal Foundation, in a statement.

But Kevin Russell, Ms. Ledbetter's attorney, said the decision ignores that workers often don't find out for years about pay discrimination.

“In general, this is a decision that employers will be happy about, and employees won't be happy about,” he said.

From Tire Business (A Crain publication)