I have written numerous times about the need for a Ledbetter bill to overturn the Supreme Court decision in the Ledbetter case concerning the statute of limitations for pay discrimination cases.  Recall that the Court ruled that pay discrimination cases are treated as discrete act of discrimination cases and that a claim must be filed within the 180/300 day statute of limitations from the day the employee receives their paycheck.  This is an absurd situation as many times employees do not know of a discriminatory pattern until there have been numerous pay periods with discriminatory pay decisions.

Now comes word that as early as today, Congress will have hearings on the passage of a Ledbetter Fair Pay Bill which will allow more flexibility for such pay discrimination claims. More specifically, the
Ledbetter Fair Pay Act legislation would amend all of the employment discrimination law to provide that in effect only one discriminatory pay check with have to fall into the statutory period for such claims – much like sexual harassment claims under the Morgan case.

Related legislation is also expected to amend the Equal Pay Act to enhance remedies for sex-based pay disparities.

While the legislation is expected to pass the House like it did last year, the challenge will come in the Senate with the threat of another Republic filibuster.  However, this time Democrats seems to have the
votes to overcome such a threat.  A recent in-depth story on Ledbetter can be found in the NYT from a couple of days ago.