In January 2009, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act (the “Ledbetter Act” or the “Act”) into law. The Act was expressly designed to overturn the Supreme Court‘s decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (2007).
The federal courts have decided several dozen cases interpreting the new statute, and a consistent approach is beginning to emerge. While employers are wary of being subjected to an onslaught of litigation as a result of the Act, the courts have noted that it does not “serve as a trump card that [plaintiffs] might use to supersede all statutes of limitations in our nation’s various civil rights acts,” EEOC v. CRST Van Expedited, Inc. (2009), and have thus far universally construed the Act as overruling Ledbetter “only … with respect to the timeliness of discriminatory compensation claims.” Leach v. Baylor Col. of Med. (2009).
