A Victory for Equal Pay

Today, President Obama signed the "Ledbetter Bill”, his first piece of legislation, that would help remove a huge barrier to our efforts to fight discrimination in the workplace. This bill was passed in reaction to a 2008 Supreme Court decision that required workers to file claims of discrimination within 180 days of their first unfair paycheck. The Court rejected a lawsuit filed by Lilly Ledbetter, a supervisor at Goodyear who was paid less than her male counterparts, simply because she had not discovered the injustice until some years after her first paycheck.

As Public Advocate, I have fought hard to combat many forms of discrimination in New York City. I’ve introduced and worked to pass a law that would protect the rights of caregivers against workplace discrimination; and just this month, I spoke out against the Department of Education for scheduling girls’ sports in the off season - an unfair practice – that has since been ended by the DOE.