Despite the influx of women into the workforce, gender inequality persists, as this report released by the The Institute for Women’s Policy Research reminds us. Men earn more than women in almost all occupations. Moreover, women earn less than men both in the ten highest paying occupations for women and in the ten lowest paying occupations for women.
Mary Lou Mikula, employed to manage the police grants budget by Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, probably never anticipated that she would one day be at the center of the equal pay battle in the courts, but her situation required it:
She was paid several thousand dollars less than a male manager with whom she shared many responsibilities from her date of hire and continued to be paid less despite her repeated requests for a pay increase. In an initial panel opinion, the Third Circuit held that her Title VII claim was not filed in a timely manner despite the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. [The National Women’s Law Center] filed a petition for rehearing in April, and the court’s decision today makes clear that each discriminatory paycheck renews the time period for filing a Title VII claim.
The ruling demonstrates the influence of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which fights pay discrimination and ensures fundamental fairness for American workers. Marcia D. Greenberger, Co-President of the National Women’s Law Center said that the “decision is a victory for Ms. Mikula and for all those who have been denied equal pay. The decision implements the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act as Congress intended, restoring the ability of victims of wage discrimination to challenge this practice in court.”
