Today is the 12th annual celebration of Equal Pay Day, a day not when women actually achieve equal earning power with similarly qualified men, but on day on which we are reminded we haven't achieved that yet, because today is the day we catch up with their earnings from last year.   The exact date varies because some years it takes us a little longer to catch up than others, but it's always on a Tuesday - that's the day in week 2 when women catch up to men's earnings in week 1.

But hey, at least we're allowed to collect a paycheck at all now, which is something, I guess.  The Supreme Court has done what it can fairly recently to see to it we don't get to pester our employers overmuch about it, though, having rendered a 5-4 decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. (May 2007) which "prohibits an employee from legally challenging a case of wage discrimination more than 180 days after the original discriminatory act occurred." (Feminist Majority Foundation)

180 days after the original discriminatory act.  That means that even if the discrimination is ongoing, a woman cannot file suit, which, of course, assumes we both become aware of the issue and can form a substantive claim of discrimination - notoriously difficult to prove in the first place, let alone within 6 months.  The ruling effectively shut down any wage discrimination suits by any woman, ever.

So, you want to know how to celebrate today?  Give your old Senator a ringy-dingy (by phone at 866-338-1015 or email) and let him or her know you want them to support the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (S. 1843), to be voted upon tomorrow.  The Act would reinstate the previous interpretation that each discriminatory paycheck constitutes a new act of discrimination and thereby restarts the 180-day clock for filing a complaint with the EEOC.

I appreciate that, for various reasons, some people are opposed equitable remuneration.  I don't get it, but I acknowledge it.  This isn't that, though; it simply affords the right to be heard.  What reasonable person could oppose that?

For more on this, see I Had to Ask.