What happened in the Ledbetter decision?
By a 5-4 majority, the Supreme Court held that the Title VII only allowed victims to file a claim for pay discrimination within 180 days of the original pay-setting decision. Nearly all of the federal courts had previously interpreted Title VII to allow claims within 180 days of the last paycheck. In other words, under this decision, if an employer decides to deny an employee a raise based on her gender, that employee must bring a claim within 180 days of the employer’s decision even though she is unable to readily determine how much her male peers are making and what raises they are receiving, and even though she continues to receive reduced paychecks well after the 180-day period.
