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Discrimination Law Cites Professor's Article

President Obama uses Leonard Bierman's article to pass legislation

By: Matt Woolbright

From the Texas A&M University Battalion

In 2004, Texas A&M professor of management Leonard Bierman coauthored the article "Love, Sex and Politics? Sure. Salary? No Way: Workplace Social Norms and the Law," which The Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law published the same year.

Less than 10 days after his inauguration, President Obama signed a new law, in which Bierman's article was consistently cited during its early stages of litigation.

"I was proud a little because as an academic I've written a lot of articles over the years and it's not that often that you write something where you really have an impact on the real world," Bierman said.

In a 2007 Supreme Court case, Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Bierman's article was referred to by the dissenting judges and used in testimony before different committees in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate as legislation was considered.

In the case, Lily Ledbetter was wrongly paid less than her colleagues at Goodyear where she had started her career over 20 years ago. Originally she was paid the same amount but by the time she got to retirement in 1998, she was being paid less than the men with whom she worked. Her pay was lower than her male counterparts not because of the merit or level of her work, but because she was a woman.

The law originally stated that someone could sue for discrimination within 180 days of the first act of discrimination but not after that. Now, largely due to Bierman's work, the law has been amended; citizens discriminated against now have 180 days from any discriminatory act to sue, not just 180 days after the first act of discrimination.

"I think it's a law that should have been in place a long time ago, but I'm proud to know that a professor at my school and my college was able to make such a strong impact for equal rights in the workplace," said freshman business major Katy Hoyer.

Published on Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller spoke in support of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was passed by the House today. The bill now goes to President Obama for his signature. This bill is a key initiative in closing the pay gap between men and women. It restores the law as it was prior to the narrowly-decided (5-4) Supreme Court Ledbetter decision in 2007. That decision tossed aside longstanding prior law and made it much harder for women and other workers to pursue pay discrimination claims stating a pay discrimination charge must be filed within 180 days of the employers initial decision to pay an employee less. The bill restores prior law providing that a pay discrimination charge must simply be filed within 180 days of a discriminatory paycheck.