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This Note addresses the Supreme Court's decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and the subsequent legislative response, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (LLFPA). Through the LLFPA, Congress overrode the Ledbetter decision and enacted a paycheck-accrual rule for Title VII pay-discrimination cases, the purpose of which is to provide victims with a longer - and more realistic - statute of limitations for pay-discrimination claims. This Note explores the congressional justifications for the LLFPA and the workings of pay-discrimination claims, and argues that the legislation does not address all of the obstacles that prevent victims from effectively challenging pay discrimination because the statute's goals are frustrated by social norms of pay secrecy. This Note argues for a transformative legal intervention to enable Title VII to remedy all instances of pay discrimination.
I. INTRODUCTION
The gap between male and female earnings is striking: Department of Labor statistics show that, on average, a woman who works full-time makes only seventy-seven to eighty cents on the dollar as compared to a similarly situated man.1 While there are many causes for this striking discrepancy, discrimination in the workplace is one of them.2 Employment discrimination "with respect to . . . compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment . . . because of sex" is illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,3 but recognizing, challenging, and remedying illegal pay discrimination under Title VII is far more difficult than appreciating that pay inequality is a widespread societal problem.
The pay gap is present in all sectors of the United States economy, and in all fields.4 Although many critics dismiss the pay gap as the result of individual female choices (for example, the socalled "choice" to take time off from the labor market after having a baby or to work fewer hours due to family responsibilities) or market forces,5 statistical and economic studies confirm that the pay gap cannot solely be attributed to choices made by employees.6 Rather, a significant portion of the gap is unexplained by either market forces or individual choices and is likely caused by pay discrimination by employers.7 Although the pay gap began to shrink after the passage of the Equal Pay Act in 19638 and Title VII of the...