U.S. Supreme Court approves pay discrimination… again.

By Liz Wing on 05/19/2009 @ 06:30 PM

Wage disparity is not always straight-forward. It’s not just that women are paid less than men who hold the same job; the figure that we are all familiar with is 78 cents to the dollar. But often times wage gap is evident in retirement funds, promotions, or, in this case: pensions.

According to the San Francisco Gate, “The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a San Francisco case Monday that AT&T and other employers can pay lower retirement benefits to women who took pregnancy leave before Congress changed the nation's anti-discrimination laws in 1979 than they pay to co-workers who went out on disability during the same period.”

At AT&T, if you took off time for maternity leave, you lose that time in your pension benefits. However, if you took the time off for disability, you do not lose that time. Congress acted on this in 1979, but unfortunately didn’t make the law retroactive (says the Supreme Court). This ruling will affect thousands of women nationwide who took maternity leave before 1979.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Stephen Breyer were the two lone justices who voted in favor of women’s pension benefits, saying it perpetuates discrimination against pregnant women.

It is mind-blowing to me that even after all of the backlash over the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act ruling our U.S. Supreme Court sides again with the company and against women’s fiscal equality. I guess it’s a reminder that we should always be on our toes and prepared to stand up for what’s just.

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