The Lilly Ledbetter Case

Lives for African Americans were difficult. From separation to slavery African Americans endured a lot during the 1930s. There were people that made it either easy or hard for African Americans. There were people that stood up for African Americans. There were others who tried to make it harder on African Americans. Life was hard for some African Americans in the 1930s.

1. Name of the Case: Williamson v. City of Houston 2. Citation: 148 F.3d 462 3. Date Decided: 1998 4. Facts: Linda Williamson was a police officer with the City of Houston and was assigned to the Organized Crime Squad and was frequently partnered with Officer Doug McLeod. Over a period of time, Williamson complained to sergeant Michael Bozeman multiple times that McLeod was behaving inappropriately on a regular basis and that behavior consisted of sexual harassment and that she had regularly advised McLeod to stop but he did not; although she did not use the term “sexual harassment”. Bozeman eventually separated the two but after some time he partnered Williamson and McLeod together again and the inappropriate behavior reportedly never stopped.

A former employee of the company and a member of the union, Betty Sparks, filed a grievance alleging “the company acted in a discriminatory manner when she was laid off.” There is a grievance procedure within the collective bargaining agreement. In the event a grievance is not resolved, the contract provides arbitration. Based solely on facts, it is at large whether or not litigation need to be commenced.

Women should request a twenty percent pay increase to even up the gender pay gap. In most jobs women earn eighty cents for every dollar a man earns for the exact same job. Employers should pay good, qualified women, who can competently perform their job duties, the same wages they pay men for the same work. Earning twenty percent less is a significant amount and it adds up over time. Throughout the years the pay gap has narrowed but it’s still not equal pay for equal work. More importantly, employers depriving women of the right for equal pay, solely, because the employee is a woman is discriminatory based on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Women working for the Texas state government suffer wage inequality because all women are held to the expectation that they will leave work to have a baby. Women can make the decision on whether they will or will not have kids, but because their colleagues do plan on having kids or are pregnant they all are held at a certain pay. When hiring women there is this doubt that they will stay the entire time and that it will be a permanent job so the employer does not feel a need to give them an equal pay compared to a man doing the same job.

Equal pay is something women have fought over for a long time, but still haven’t got it. Just because women have only a little less experience as they have to take care of children doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get the same salary. Equal pay is favorable since it boosts the economy, makes the company look better, and helps everyone.

The United States is home of many diverse ethnicities that come here to live the American Dream. Although they are legal immigrants, white americans still treat them as a minority group. There is still racial bias here that is causing tensions between ethnic groups despite all the efforts to stop it.

(Boella; Pannett, 1996) The Equal Pay Act 1970, amended by the Equal Pay Regulations 1983, provides the legal framework to remove discrimination between the sexes in the terms of their contracts of employment. Since, the introduction of the Equal Pay Act women has been able to claim equal pay to men. This regulation introduced a right to claim equal treatment for work of equal value in situations where the jobs of the complainant and the person with whom he or she is seeking comparison have not been rated equivalent under a job evaluation scheme.

“From 1979 to 1998, Lilly Ledbetter worked as a supervisor at Goodyear’s plant in Gadsden, Alabama. Over the course of her career, her pay slipped when compared to the pay of men of equal experience and seniority. She sued the company, alleging pay discrimination on the basis of her gender under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Goodyear argued that the discriminatory act was the decision to pay her less, which took place many years ago and that therefore her lawsuit is too late. In a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in Goodyear’s favor”, (Lilly M. Ledbetter, Petitioner V. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Inc., 2007).

The City of New Haven, Connecticut, in 2003, had vacant positions within their Fire Department. The City desired to fill these positions and pursued a means to identify internal candidates for promotional opportunities. Charles E. Mitchell (2013) writes, “The City hired Industrial /Organization Solutions, Inc. (IOS) to develop and administer its examination at a cost of $100,000.000. IOS took painstaking efforts to design and develop a test that was fair, job related, and consistent with business necessity” (p. 45). The examination outcome indicated that the white candidates had done far better than the minority candidates. Later, this is a case brought before the U.S. Supreme Count know as Ricci v. DeStefano. Using the article written by

Equity Ruth Ginsburg's contradiction was that the FMLA was drafted as sexually unbiased reaction to the way that past authoritative triumphs, including the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, which corrected the social equality laws to restrict work victimization pregnant laborers. Like before, pregnant specialists are as of now being pushed out of the work environment, pregnant laborers ought to remain at home, and ladies who take maternity leave pay an overwhelming cost for

On 20th January 2009, Barack Obama took office as the 44th president of the United States of America, becoming the first African American President in the history of the United States of America, a country where just fifty years ago he would not have been allowed to vote because of his skin colour (Alexander, 2009 p.5). Barack Obama was a popular presidential candidate and according to Corey (2009) “Almost 67 million people had voted for Barack Obama, including some voters that had never voted before, resulting in the most votes a president had ever received so far” (p.40). When Barack Obama wont the election in November 2008, his supporters believed that there would be change and that years of war, global warming, economic difficulties and

Do you think it is fair for a person to get paid less than someone else simply because of their gender? It is unjust and unfortunately it happens right here in our country. In the United States, women are oppressed every day by receiving a lower wage than men. This is known as the wage gap. They have been mistreated this way for a long enough time already. This paper will explain that the gap should be closed because of the effects it has on women emotionally and financially and women with families. Also, it is time that women are treated equally to men in this country.

What is the issue with wage gaps? Well have you ever found yourself in a situation where you’re are facing struggles with money but a few months ago you were doing just fine? That might have to do with the wage gaps in the United States of America. When you know that the government is letting this happen I wouldn’t want to trust the government as much. So if the government knows about these wage gaps why aren’t they doing something?

According to the Dictionary, Sociology is defined as the study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society. This means that people are willing to study social problems throughout the world and the society that they live in. In my life, I deal with my social class, Gender, Race, Religion, and the time I was born. Because of who I am, I definitely have been a part of a different upbringing and lifestyle that many sociologist may find interesting.