Supreme Court: Equal pay's limit

The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to limit workers' right to sue for pay discrimination is misguided and troubling.

The case involves a woman who sued Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. because after nearly 20 years there, she was making less than her lowest-paid male counterpart. Her starting salary was equal to her male colleagues but hadn't been bumped up at a similar rate over the years. She retired in 1998, after she'd filed a discrimination claim. A jury sided with her, but an appeals court overturned that verdict because she waited too long to sue. The Supreme Court agreed, citing a law placing a 180-day deadline for employees filing pay discrimination suits, saying employers needed such time limits as protection against claims connected with "decisions that are long past." Even Justice Clarence Thomas, who once headed the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, sided with the employer.

Excuse us, but making restitutions can't have a 180-day time limit. The court's decision shows how little the majority knows about being a working woman in what is still largely a man's world. An employee must determine, on a running clock, what others earn. Then if her wage is unfair, she has to speak up and risk being known as a troublemaker. Dissenting Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gets it. Representing the dissenters, she wrote, "This court does not comprehend, or is indifferent to, the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination." Hey, Congress: Pay attention and create new, fair legislation for workers.