President Barack Obama’s first 100 days have been a mixed bag of success for both organized labor and business groups. On the one hand, Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 and issued four pro-labor executive orders. On the other hand, much to organized labor’s dismay and much to business groups’ delight, organized labor has failed to get passed the Employee Free Choice Act-its top legislative priority.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, signed Jan. 29, was the first major bill signed into law by the president. The Fair Pay Act is Congress’ response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 550 U.S. 618 2007, in which the court held that Lilly Ledbetter, who worked for 20 years before discovering that she was paid less than her male counterparts, could not maintain a claim for wage discrimination against Goodyear because she did not file her claim within the applicable 180-day statute of limitation. According to the court, the statute of limitation for Ledbetter’s claim had run from the date Goodyear made the discriminatory pay-setting decision and not from each subsequent discriminatory payment. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented, stating that “the ball is in Congress’ court . . . to correct this Court’s parsimonious reading of Title VII.”

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