Yesterday the Supreme Court officially opened its 2012-2013 term. The justices denied review of 304 cases, including 48 employment-related decisions. One of these cases is particularly significant for Kansas employers.
In that case, the Court let stand a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in favor of a Kansas school district. The appeals court had held that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act applies only to claims that employees did not receive equal pay for equal work, and that this does not encompass demotion claims, even if the demotion results in a pay cut. (The Ledbetter law, as you may recall, amended Title VII, the ADEA, and the ADA to provide that the time for filing a pay discrimination claim is triggered with each paycheck that reflects a past discriminatory compensation decision or practice.) Accordingly, the Ledbetter Act did not excuse two school custodians’ failure to file a timely age discrimination claim within 300 days of learning of their demotions. The case is titled Almond v. Unified Sch. Dist. 501.
