Read more: http://www.momsrising.org/blog/first-agenda-new-congress-fair-pay/#ixzz0zUVxMaOb

While I applaud you for making the passage of Lilly’s Ledbetter’s fair pay act a Congressional top priority issue, I hestitate to endorse it without outlining the stark realities and repercussions that a early or mid career female faces once a wage discrimination lawsuit is filed. First of all, Lilly Ledbetter was at the end of her career, retired, and had nothing to lose professionally by seeking what she rightfully deserved, equal pay.

The question I need to ask you is what kind of message are you sending to working women in the peak of their careers, who have been laid off and/ or job hunting but can’t find another job because their reputation has been damaged for filing a wage discrimination lawsuit and are considered ‘at risk’ hires, or trouble makers by outside hiring companies.

I know this (only too well) because I recently settled a high profile wage discrimination lawsuit with a Wall Street financial institution in which I worked for ten years. My lawsuit was filed immediately after I lost my job, dragged on for four years, and cost me over $100k in legal fees – not to mention untold hours of my time to prepare for the case. That money was intended for my children’s college education and my retirement. It was by far, one of the most stressful events in my life (I went into financial debt, divorced, and lost my last job a month after the legal decision was published in a prominent legal publication).

I would have loved nothing better than to take my case to court and expose the many inequities I encountered at my job. It was my goal to ensure that my daughter and her generation would never have to experience any type of discrimination in the workplace, which is why I sued my former employer. But in the end, I did not have the financial resources to take it to court and instead settled the case – which in itself was excruciating and was delayed for another 8 months by my former employer. I never saw the $500K of lost back wages; it was essentially an earmark for my trial lawyers who mishandled the negotiation proceedings but still made $100K, while I received a fraction of that amount.

Based on my experience, below are a few lessons I learned from my Equal Pay Act lawsuit:

1. The legal process bankrupts you financially and psychologically, and the judicial process can take years before it is deemed ‘trial worthy’, if the case survives summary judgment.
2. Career suicide – Recruiters and HR personnel use search engines like google, and research in order to vet a person for hire. Any employment lawsuit is easy to find once its been filed through the court system and employment law firms who specialize in defending employers proactively blog their opinions (some unfavorable ) of such cases in order to ‘advertise’ their employment litigation services to potential customers (defendants). This information is very difficult to remove from the search engines and can linger for years after the case has either been settled or completed.
3. Lawyers – Employment litigation is unique in that it requires a vast knowledge of ERISA law. A wage discrimination lawsuit mostly likely includes a series of complaints, and it’s financially advantageous to a law firm to throw in as many complaints at the beginning of a lawsuit in order to make the lawsuit ‘stick’ during the summary judgment process.

A final note: Anyone who has engaged in a lawsuit has got to know that it is nothing to be taken lightly – and employment litigation is especially time consuming and costly. Rather than encouraging women to seek litigation, I do, however, have suggestions and recommendations on how to handle wage discrimination without the use of legal intervention which would involve a third party mediator, the plaintiff (employee), and the defendant (company). I would be happy to share my experience and do anything I can to help shape the passage of this bill. I am composing a more detailed letter to you regarding my lawsuit to: AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov.

Thank you

Men and women are equal, but they are hardly the same. Enough of the bs.

If a woman chooses to be a stay at home mom, she is paid the same as a stay at home dad. It is the same pay, yes!