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An employer’s failure to respond to a female employee’s request for a pay raise may constitute a discriminatory act that renews the statute of limitations on a federal gender discrimination claim, the 3rd Circuit has ruled.

The plaintiff worked as a grants coordinator for Allegheny County, Pa.

She sued, alleging that the county committed gender discrimination under Title VII by ignoring her repeated requests for a pay raise.

The plaintiff’s Title VII claim was dismissed as untimely because she first discovered the pay disparity in 2004 and failed to file a complaint with the EEOC until 2007 – long after the expiration of the applicable 300-day limitations period had expired.

However, while her appeal was pending, Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which applies retroactively and provides that “an unlawful employment practice occurs, with respect to discrimination in compensation … when a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice is adopted, when an individual becomes subject to a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice, or when an individual is affected by application of a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice, including each time wages, benefits, or other compensation is paid.”

The 3rd Circuit held that the County’s failure to respond to the plaintiff’s repeated requests for a raise constituted a discriminatory compensation decision under the Act.

“[T]he failure to answer a request for a raise qualifies as a compensation decision because the result is the same as if the request had been explicitly denied,” the court said.

Accordingly, the court decided that the plaintiff’s Title VII claim was timely with respect to paychecks that she received within 300 days of her EEOC complaint.

U.S. Court of Appeals, 3rd Circuit. Mikula v. Allegheny County, No. 07-4023. Sept. 10, 2009. Lawyers USA No. 993-1147. Click here for the full text of this opinion.

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