The women of Maine earned 77 cents for every dollar that Maine men earned in 2003.

There are several reasons for that 23-cent disparity. One of them is sex discrimination. Research published by the American Association of University Women shows that the pay gap between college-educated men and women appears within the first year after college – even when women are working full time in the same fields as men – and continues to widen during the first 10 years in the work force. Imagine that a man and a woman, doing the same job, were paid differently just because of their gender. It would mean that over many years, a Maine woman would cumulatively make thousands of dollars, perhaps tens of thousands, less than male co-workers. This disparity carries over into retirement causing women to have lower savings and pension and Social Security benefits.

Fortunately, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other laws make it illegal to practice wage discrimination based on race, gender, ethnicity, age and other irrelevant characteristics.

That is why it is important that Maine senators support the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act when it comes up for a vote in the Senate this week. The bill amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other anti-discrimination laws to clarify when an “unlawful employment practice” occurs. Sen. Olympia Snowe already has taken a stand in support of this bill and Sen. Susan Collins needs to do the same.

The bill will rectify the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which ruled that any claims of pay discrimination must be made within 180 days of the original discriminatory pay-setting decision. In other words, the court maintained, 5-4, that if a worker discovers that he or she has been the victim of wage discrimination five or 10 years after the first discriminatory paycheck was issued, the worker is just out of luck.

That is what happened to Lilly Ledbetter, a former supervisor at a Goodyear Tire plant in Gadsden, Ala. The mother of two was almost 60 years old and on the verge of retiring when an anonymous letter tipped her off that her paycheck had been less than her male co-workers’ for nearly two decades, even though they were all supervisors doing the same work.

In 1998, a few weeks after receiving that letter, Ledbetter filed a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

A jury awarded her $3 million. But Goodyear countered that Ledbetter hadn’t filed within the 180-day time limit of her first alleged discriminatory paycheck – issued nearly 20 years earlier.

Goodyear appealed all the way to the Supreme Court and got a reversal of the jury verdict. The court, in an unorthodox interpretation of the law that was at odds with legal precedent, maintained that Ledbetter should have filed her charge within 180 days of the first discriminatory paycheck – even though she didn’t know she was being discriminated against.

In her dissenting opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote: “The Court’s approbation of these consequences is totally at odds with the robust protection against workplace discrimination Congress intended Title VII to secure. … Once again, the ball is in Congress’ court.”

Justice Ginsburg recognized what every citizen recognizes: The decision would make it harder to ensure justice for those discriminated against on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, disability or age.

That is why we urge the Senate to pass this bill.

It will clarify Title VII and other anti-discrimination laws by emphasizing that “an unlawful practice occurs each time compensation is paid pursuant to a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice, and for other purposes.”

If not, Congress will allow employers the license to practice pay discrimination to the detriment not only of the women of Maine, but their families and every other American worker.

Barbara Nichols of Orono is the Maine public policy chair for the American Association of University Women.