Virginia to ratify Equal Rights Amendment

By: Jonathan R. Mook and Colete Fontenot
DiMuroGinsberg, PC

When the Virginia General Assembly convened in January, ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution was at the top of the agenda. As stated in Section 1, the ERA guarantees: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” Section 2 provides the enforcement mechanism by which “Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”

Since both the Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates now have a Democrat majority, there is little doubt the ERA will be ratified before the legislative session closes in March. At that point, Virginia will become not only the 38th state to ratify the ERA but also the final state to satisfy the required two-thirds majority needed to amend the U.S. Constitution.

Additional hurdles
Importantly, the General Assembly’s anticipated ratification of the ERA doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll have a new constitutional amendment this year. There are at least two key hurdles to overcome:

Deadline. When a super majority of Congress passed the ERA in 1972, the legislation included a seven-year deadline for two-thirds of the states to ratify the amendment. By 1977, however, only 35 of the necessary 38 states had endorsed ratification.

At that point, many observers thought the ERA was dead as a doornail. Yet, in 2017, 42 years after the last state ratified, Nevada became the 36th state to sign on to the amendment. In 2018, Illinois became teachers, nurses, support staff, and other jobs often held by women are just as valuable to an organization’s bottom line and should be paid in a comparable fashion to disproportionately male-held positions such as doctors, administrators, and other highly compensated professionals.

Bottom line
Section 3 of the ERA states: “This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.” The lead time will give you some breathing room to review your company’s policies and procedures to ensure all employees are treated equally. Your review should include not only employee pay but also nonmonetary benefits, perks, insurance, profit sharing, time off, disciplinary policies, and even peripheral issues like office size, dress code, and flexibility of hours worked.

As always, the best way to know how a new law affects your business is to consult with an experienced employment law attorney. It’s always a good idea to designate one person in your HR office to stay up to date on all changes affecting employment law, including the ERA. The individual also can be the point person to hear employee complaints if there is an incident of alleged discrimination. Have a workable procedure in place so you aren’t caught off guard and can handle all employee concerns or complaints in a prompt and thorough fashion.

Rescissions. The second obstacle arises because five states (Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Tennessee) that initially ratified the ERA have voted to rescind ratification. The issue of whether the rescissions have legal effect has yet to be determined.

Consequently, Virginia’s ratification of the ERA will not be the end of the story. Instead, ratification will likely spawn a host of lawsuits addressing those knotty constitutional issues, so stay tuned for further developments on the legal front.

What ERA means for you
What the ERA’s ratification means for employers not only in Virginia, but nationwide cannot be predicted with certainty. But, without question, an amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing women’s equal rights will be a watershed event with repercussions for years to come.

As a practical matter, regardless of whether the ERA actually makes it into the U.S. Constitution, the very vocal political movement supporting the amendment will certainly have an impact on a variety of efforts to ensure women’s equality, especially in the workplace. Proponents are focusing on the influence the amendment will have on pay equity legislation. That isn’t just about “equal pay for equal work” but also about pay differences between lower-paid jobs traditionally held by women versus jobs usually held by males, which have a higher pay level.

Consequently, we’re likely to hear more about ensuring the comparable worth of jobs traditionally performed by women versus male-dominated jobs. Thus, expect to see a public debate on whether the 37th. Even with Virginia bringing the number to 38, the question remains, “Is it too late?”