compare dates

I'm puzzled why the if statement executes as true when the first date (job_closedate) is not less than the second date (now). The if statement claims that "12/02/2011" is less than "11/30/2011". if (date("m/d/Y",strtotime($jobs_closedate)) <= date("m/d/Y",strtotime("now"))){ echo date("m/d/Y",strtotime($jobs_closedate)); // displays - 12/02/2011 echo date("m/d/Y",strtotime("now")); // displays - 11/30/2011 $error.="The close date must be later than today's date, " . date("m/d/Y",strtotime("now")) . ".\n"; } If the first date is "11/16/2011" the if statement also executes as true which is correct since "11/16/2011" is less than "11/30/2011". Marc