Rather than getting the current date using `date`, why not use POSIX::strftime to get it in YYYY-MM-DD format. You can then use standard string comparison operators on the two dates.

use POSIX 'strftime';
 
my $now = strftime('%Y-%m-%d', localtime);
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Date::Manip is probably overkill for this task (in fact it's probably overkill for most tasks.)

Originally posted as a Categorized Answer.