Lilly Ledbetter, the equal pay activist and the namesake of the 2009 Fair Pay Act, passed away on October 12 at the age of 86.
Ledbetter came into the limelight in 2007 when her sex discrimination lawsuit against her former employer was heard before the United States Supreme Court. The saga behind the Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. case began in 1998 when Ledbetter sued Goodyear. Claims included violations of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the law that prohibits employment discrimination based on gender, among other identities.
Employees at Goodyear were awarded raises based on performance review evaluations and Ledbetter asserted that she was given negative performance reviews because of her sex. According to Ledbetter, this led to lower raises than she should have received. Though she retired from Goodyear around when she filed suit, someone had anonymously left her information on her colleagues’ salaries. According to that information, she was being paid significantly less than her male colleagues in the same positions with the same experience.
When she found out, she felt humiliated and degraded. So as soon as she could she filed her claims. That was 1998.
The first jury to hear this case awarded in Ledbetter’s favor, forcing Goodyear to pay damages and award her for what she should have earned. Under the rules at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which facilitates Title VII cases, Ledbetter needed to have filed her claims within 180 days of the paycheck in question. Because of this rule, Goodyear appealed, bringing the case up to the Supreme Court.
Ultimately, the Court decided in favor of Goodyear, solidifying that companies could not be sued for discrimination outside of the180 day period.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued against the implementation of the time limit because salaries are typically kept secret. That meant it might not be feasible for employees to know of the discrepancies within a specific time period.
Two years later, building on Ginsburg’s dissent, President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law — his first official bill signing as president. The act was an amendment to Title VII, stating that the 180-day time limit would restart with every new paycheck received.
“Lilly Ledbetter never set out to be a trailblazer or a household name. She just wanted to be paid the same as a man for her hard work,” Obama wrote in a statement this week. “Lilly did what so many Americans before her have done: setting her sights high for herself and even higher for her children and grandchildren.”
In 2011, Ledbetter was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, one of the many accolades she received in her lifetime; just last week, she was awarded Advertising Week’s Lifetime Achievement Award for her work on equal pay. A movie about her life, Lilly, has also been released for limited viewing, following its premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
Because Ledbetter filed her claims 26 years ago, the United States offers more ways to ensure fair pay, an issue that is still relevant as ever.
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