Imagine discovering that for decades you were paid half of what your co-worker made for the same job. Then imagine fighting that injustice and being awarded $3 million in back pay and damages–only to have the amount reduced to a tenth of that. That is what happened to Lilly Ledbetter. Her passing last week detailed how a grandmother from Alabama became the symbol of pay equity.
When Ledbetter filed a pay disparity claim in 1999, she began a years long battle with Goodyear, her employer. Goodyear appealed her case to the US Supreme Court, successfully arguing that Ledbetter could only win damages or back pay for the 180 days prior to the filing of her claim. In 2007, the high court agreed in a 5-4 ruling. Her case was time barred under the Civil Rights Act of 1964–meaning her years of unfair pay were out of the court’s hands to address.
In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote Ledbetter’s case was not time barred and “the ball is in Congress’ court.” Less than two years from that decision, Congress passed the Lilly Leadbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. The law provides that each discriminatory paycheck restarts the clock for the statute of limitations, regardless of when the disparate pay began. Too late for Lilly Ledbetter but a game changer for pay equity claims in the decades since.
Ledbetter often said she just wanted to be paid the same as a man for the same work. Through her advocacy, she made that possible for others.