Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 is a significant piece of legislation aimed at combating wage discrimination based on gender. This law was inspired by the legal battle of Lilly Ledbetter, who, after discovering she was paid significantly less than her male peers at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., sought justice through the courts. The Supreme Court initially ruled against her due to a statute of limitations that restricted the timeframe for filing a pay discrimination claim. In response to this ruling, Ledbetter became an advocate for equal pay, successfully lobbying Congress for change.
President Barack Obama signed the Act into law on January 29, 2009, marking it as the first legislation of his presidency. The law amended the existing framework by allowing the 180-day period for filing a claim to reset with each discriminatory paycheck received, thereby ensuring workers have a fair opportunity to address ongoing pay discrimination. Although the Act did not apply retroactively to Ledbetter's case, it represented a critical step toward increasing accountability and transparency in wage practices. The issue of the gender wage gap remains relevant, particularly affecting women and women of color, highlighting the ongoing challenge of achieving equitable pay in the workplace.
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Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 is a law that resulted from the US Supreme Court’s decision in the 2007 case Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. In that case, the court ruled against Lilly Ledbetter, who had sued Goodyear for wage discrimination after learning that she was paid substantially less than her male counterparts. The court argued that Ledbetter had not filed a suit in time, since the company had started paying her unequally years before. Ledbetter argued that she had no way of knowing this. Following her loss at the Supreme Court, Ledbetter went to Washington, DC, where she lobbied Congress to change the law. Ledbetter was successful, and President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law on January 29, 2009. It was the first piece of legislation that Obama signed into law as president.
Background
In 1979, Lilly Ledbetter began her career with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. as a line manager at the company’s plant in Gadsden, Alabama. Ledbetter was one of the few female managers in the company at this time. She worked her way up, despite facing sexual harassment and discrimination from male coworkers. Ledbetter worked hard to earn a promotion. She took additional training courses and was ranked second in performance out of 150 other managers. Ledbetter became an area manager who worked on the night shift.
In 1982, Ledbetter filed a sexual harassment complaint against one of her bosses with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Although Ledbetter continued to perform her job well, she was effectively punished for coming forward by being labeled a troublemaker. Still, she remained with the company until she was getting ready to retire.
In 1998, Ledbetter opened her locker at work and found an unsigned letter. The note told her that she was being paid far less than her male counterparts were. The pay discrepancy was a significant amount, with the men receiving about $1,000 to $2,000 more than Ledbetter did per month. Ledbetter filed another complaint with the EEOC, stating that the wage gap violated two federal laws—the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Again, she was punished for her actions. Her supervisor moved her from a management position to one inspecting tires. In this position, Ledbetter was required to lift heavy tires, even though she was sixty years old at the time. This demanding work forced her to take an early retirement in November 1998.
Ledbetter decided to fight back against the discrimination she had experienced at Goodyear. In 1999, she hired an attorney and filed a wage discrimination lawsuit under Title VII against Goodyear. The case was taken to the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Ledbetter argued that she was discriminated against because she was a woman, while the attorneys for Goodyear maintained that her pay was in accordance with her performance on the job. The jury in the case sided with Ledbetter, awarding her $3.3 million in back pay and damages. This amount was ultimately reduced to $300,000 due to limits that employers can pay in such cases.
However, Ledbetter’s fight was far from over. Goodyear appealed the decision in the US Court of Appeals in the Eleventh Circuit. That court reversed the lower court’s decision, stating that the claim against Goodyear was filed too late. The Civil Rights Act gave employees 180 days from the time of the employer’s decision to pay an employee in a discriminatory manner. Ledbetter was being paid less than her male colleagues were for years. The case finally made its way to the US Supreme Court in 2007. At the time, there was only one female justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, sitting on the court. In a five-to-four decision, the Supreme Court upheld the court of appeals’ ruling. However, Justice Ginsburg delivered a powerful dissent from the bench, something she had rarely done before. She stated that the court “does not comprehend or is indifferent to the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination.” Ginsburg argued that the 180-day limit on employees being able to report discriminatory pay was unfair, since most employers hide such practices from their employees. Justice Ginsburg encouraged Congress to act where the court had failed and change the law.
Overview
Following her loss at the Supreme Court, Ledbetter became an equal pay activist. She lobbied Congress to change the laws so that women would have more avenues to fight pay discrimination. She made headlines when she appeared at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, where then senator Barack Obama officially became the Democratic nominee for president. Ledbetter continued to speak before Congress to encourage members to change the law. After Obama won the election and a new Congress was sworn in, a bill baring Ledbetter’s name passed through both houses in Congress.
Marking the first piece of legislation of his administration, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law on January 29, 2009. The law helped to protect workers’ rights to act against unfair pay discrimination. In addition, the act changed the law so that the time limit on filing a discriminatory pay suit restarted with every discriminatory paycheck. This meant that employers could not hide the decision to pay an employee in a discriminatory fashion and then simply wait for the 180-day limit to run out on their initial decision. Each time an employee was paid unfairly under the law, that 180-day limit on filing a claim would restart. This did not make a difference for Ledbetter because the act was not retroactive. Despite this, Ledbetter continued to fight for more transparency in wages among workers. The wage gap among men and women continued to be an issue in the late 2010s, as women, especially women of color, consistently earned less than their male coworkers did.
Bibliography
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Levine, Sam. “How Ruth Bader Ginsburg Pushed for a Law to Make Sure Women Get Equal Pay.” Huffington Post, 29 Jan. 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ruth-bader-ginsburg-equal-pay‗us‗56abab45e4b00b033aaeeba7. Accessed 18 Sept. 2018.
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O’Dea, Suzanne. “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.” From Suffrage to the Senate: America’s Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, 3rd ed., vol. 1, Grey House Publishing, 2013, p. 422.
Riggs, Thomas, editor. “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (2009).” Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History, 2nd ed., vol. 2, Gale, 2015, pp. 727–30.
Zients, Sasha. “Lilly Ledbetter: RBG’s Dissent in Landmark Case Still Gives Me ‘Chills.’” CNN, 22 Aug. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/08/22/politics/rbg-podcast-lilly-ledbetter-cnntv/index.html. Accessed 18 Sept. 2018.