The former Alabama factory manager’s lawsuit against her employer made her an icon of the equal pay movement and led to landmark wage discrimination legislation.
By Alexandra Olson, Associated PressWomen's rights activist Lilly Ledbetter speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, Friday, Jan. 29, 2016, where she joined President Barack Obama, during a ceremony marking the 7th anniversary of the signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
Two years later, former President Barack Obama signed into the law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which gave workers the right to sue within 180 days of receiving each discriminatory paycheck, not just the first one. Ledbetter continued campaigning for equal pay policies for the rest of her life. Last week, she was awarded the Future Is Female Lifetime Achievement Award by Advertising Week, and a premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
But Ledbetter and other advocates have long campaigned for the more comprehensive the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963, including by protecting workers from retaliation for discussing their pay. Obama also praised Ledbetter’s legacy said in statement that “this grandmother from Alabama kept on fighting until the day I signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law — my first as president.” Biden said in a statement that “it was an honor to stand with Lilly as the bill that bears her name was made law” when he was vice president. that she “forever changed my understanding with the simple but powerful phrase, ‘Equal pay for equal work.’”.
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