Lilly Ledbetter, a supervisor at a Goodyear tire plant in Alabama, discovered she was receiving less pay than men who worked the same position. Her case led to a monumental law on pay equity.
President Barack Obama stands with Lilly Ledbetter before signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act during an event in the East Room of the White House on Jan. 29, 2009.
Lilly Ledbetter, a women’s equality activist whose fight for pay equity led to passage of the monumental Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, died Saturday. She was 86."She was fierce, she was a crusader and just a really good friend. She will be missed a lot," Solomon told NPR.Born in Jacksonville, Ala., Ledbetter was hired as a supervisor at a Goodyear tire plant in Gadsden, Ala., in 1979.
she discovered through an anonymous note left in her mailbox that she was receiving less pay than her male co-workers who worked the same position.in 2009."I had to sort of get my composure back to go ahead to perform my job and then, the first day off, I went to Birmingham, Ala., and filed a charge with the EEOC."She retired from Goodyear 11 months after she found out about the pay disparity and filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the company in 1999.
In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Ledbetter's case is"not time barred" and wrote the issue “is in Congress’ court.”, which amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and allows workers to “obtain relief, including recovery of back pay, for up to two years preceding the filing of the charge.” Then-President Barack Obama signed the measure into law on Jan. 29, 2009, the first bill he signed as president.
"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," he wrote."Lilly did what so many Americans before her have done: setting her sights high for herself and even higher for her children and grandchildren. Michelle and I are grateful for her advocacy and her friendship, and we send our love and prayers to her family and everyone who is continuing the fight that she began.
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