Equal Pay Is Not Only About Fairness - It's About Survival
Lilly Ledbetter gained national recognition when in 2007 the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a jury's ruling in the pay equity law suit she had won almost a decade before. Ledbetter had worked for nearly twenty years at Goodyear Tire and Rubber in Gadsden, Alabama, and despite receiving top performance awards discovered that she had been paid significantly less than male co-workers in the same position. In a 5-4 decision, Supreme Court justices ruled that employees could only file a wage discrimination complaint within 180 days of the original pay decision. In January 2009, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act became the first bill that President Obama signed into law. The law restores the long-standing interpretation of civil rights laws and EEOC policies that allows employees to challenge any discriminatory paycheck they receive.