Lily Ledbetter, former Alabama factory manager whose lawsuit against her employer made her an icon and leader of the equal pay movement Innovative pay discrimination lawDied at age 86.
Her lawsuit stemmed from Ledbetter's discovery that she was paid less than her male colleagues for doing the same work at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Alabama, which ultimately failed when the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that she filed her complain too late. . The court ruled that workers must file lawsuits within six months of receiving their first discriminatory paycheck — in Ledbetter's case, he learned of the discrimination through an anonymous letter.
After two years, former Dr. President Barack Obama Lilly Ledbetter signed into law the Fair Pay Act, which gave workers the right to sue within 180 days of receiving each discriminatory paycheck, not just the first.
“Lily Ledbetter never intended to be a trailblazer or a household name. She just wanted to be paid like a man for her hard work,” Obama said in a statement Monday. “Lily did what so many Americans before her did: Aimed high for herself and for her children and grandchildren.”
Ledbetter died Saturday from asphyxiation, according to a statement from his family cited by Alabama news website AL.com.
Ledbetter continued to campaign for equal pay for decades after winning the law that bears his name. A film about his life starring Patricia Clarkson premiered last week at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
The team behind the film, “Lily,” continues its condolences on social media.
“Lily was an ordinary woman who achieved extraordinary things and her story continues to inspire us all. We will miss her,” the team said.
President Joe Biden in January Marks the 15th Anniversary of the Ledbetter Honor Act Including new measures to help close the gender pay gap, including a new rule that prevents the federal government from considering a person's current or past salary when set your salary.
Ledbetter was a supporter of the measure A January op-ed Written for Miss Magazine with Deborah Waggins, director of the advocacy group Equal Pay Today. But Ledbetter and other advocates have been frustrated for years that broader initiatives, including the Paycheck Equity Act, which would have strengthened the Equal Pay Act of 1963, have stalled.
A sense of urgency has deepened among advocates Annual report The Census Bureau found last month that the gender pay gap has widened for the first time in 20 years. In 2023, women working full-time earned 83 cents on the dollar compared to men, down from 84 cents in 2022. Even before that, advocates were dismayed as the pay gap improved. Most have been stagnant for the past 20 years. However, women rise to the C-suite level and earn college degrees at a faster rate than men. Experts say the reasons for the chronic disparity are multifaceted, including the overrepresentation of women in low-wage industries and poor child care systems that force many women to abandon their careers during peak earning years.
In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Ledbetter wrote an op-ed in the New York Times that details the harassment she experienced as a manager at a Goodyear factory and draws a link between workplace sexual harassment and pay discrimination.
“She was unstoppable,” said Emily Martin, director of programs at the National Women's Law Center, who worked closely with Ledbetter. “He was always ready to lend his voice, make a video, write an opinion piece. He was always ready to go.”
Ledbetter was a manager at the Goodyear plant in Gadsden, Alabama, and had been working there for 19 years when he received an anonymous note saying he was paid significantly less than three male co-workers.
He filed a lawsuit in 1999 and initially won $3.8 million in back payments and damages from federal court. After finally losing the case in the Supreme Court, he received no more money.
While the law that bears her name does not directly address the gender pay gap, Martin said it set an important precedent “to ensure that we not only have equal pay commitments on the books, but that we have a way to enforce the law.”
“He really was an inspiration to show us that losing doesn’t mean we can’t win,” Martin said. “We know her name because she lost, and she lost a lot, and she is coming back from this and working until the day she dies to turn that loss into a real gain for women across the country.”
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