Lilly Ledbetter Act

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 was signed into law by President Barack Obama on January 29, 2009. It was the first bill President Obama signed into [Page 860]law after taking office on January 20, 2009. In very basic terms, the law eliminates the time limit within which an employee must file a complaint of pay discrimination as long as he or she continues on the employer's payroll.

In other words, under the new law, Lilly Ledbetter, for whom the act is named, would have been able to file a complaint of pay discrimination against her former employer, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., when she found out that she had been underpaid because of her gender for years. She was unable to win ...