Lilly Ledbetter Act

The Road to Success

The road to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was long. Lilly Ledbetter worked as a supervisor at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in Alabama for 19 years. In a corporation dominated by men, she experienced sexism on the job throughout her tenure, yet was often praised for her work as a supervisor. She did not know the extent to which she was underpaid until an anonymous person left a paper in her mailbox detailing the salaries of her male counterparts. She was being paid 20 percent less than the lowest-paid male supervisor. Armed with this information, Ledbetter filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

Initially, a jury found Goodyear guilty of discrimination and awarded Ledbetter $3.8 million in back pay and damages. This sum was reduced to $360,000 because of caps on damages under Title VII. On May 29, 2007, however, the Supreme Court overturned the verdict by a vote of 5-4. The opposition, led by Judge Samuel Alito, claimed that although Ledbetter did file a complaint of pay discrimination within 180 days of receiving a paycheck, she did not file the complaint within 180 days of when Goodyear decided to pay her less than her male counterparts.

Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who voted in favor of Ledbetter, argued that the Supreme Court's ruling does not take into account the reality for women in the workplace and urged Congress to reverse the ruling legislatively.

The Lilly Ledbetter Act is not solely about gender discrimination. The act clarified that every paycheck or other compensation resulting from an earlier discriminatory pay decision constitutes a violation of the Civil Rights Act and applies to workers who file claims of discrimination on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin, religion, age, or disability. It reversed a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that made it more difficult for Americans to pursue such claims. The act amends Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, extending the statute of limitations to file claims of compensation discrimination under all of the major federal civil rights laws.

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