This landmark legislation ensures that individuals subjected to wage discrimination can seek justice, regardless of when they uncover a pay inequity.
Lilly Ledbetter (April 14, 1938 – October 12, 2024) was one such person. In 1988, after nearly two decades at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, she discovered that she had been paid significantly less than her male counterparts. Her lawsuit claiming wage discrimination, filed in 1999, reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007.
Unfortunately, the Court ruled against Lilly, saying she had missed filing her claim within 180 days of the first instance of pay discrimination, i.e. her first paycheck at Goodyear, as required by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Although the Supreme Court ruling was legally correct under the existing framework, it highlighted a critical flaw in the system. Most workers, like Lily, don’t discover pay discrimination until many years after their first paycheck.
In response to this injustice, the Obama Administration lobbied the US Congress to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Signed into law on January 29, 2009, the Act resets the 180-day filing period with each discriminatory paycheck, allowing an employee to challenge pay disparity regardless of the date it first occurred.
Despite this law, the fight for pay equity is far from over. Recent data reveals persistent disparities, highlighting the ongoing challenges in achieving fair wages for women and marginalized communities. In 2023, women working full-time earned a median weekly income of $1,005 — only 83.6% of the $1,202 earned by men. The gap is even wider when broken down by race. White women earned a median weekly income of $1,021, about 83.4% of White men’s $1,225, while Black women earned just $889, or 72.6% of White men’s earnings.
The fight for pay equity remains far from over. Women, particularly women of color, continue to earn significantly less than their male counterparts for the same work.
Let January 29th remind us of Lilly Ledbetter’s perseverance and that every paycheck is a testament to the value of an individual’s work — an intrinsic worth that should never be undervalued.
Watch Equal Pay, Episode 1 of our Stand UP, Speak OUT docuseries to learn more about the history of the fight for equal pay, and hear from women who experienced its impact on their lives.
