Lilly Ledbetter with President Obama.  (photo: Mark Wilson / Getty)

On January 29th, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which helps ensure that workers who suffered gender discrimination have a fair chance to sue their employers.

Lilly Ledbetter is a 70 year-old woman from Alabama who worked at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company for almost 20 years.  During that time, she experienced sexual harassment and discrimination.  She complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) about a particularly problematic supervisor, and even testified before Congress in 2007 about the problems she was having, but found that back at work, her efforts only led to further isolation and discrimination. 

Right around when she was about to retire, someone anonymously slipped her a note, which said that two of her male counterparts (who did the same job) were getting paid more than $500-1500 more than she was, every month.  That adds up over the course of almost 20 years.  When Ledbetter complained to the EEOC, her bosses assigned her to lift heavy tires – keep in mind that this is when she was about to retire.

So she sued Goodyear, which claimed it paid Ledbetter less because she wasn’t as good a worker.  But the jury didn’t buy that story, especially considering that Goodyear had given Ledbetter a Top Performance Award a couple years before the lawsuit.

Although the jury awarded Ledbetter about $3.3 million, which was later reduced to about $300,000, the Supreme Court subsequently decided (5 to 4) that Ledbetter was not entitled to compensation because she filed her claim more than 180 days after receiving her first discriminatory paycheck.  Ruth Ginsberg, one of the dissenting judges, said that this reasoning wasn’t quite kosher because how much other people are getting paid is often kept quiet.  So Ledbetter couldn’t have known about the disproportionate pay she was receiving – and, in fact, she didn’t until she was about to retire.  But by then, it was too late to file a claim.

So Ledbetter fought again – this time to change the law.  Now, with the new bill signed by President Obama, workers can sue up to 180 days after receiving ANY discriminatory paycheck, not just the first one.

You can read more about Lilly Ledbetter here.

There is also an online petition asking Goodyear to give Ledbetter her backpay.  The new law isn’t retroactive, meaning Ledbetter can’t benefit from it.  So Goodyear still hasn’t compensated her for almost two decades of unequal pay.