President Obama signs “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act”

"Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act" guarantees that victims of economic discrimination can easily sue alleged perpetrators

In a piece of legislation that reversed a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, President Barack Obama signed the “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act” into law on Thursday morning, USA Today reports.

The bill, which undoes the Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear, makes lawsuits alleging wage discrimination toward women or other minorities easier to fill. Previously, the ruling in Ledbetter in 2007 declared that plaintiffs had to file wage claims within 180 days of a company’s decision to pay a worker less than a counterpart doing the same work.

On Wednesday, the House voted to pass the Fair Pay Act on a 250-177 vote. Last week, the Senate approved the measure by a 61-36 vote.

Lilly Ledbetter, the bill’s namesake, worked at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in Gadsden, Ala for a twenty-year period. Toward the end of her tenure, she received an anonymous tip stating that, throughout her entire career at Goodyear, she had made less money that her male counterparts.

Filing suit using the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as grounds, a jury of Ledbetter’s peers found her arguments compelling, initially awarding her more than $3 million in back pay and punitive damages. Later on, a judge would reduce that sum to $300,000.

In 2007, the Supreme Court threw out Lilly Ledbetter’s case on a 5-4 vote, stating that, in order to have received the back payments properly, Ledbetter would’ve needed to file suit within 180 days of the initial act of discrimination.

This despite the fact that she had no awareness of any discrimination until late into her career.

The Fair Pay Act, as signed by President Obama, makes clear that the 180 day statue of limitations is extended every time an employer has committed an act of economic discrimination. However, the new bill also maintains the current limits on employer liability by restricting back pay awards to two years.

President Barack Obama said about the Fair Pay Act that “making our economy work means making sure it works for everyone...[T]here are no second class citizens in our workplaces, and that it’s not just unfair and illegal –- it’s bad for business -– to pay someone less because of their gender, or their age, race, ethnicity, religion or disability.”

Lilly Ledbetter was at the signing ceremony for President Obama’s first bill signed into law.



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