What was Lilly Ledbetter's Fair Pay Act of 2009? Barack Obama pays tribute to gender pay equity activist after her death at 86
On October 14, 2024, former president Barack Obama took to X (formerly Twitter) to pay tribute to American activist Lilly Ledbetter, who passed away at 86. Ledbetter's family informed AL.com of the activist's death on October 12, 2024, mentioning she had passed away due to respiratory failure.
Ledbetter was credited for bringing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 into effect, which President Obama signed on January 29, 2009. The Act, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, states:
"The Act states the EEOC's longstanding position that each paycheck that contains discriminatory compensation is a separate violation regardless of when the discrimination began. The Ledbetter Act recognizes the "reality of wage discrimination" and restores "bedrock principles of American law.""
The Commission continues:
"Particularly important for the victims of discrimination, the Act contains an explicit retroactivity provision. The Ledbetter Act recognizes the "reality of wage discrimination" and restores "bedrock principles of American law.""
The Act states that discrimination based on sex, race, national origin, age, or disability occurs each time an employee receives a paycheck that reflects unequal pay. It also allows employees to challenge the discrimination compounded by pensions and raises.
"Lilly Ledbetter never set out to be a trailblazer or a household name": Barack Obama mentions in activist's tribute
Barack Obama signed an Act named after Ledbetter in 2009. He took to his social media platforms on October 14, 2024, in her memory after the activist passed away. In his tribute post, Obama mentioned:
"Lilly Ledbetter never set out to be a trailblazer or a household name. She just wanted to be paid the same as a man for her hard work. But this grandmother from Alabama kept on fighting until the day I signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law – my first as president."
Obama also mentioned that Ledbetter did something many Americans before her had done, "setting her sights high for herself and even higher for her children and grandchildren." The former president said that his wife Michelle and he were grateful for Ledbetter's advocacy and friendship and that they send their love and prayers to the late activist's family and "everyone who is continuing the fight that she began."
According to The Washington Post, dated May 14, 2015, Obama commented on Ledbetter at the Working Mothers Town Hall, N.C., in April 2015, stating the activist had worked hard for years and found out long into her work that she was getting paid less than men all the years.
In his statement about Ledbetter in 2015, Obama stated,
"She brought suit. They said, well, it’s too late to file suit because you should have filed suit right when it started happening. She said, I just found out. They said, it doesn’t matter. So we changed that law to allow somebody like Lilly, when they find out, to finally be able to go ahead and file suit.”
Who was Lilly Ledbetter? The case against Goodyear explored.
A manager at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Ledbetter, filed a lawsuit against the company for pay discrimination after discovering that her male colleagues were remunerated for similar roles.
Ledbetter sued the Goodyear company in 1999 and won in 2003 with an award of $3.8 million in damages and back pay.
However, the court's decision was overturned after the tire company appealed. Her case made it to the Supreme Court in 2007, wherein in a 5-4 decision, it was ruled that Ledbetter should have filed the suit within 180 days of the first time Goodyear paid Ledbetter less than her peers. Since she missed that window, the court stated she had no grounds to sue, and Ledbetter never received any compensation.
Since she missed that window, the court stated she had no grounds to sue. This gave employees the right to file a suit against pay discrimination within 180 days and resulted in the curation of a law bearing Lilly Ledbetter's name. Under the Act of 2009, employees get the right to file suit within 180 days of the last pay violation, and every paycheck restarts the 180-day timeline to file a claim.
According to AL.com, Ledbetter was awarded the Future Is Female Lifetime Achievement Award by Advertising Week in October 2024. A feature film about her life, called Lilly, premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival on October 10, 2024.