Equal Pay Icon Lilly Ledbetter Passes Away at 86

At the age of 86, a former factory manager from Alabama ‘Lilly Ledbetter’ died. She is a symbol of the equal pay movement. Lilly was the one who had sued Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. when she realized and found out that her pay check is less than her male counterparts in the same job.

In the year 2007, Supreme Court ruled against her complaint, mentioning it to be too late. However, it led to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that has become a wage discrimination law’s cornerstone. In addition, former president Barack Obama signed into the act 2 year later, leading workers to have a right to sue within a span of 180 days of receiving each discriminatory paycheck (not just the first one).

Director of Equal Pay Today and Equal Rights Advocates’ national campaign director, Deborah Vagins stated, “She lost her case and she never saw a dime but she was a tireless advocate for all of us. Every now then, once in a generation, you meet these people who sacrifice everything for something even if it never benefits them. She sparked a movement and changed the face of pay equity forever.”