Lilly Ledbetter, the activist who inspired Fair Pay Act, dies at 86 : NPR

Lilly Ledbetter, a girls’s equality activist whose battle for pay fairness led to passage of the monumental Lilly Ledbetter Truthful Pay Act of 2009, died Saturday. She was 86.

Ledbetter’s loss of life was confirmed on Monday by Jodi Solomon, her talking supervisor.

“She was fierce, she was a crusader and only a actually good pal. She shall be missed loads,” Solomon instructed NPR.

Born in Jacksonville, Ala., Ledbetter was employed as a supervisor at a Goodyear tire plant in Gadsden, Ala., in 1979. Years later, she found via an nameless notice left in her mailbox that she was receiving much less pay than her male co-workers who labored the identical place.

“After I noticed that, it took my breath away. I felt humiliated. I felt degraded,” Ledbetter recalled in an interview with NPR in 2009. “I needed to kind of get my composure again to go forward to carry out my job after which, the primary time without work, I went to Birmingham, Ala., and filed a cost with the EEOC.”

That motion in 1998 was the start of a 10-year authorized battle for Ledbetter towards fairness.

She retired from Goodyear 11 months after she discovered concerning the pay disparity and filed a gender discrimination lawsuit towards the corporate in 1999. She gained the swimsuit in 2003 and was awarded greater than $3 million, however the quantity was lowered to $300,000 due to a statutory cap and $60,000 in again pay. Goodyear appealed the choice to the Supreme Court docket, arguing that Ledbetter might solely win damages or again pay for the 180 days previous to the submitting of her declare. In 2007, the excessive court docket agreed in a 5-4 ruling.

In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg mentioned Ledbetter’s case is “not time barred” and wrote the difficulty “is in Congress’ court docket.”

Lower than two years later, Congress handed the Lilly Ledbetter Truthful Pay Act of 2009, which amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and permits employees to “get hold of aid, together with restoration of again pay, for as much as two years previous the submitting of the cost.” Then-President Barack Obama signed the measure into legislation on Jan. 29, 2009, the primary invoice he signed as president.

Obama paid a tribute to Ledbetter in a press release on Sunday.

“Lilly Ledbetter by no means got down to be a trailblazer or a family title. She simply needed to be paid the identical as a person for her arduous work,” he wrote. “Lilly did what so many People earlier than her have completed: setting her sights excessive for herself and even increased for her youngsters and grandchildren. Michelle and I are grateful for her advocacy and her friendship, and we ship our love and prayers to her household and everybody who is constant the battle that she started.”

Ledbetter has been acknowledged for her advocacy on pay fairness and her story continues to resonate.

Final week, Ledbetter was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from Promoting Week for her activism on Equal Pay. Lilly, a film based mostly on Ledbetter’s life, is being proven at screenings throughout the nation.

NPR’s Nina Totenberg contributed to this report.