Lilly Ledbetter, an icon of the fight for equal pay, has died at the age of 86

NEW YORK – Lilly Ledbetter, a former Alabama factory manager whose lawsuit against her employer made her an icon of the equal pay movement and led to a landmark pay discrimination law, has died at age 86.

Ledbetter's discovery that she was paid less than her male colleagues for the same job at Goodyear Tire & The Rubber Co. plant in Alabama led to her lawsuit, which ultimately failed when the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that she filed her complaint too late. The court ruled that workers must file a lawsuit within six months of receiving a discriminatory paycheck – in Ledbetter's case, years before she learned of the inequality through an anonymous letter.

Two years later, former President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which gave workers the right to sue for discrimination within 180 days of receiving any paycheck, not just the first.

“Lilly Ledbetter never intended to be a trailblazer or a household name. “She simply wanted to be paid the same as a man for her hard work,” Obama said in a statement Monday. “Lilly did what so many Americans have done before her: she set high goals for herself and even higher goals for her children and grandchildren.”

Ledbetter died Saturday of respiratory failure, according to a statement from her family cited by Alabama news site AL.com.

Ledbetter advocated for equal pay for decades after winning the law that bears her name. A film about her life starring Patricia Clarkson premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival last week.

The team behind the film “LILLY” released a condolence statement on social media.

“Lilly was an ordinary woman who did extraordinary things, and her story continues to motivate us all. “We will miss her,” the team said.

In January, President Joe Biden celebrated the 15th anniversary of the law named after Ledbetter with new measures to close the gender pay gap, including a new rule that prohibits the federal government from taking a person's current or past salary into account when determining their salary.

Ledbetter spoke in favor of the measure in January in an opinion piece for Ms. Magazine written with Deborah Vagins, head of the advocacy group Equal Pay Today. But Ledbetter and other advocates have been frustrated for years that broader initiatives have stalled, including the Paycheck Fairness Act, which was intended to strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963.

The sense of urgency among advocates increased after an annual report from the Census Bureau last month found that the gender pay gap between men and women widened for the first time in 20 years. In 2023, full-time working women earned 83 cents on the dollar compared to men, up from 84 cents in 2022. Even before that, advocates had been frustrated that improvements in the wage gap had stalled for much of the last 20 years, even though women did Gains They reach the C-suite and earn a college degree faster than men. Experts say the reasons for the persistent gap are varied, including the overrepresentation of women in low-paying industries and a weak child care system that pushes many women to give up their careers in the years when they reach peak earnings.

In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Ledbetter wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times describing the harassment she faced as a manager at the Goodyear factory and a connection between sexual harassment in the workplace and wage discrimination.

“She was tireless,” said Emily Martin, program director at the National Women's Law Center, which worked closely with Ledbetter. “She was always willing to lend her voice, come over to do a video, write a comment. She was always ready to go.”

Ledbetter was a manager at the Goodyear factory in Gadsden, Alabama, and had worked there for 19 years when she received an anonymous message saying she was being paid significantly less than three male colleagues. She filed a lawsuit in 1999 and initially received $3.8 million in back pay and damages from a federal court. She never received the money after she ultimately lost her case in the Supreme Court.

Although the law named after her does not directly address the gender pay gap, Martin said it sets an important precedent “to ensure that not only do we have the promise of equal pay on the books, but we also have a way to enforce the law.” .”

“She is truly an inspiration by showing us that losing doesn't mean you can't win,” Martin said. “We know her name because she lost, and lost badly, and she always came back from it and continued to work until her death to turn that loss into real gains for women across the country.”

While the wage gap is greater for women of color.

The number of full-time employees increased year-over-year for the first time in 20 years, according to an annual report from the Census Bureau.