Lilly Ledbetter, who fought for equal pay, dies at age 86
(Gray News) - Lilly Ledbetter, who helped inspire the Fair Pay Act of 2009, has died at the age of 86.
Ledbetter’s family told local media in Alabama that she died Saturday of respiratory failure.
Ledbetter sued Goodyear in 1999 for gender discrimination after finding out she was making thousands of dollars less than her male counterparts each month.
She was a manager at the Goodyear plant in Gadsden, Alabama, and had worked their 19 years when she received an anonymous note saying she was being paid significantly less than three male colleagues, the Associated Press reported. She filed a lawsuit in 1999 and initially won $3.8 million in backpay and damages from a federal court. She never received the money after eventually losing her case before the Supreme Court.
President Barack Obama’s first bill he signed in office was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
Obama paid tribute to Ledbetter on X, saying, “Michelle and I are grateful for her advocacy and her friendship, and we send our love and prayers to her family and everyone who is continuing the fight that she began.”
In 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Ledbetter wrote a opinion piece in The New York Times detailing the harassment she faced as a manager at the Goodyear factory and drawing a link between workplace sexual harassment and pay discrimination, the Associated Press reported.
A movie based on her life, “Lilly,” is set to be released this year, according to IMDb.
The team behind that film extended their condolences on social media
“Lilly was an ordinary woman who achieved extraordinary things, and her story continues to motivate us all. We will miss her,” the team said.
In January, President Joe Biden marked the 15th anniversary of the law named after Ledbetter with new measures to help close the gender wage gap, including a new rule barring the federal government from considering a person’s current or past pay when determining their salary, the Associated Press reported.
Copyright 2024 Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved. CNN Newsource and the Associated Press contributed to this report.