Oct 13

Calhoun County's 'own' Lilly Ledbetter dead at 86

Story below by William Thornton, al.com

Alabama worker’s legal fight led Obama to sign Fair Pay Act of 2009.

Lilly Ledbetter, whose discovery that she earned less than her male counterparts in a Gadsden Goodyear plant led to federal legislation, is dead at the age of 86.

According to her family, Ledbetter died of respiratory failure.

“Lilly Ledbetter passed away peacefully last night at the age of 86,” the family said in a statement. “She was surrounded by her family and loved ones. Our mother lived an extraordinary life. We truly appreciate your respect for our privacy during this time of grief.

Just last week, Ledbetter was awarded the Future Is Female Lifetime Achievement Award by Advertising Week. At the same time, a feature film about her life, “Lilly,” starring Patricia Clarkson, premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was the first bill then-President Barack Obama signed into law after taking office in 2009.

Ledbetter’s lawsuit against Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. came after working more than 19 years at the company’s Gadsden plant.

Ledbetter sued the company, she said, after an anonymous note informed her that she was making as much as $2,000 a month less than men in the same job. A jury later awarded Ledbetter $3.3 million in damages, but that was later struck down.

In 2007, Ledbetter’s case reached the Supreme Court, which, in a 5-4 decision, agreed with the appeals court that she had not met the 180-day deadline for filing her claim. In a dissenting opinion, however, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg urged Congress to amend the law to correct the court’s “parsimonious reading” of it.

Though she didn’t gain from the law, which made it easier to challenge unfair work environments, Ledbetter said she never really expected to see any money.

“Over the course of her career, she lost more than $200,000 in salary, and even more in pension and Social Security benefits,” Obama said at the signing of the bill in 2009.

“Lilly could have accepted her lot and moved on. She could have decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle and harassment that would inevitably come with speaking up for what she deserved.

“But instead, she decided that there was a principle at stake, something worth fighting for. So she set out on a journey that would take more than ten years, take her all the way to the Supreme Court, and lead to this bill which will help others get the justice she was denied,” Obama said.

“I stood up for my money,” she said at a 2019 event. “I never got what I was entitled to. And I was just the tip of the iceberg.”