Obama Signs Historic Fair Pay Law from Political Affairs Magazine

"This is a wonderful day," President Obama announced just prior to signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Jan. 29th. "[I]t is fitting that the very first bill that I sign ... that it is upholding one of this nation's founding principles: that we are all created equal, and each deserve a chance to pursue our own version of happiness."

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is a law that amends various federal civil rights statutes to give workers who have experienced pay discrimination better tools to seek redress and win back pay and damages in court. The bill was named after Lilly Ledbetter, a 19-year employee/supervisor at Goodyear Tire. After learning from another employee that she had been the victim of pay discrimination that has cost as much as $200,000 in wages and retirement benefits, Ledbetter sued her former employer. Ledbetter had as much experience and as many positive employee reviews as those male workers, doing the same job, who received higher pay.

A jury agreed that the company had discriminated against her based on gender and awarded her back pay and damages. The company appealed the verdict, and in 2007 the US Supreme Court overturned the jury verdict. Though discrimination had clearly occurred, the conservative majority on the court ruled, the law disallowed a lawsuit filed after six months of the first discriminatory pay check, despite the fact that Ledbetter did not know that her pay was any different from her co-workers for many years afterward.

"Lilly Ledbetter did not set out to be a trailblazer or a household name," President Obama continued. "She was just a good hard worker who did her job – and she did it well – for nearly two decades before discovering that for years, she was paid less than her male colleagues for doing the very same work."


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