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kalikshama -> RE: Faces of change-Lilly Ledbetter's equal pay story (2/1/2012 6:49:45 PM)
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quote:
I wonder if she ever got anything for her troubles.
Not from Goodyear but she did get a legacy.
While she will not ever receive the money that was denied her in the many years she worked for Goodyear, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which is named after her, was passed so that other women will not have to suffer from such inequity.
Obama Signs Equal-Pay Legislation
...Now 70, Ms. Ledbetter discovered when she was nearing retirement that her male colleagues were earning much more than she was. A jury found her employer, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company plant in Gadsden, Ala., guilty of pay discrimination. But in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court threw out the case, ruling that she should have filed her suit within 180 days of the date that Goodyear first paid her less than her peers.
Congress tried to pass a law that would have effectively overturned the decision while President George W. Bush was still in office, but the White House opposed the bill; opponents contended it would encourage lawsuits and argued that employees could delay filing their claims in the hope of reaping bigger rewards. But the new Congress passed the bill, which restarts the six-month clock every time the worker receives a paycheck .
Ms. Ledbetter will not see any money as a result of the legislation Mr. Obama signed into law. But what she has gotten, aside from celebrity, is personal satisfaction, as she said in the State Dining Room after the signing ceremony.
“Goodyear will never have to pay me what it cheated me out of,” she said. “In fact, I will never see a cent. But with the President’s signature today I have an even richer reward.”
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