Lilly Ledbetter had worked for 19 years at a tire plant in Alabama when she was sent an anonymous note: her pay was as much as $2,000 a month less than what men were receiving in the same supervisory job. Ms. Ledbetter sued for sex discrimination in 1999 in federal court in Alabama, and a jury awarded her more than $3 million in back pay and damages. But the decision was reversed on appeal. Undeterred, she pursued the case to the United States Supreme Court, which in 2007 also ruled against her, saying that she was too late — that she should have filed her claim within 180 days of receiving her first unequal paycheck, citing a narrow interpretation of the law. In a vigorous dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said it was all but impossible for Ms. Ledbetter to have known of her unfair pay in such a time period.

Source: Forbes October 14, 2024 13:05 UTC