Lilly Ledbetter, Whose Fight For Equal Pay Changed US Law Is Dead

Lilly Ledbetter, the pioneering advocate whose fight for equal pay led to a landmark U.S. law bearing her name, has died at the age of 86.

According to CBS, the BBC’s U.S. news partner, Ledbetter passed away peacefully on Saturday, surrounded by her family and loved ones. “Our mother lived an extraordinary life,” her family said in a statement.

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Ledbetter’s activism was instrumental in the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, the first piece of legislation signed by President Barack Obama in 2009. The law made it easier for employees to challenge wage discrimination after discovering unequal pay.

Obama hailed the law as a declaration that “there are no second-class citizens in our workplaces.”

President Joe Biden, who was vice president at the time, remembered Ledbetter as a “fearless leader and advocate for equal pay.” He praised her tireless fight, which “began on the factory floor, reached the Supreme Court, and continued through Congress.”

Before gaining national recognition, Ledbetter had been working for nearly two decades as a supervisor at Goodyear Tire & Rubber in Alabama when she discovered she was paid significantly less than her male counterparts. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled she had no legal recourse because she hadn’t filed her complaint within six months of the initial pay discrimination.

Her fight didn’t end there. The passage of her namesake law overturned that ruling and became a crucial step in the ongoing struggle to close gender and racial pay gaps.

Biden expressed his admiration for Ledbetter’s perseverance, saying, “Before she was a household name, Lilly was like so many women in the workforce: she worked hard, only to discover she was being paid less for the same work. It was an honour to stand by her side as her bill became law.”

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The former president paid tribute on Twitter/X, saying Ms Ledbetter “never set out to be a trailblazer or a household name. She just wanted to be paid the same as a man for her hard work”.

“Lilly did what so many Americans before her have done: setting her sights high for herself and even higher for her children and grandchildren,” Mr Obama said.

Ms Ledbetter continued her advocacy after the law was signed.

She received the Future Is Female Lifetime Achievement Award from Advertising Week last week, according to the Alabama news site AL.com.

A new film about her life, called Lilly and starring Patricia Clarkson, has recently been shown at the Hamptons International Film Festival.

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