Equal Pay For Equal Work: Shame on Goodyear
Opportunity calls out to each of us every day. But, more often than not we fail to hear it. One day in 1998, Lilly Ledbetter of Gadsden, Alabama, heard the clarion call of justice, loud and clear.
For almost twenty years Lilly had been a loyal worker at the Goodyear plant in Gadsden, Alabama. She had risen through the ranks to a supervisory position. She was, in a word, a “company” person.
However, unknown to Lilly until one day in 1998, Goodyear had been treating her with much less loyalty than she had given it. Lilly found out that even though she shared the same pay grade, duties and responsibilities as her male coworkers, she was actually being paid 40% less for the same work.
Such is wrong on many levels. But most importantly to this discussion, it is illegal. A jury found for Lilly and awarded her back pay and damages.
But Goodyear appealed and defended not by professing its innocence but by raising a procedural issue that Lilly should have commenced her suit years earlier when its discriminatory conduct had commenced. Goodyear begged the court to find that its wrongful acts were beyond the statute-of-limitation.
In a sharply divided 5-4 opinion written by Justice Alito, the Supreme Court reversed the jury's verdict and sided with Goodyear. But Lilly Ledbetter’s judicial nightmare ended on Thursday, January 29, 2009, when the President signed the “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.” The act legislatively reverses the Supreme Court decision and clarifies the law so that from this time forward every discriminatory pay check will restart the statute-of-limitation. That seems like common sense to most of us.
“It is fitting that with the very first bill I sign — the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act — we are upholding one of this nation’s first principles: that we are all created equal and each deserve a chance to pursue our own version of happiness,” the president said.
“Goodyear will never have to pay me what it cheated me out of,” said Mrs. Ledbetter. “In fact, I will never see a cent. But with the president’s signature today I have an even richer reward.”
Now if only Goodyear could be as gracious as Mrs. Ledbetter. Shame on you Goodyear.
