Lilly Ledbetter, Whose Fight for Equal Pay Changed U.S. Law, Dies at 86

Her lawsuit against Goodyear helped pave the way for the 2009 Fair Pay Act, which was signed into law by former President Barack Obama.

Lilly Ledbetter, whose lawsuit against her employer paved the way for the Fair Pay Act of 2009 and who dedicated decades of her life to fighting for equal pay, died on Saturday in Alabama. She was 86.

The cause was respiratory failure, a statement by her family said. It did not specify where in Alabama she died.

In 1979, Ms. Ledbetter got a job at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Gadsden, Ala. “We needed that money to pay college tuition and the mortgage,” she said at a Forbes Magazine women’s summit in 2021.

At first, Ms. Ledbetter earned the same as her male counterparts, she said. But over time, unbeknown to her, her pay had dropped “way out of line” compared with that of her male peers. At the factory, she said in 2021, employees could lose their jobs for sharing information about their salaries. It was not until 1998 that Ms. Ledbetter found out, by receiving an anonymous note, that she in fact earned much less than men working the same position.

“I was devastated,” she said.

In a 2018 Opinion essay in The New York Times, Ms. Ledbetter wrote that she was sexually harassed early in her tenure at Goodyear.

After finding out about the pay discrepancy, she went home and talked to her husband. “And we decided to fight,” she said in a speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2012.

Ms. Ledbetter filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1998 and a lawsuit against Goodyear in 1999. In 2003, she won her case in federal court in Alabama, with the jury awarding her $3.8 million. (In a 2009 interview with NPR, Ms. Ledbetter said that the sum was reduced to a $300,000 cap and $60,000 in back pay.)

But she did not receive any of that money, she told NPR.

The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 2007 ruled in favor of Goodyear in a 5-4 decision, saying that Ms. Ledbetter had filed her suit too late (more than 180 days) after the initial decision to pay her less than men.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissenting opinion, Ms. Ledbetter said, inspired her to take the case to Congress. In 2009, Congress approved legislation that expanded workers’ rights to sue in such cases. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act changed the time limit so that each discriminatory paycheck — and not just the first one — resets the 180-day limit to file a claim.

It was the first bill that President Barack Obama signed into law.

“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,” Mr. Obama said.

Ms. Ledbetter appeared in the White House again in 2014, standing with a group of women behind Mr. Obama as he signed two executive measures that would make it easier for women to learn whether they had been cheated by employers.

Ms. Ledbetter was born Lilly McDaniel in Alabama to J.C. McDaniel, a mechanic, and Edna Smith McDaniel. She is survived by a daughter, Vickie Ledbetter Saxon; a son, Phillip; and several grandchildren. Ms. Ledbetter’s husband, Charles, died in 2008.

“Lilly,” a movie inspired by Ms. Ledbetter’s life, premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival this month, with Patricia Clarkson in the title role.

In a statement after her death, Mr. Obama wrote: “Lilly 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.”

Although Ms. Ledbetter would not see any money as a result of the 2009 legislation, she said that she had derived personal satisfaction from the bill.

“Goodyear will never have to pay me what it cheated me out of,” Ms. Ledbetter recalled saying after the signing ceremony. “In fact, I will never see a cent. But with the president’s signature today I have an even richer reward.”

A full obituary will follow.