Lilly Ledbetter, equal pay icon, dies aged 86

Lilly Ledbetter, an advocate for women receiving the same pay as men for the same work, died Saturday evening, her family said in a statement. She was 86.

AL.com was first to report that she had died.

According to this source, the statement said she died “peacefully” and “with her family and loved ones surrounded. Our mother lived an extraordinary life. We greatly appreciate your respect for our privacy during this time of grief.”

Ledbetter’s activism led to this The first bill that Barack Obama signed went into effect after becoming president in 2009.

The law, called the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, made it easier for workers to file a lawsuit after discovering what they believed was wage discrimination.

In signing the measure, Obama said it sent the message “that there are no second-class citizens in our workplaces and that giving someone less because of their gender or age is not only unfair and illegal, but bad for business.” their race or ethnicity, religion or disability.”

Ledbetter worked at Goodyear Tire & Rubber in Gadsden, Alabama, for nearly 20 years before realizing she was being paid less than men doing the same job.

The law overturned a two-year-old Supreme Court decision by a 5-4 vote that found Ledbetter had no grounds to sue because she did not discover the alleged pay discrimination within six months of it first occurring.

The bill signed by Mr. Obama changed the rules so that Ledbetter and workers like her could sue within six months of discovering the alleged pay discrimination, regardless of when it began.

The former president praised Ledbetter in a post about “fighting” until he signed the bill with her name.

“Lilly did what so many Americans have done before her: she set high goals for herself and even bigger goals for her children and grandchildren,” Obama said.

Among others, the AFL-CIO, who called her “a true hero,” and Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, who said she “expresses my understanding with the simple but powerful phrase, ‘Equal pay for equal work.’ “Changed forever. It’s shocking that as a CEO, I saw firsthand how big the pay disparity was – not just in my own company, but in so many others we’ve acquired. Lilly taught me that the fight for equality starts with pay equity.”

Ledbetter continued her advocacy long after the law was signed.

As AL.com noted, she received the Future Is Female Lifetime Achievement Award from Advertising Week last week.

And a film about her life, “Lilly,” starring Patricia Clarkson, just premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival.