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US President Barack Obama applauds Lilly Ledbetter before signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, January 29, 2009. The wage discrimination bill, which allows employees more time to file a claim, is named after Lilly Ledbetter, a retired worker at a Goodyear factory in Alabama who discovered she was paid less than her male counterparts. AFP PHOTO / Saul LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
On Saturday, groundbreaking pay equity advocate Lilly Ledbetter passed away at the age of 86. Ledbetter never set out to be an activist—she was a factory worker in Alabama who just wanted to do her job and get paid fairly for doing it. But after an anonymous note informed Ledbetter that she was being paid significantly less than all 15 of her male colleagues, including those with less seniority, Ledbetter set out on a path that would ultimately lead to a change in American law.
“It’s important to remember that she was a manager in a tire plant in Alabama in the 80s. She was a force in the workplace, a woman ahead of her time,” Noreen Farrell, the executive director of Equal Rights Advocates, told me in an interview this week. While it’s hard to calculate the exact number of people who’ve benefited from the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act—which President Obama signed in his first act as commander in chief in 2009—Farrell says that Ledbetter’s work touches tens of........