Skip to main content

First order of business: Obama signs Fair Pay Act

Date Posted: February 13 2009

WASHINGTON (PAI) – The first law Democratic President Barack Obama signed helps workers: The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

With the graying gentle grandmother from Gadsden, Ala., standing just behind, the chief executive on Jan. 29 restored the right of workers – women, minorities, the disabled, those discriminated against because of sexual preference, or those of differing religions – to sue their employers for pay discrimination.

The U.S. Supreme Court took that right away in ruling in 2007 in Ledbetter’s case. Near the end of her 19-year supervisory career with Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., in Gadsden, she found her employer had always discriminated against her in pay on the basis of sex. She won in lower courts, but lost in the Supreme Court, 5-4.

The five-man majority, all named by GOP presidents, said the only time Ledbetter — or any other worker – could sue was within 180 days of being hired. It threw out her case, and her $360,000 award. She won’t get a dime from the case. The new law, passed over House GOP opposition, overturned that High Court ruling.

Ironically, Ledbetter told Press Associates Union News Service last year, she suffered huge pay discrimination as a supervisor. She was unprotected by labor law. Rank-and-file female workers at the plant suffered far less pay discrimination, she added, because they were protected by their United Steelworkers contract.

“Equal pay is by no means just a women’s issue – it’s a family issue,” Obama said. “And in this economy, when so many folks are already working harder for less and struggling to get by, the last thing they can afford is losing part of each month’s paycheck to simple and plain discrimination.

“So signing this bill today is to send a clear message: That making our economy work means making sure it works for everybody; that there are no second-class citizens in our workplaces.”