Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 facts for kids
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (LLFPA) is a special law about fair pay. President Barack Obama signed it into law on January 29, 2009.
This law changed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It says that the time limit for filing a lawsuit about unfair pay starts over with each new paycheck that is unfair. This means if someone is paid less because of discrimination, they have 180 days from each unfair paycheck to file a complaint.
The law was created because of a U.S. Supreme Court case called Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.. In 2007, the Supreme Court decided that the time limit for a pay discrimination lawsuit began when the unfair pay decision was first made. It did not start with each new unfair paycheck. This made it very hard for people to fight pay discrimination.
Before this law was passed, a similar bill was tried in 2007. It passed in the House but did not pass in the Senate. Most Republican Senators did not support it.
During the 2008 elections, the Democrats criticized Republicans for stopping the bill. Barack Obama, who was a candidate then, supported the bill. After the 2008 election, the Democrats gained control of both the House and Senate. A new version of the bill was quickly passed and became the first law President Obama signed after he became president.
Lilly Ledbetter's Story
Lilly Ledbetter worked as a supervisor at a Goodyear tire factory in Alabama. She worked there for many years. She did not know she was being paid much less than the men doing the same job.
Six months before she retired in 1998, she filed a lawsuit. She was seeking back pay for the unfair treatment. A lower court first said her lawsuit was filed on time. But another court, the Court of Appeals, said it was too late.
Ledbetter then took her case to the United States Supreme Court. In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled against her. The majority of the judges said her complaint was filed too late. They believed the unfair pay decisions happened more than 180 days before she filed her complaint.
However, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg disagreed. She wrote that the time limit should start from the date of any paycheck that was affected by an unfair pay decision. This meant that each unfair paycheck should reset the clock.
The Supreme Court's decision in the Ledbetter case made many people upset. Legal groups and Democrats felt it was a setback for civil rights. They wanted to change the law to make it fairer for workers.
Making the New Law
After the Supreme Court's decision, House Democrats quickly took action. They agreed with Justice Ruth Ginsburg's idea that Congress should change the law.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller announced they would pass a bill. This bill would make it clear that unfair pay happens not just when the decision is made, but also each time an unfair paycheck is given.
Some Republicans did not agree with the bill. They worried that companies could be sued for actions taken by managers who no longer worked there. They felt it would be hard for companies to defend themselves against very old claims.
Many groups supported the new bill, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the AFL-CIO. They believed it was important for workers' rights. Other groups, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, opposed it. They thought the Supreme Court's decision was fair and protected businesses from old lawsuits.
The Bill Becomes Law
A bill to change the law was first tried in April 2008. It was stopped by Republicans in the Senate. They were concerned about too many lawsuits and did not agree to compromises.
The bill was brought back in January 2009. It passed in the House of Representatives with 247 votes for it and 171 against. Most votes were along party lines. Only a few Republicans voted for it, and a few Democrats voted against it.
The Senate also voted to pass the bill on January 22, 2009. The vote was 61 to 36 in favor. All Democratic senators present voted for it, along with five Republican senators.
President Obama strongly supported the bill. The official White House blog said that President Obama wanted to make sure people like Lilly Ledbetter could fight unfair pay.
On January 27, the House passed the Senate's version of the bill. This sent it quickly to President Obama's desk. On January 29, 2009, President Obama signed the bill into law. It was the first law he signed as president. This fulfilled his promise to change the ruling from the Ledbetter v. Goodyear case.
