National icon fought for equal pay rights

In July 1998, 60-year-old Lilly Ledbetter went to work her shift as the overnight supervisor of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Gadsden, AL, just as she had for the past 19 years.

“I pulled my mail out of my box at work and someone had left me a torn piece of paper. Four names. Three men and mine,” Ledbetter said.

The anonymous co-worker had written the salaries of the shift supervisors on the note. Of the three men, the lowest made $4,286 per month and the highest $5,236. Ledbetter’s salary was $3,727 per month.

These four supervisors had exactly the same job description.

 “My ego hit the floor. I was very devastated. I felt humiliated. I felt embarrassed," Ledbetter said. "I just would have liked to take my bag and leave right then, but I had a 12-hour shift ahead of me.”

 Ledbetter worked 12-hour shifts, seven nights a week on a regular basis.

 “My ambition in life was to have a good job, with a good wage,” Ledbetter said.  “I would work hard. I would save and build a nest egg. I would raise my family. Then I would retire and I would enjoy the fruits of my labors in retirement with those savings that I built up through my working years.”

The base-pay deficit affected Ledbetter’s retirement fund because her Social Security and 401K relied on what she made from Goodyear.

“I lived up to my end of the bargain because in this country, that’s the American dream,” Ledbetter said, “and it seems very simple to me that if I live up to my end of the bargain and my employer does theirs, then everything works out.”

The next day Ledbetter drove 60 miles to file a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

“I have a thick skin,” Ledbetter said.  “I had to have a thick skin through all the controversy (of being) a woman manager in a tire factory that was pretty much all males. I had a thick skin then; I had a thick skin when I started my charge for equal employment all the way to the Supreme Court,” Ledbetter said.

“When I filed a charge, it was like a wave of silence went through that plant,” Ledbetter said.

Ledbetter was moved from her management position to a less-than-prestigious quality-control job.

“No one spoke to me. If I was walking down a hall, they’d turn and go back,” Ledbetter said regarding the criticism of her actions. “They could not afford to be seen talking to me because their job was on the line.”

Ledbetter sued Goodyear for pay discrimination after early retirement in November 1998 under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Equal Pay Act of 1963.

In December 2008, Ledbetter’s husband, Charles, of nearly 53 years passed away.
“I have a strong faith,” Ledbetter said about what has kept her going.  

On Jan. 29, 2009 Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the second piece of legislation signed into law under his presidency.

“I do not know who gave me that note and I want that to be a mystery for the rest of my life, Ledbetter said. "If the person even wanted to tell me, I really don’t want to know because I am so grateful.”

“Never cut yourself short. Strive for the top. Set your goals high. Never give up and network,” Ledbetter said, now 71-years-old.