The Lilly Ledbetter Act

President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter act into law today. The new law gives women the right to file a lawsuit against the company they are working for, if they discover that they are being paid less than their male counterparts because of their gender. Prior to the act being signed into law women only had 180 days after they started their job to sue for pay discrimination, but the new law gives women 360 days to to file suit after finding out that they have been discriminated against.

Lilly Ledbetter had been working for many years as a supervisor at a General Motors plant in Alabama when she found that she was earning much less than her male co-workers, who performed the same tasks as she did. Ledbetter filed a suit against GM, and the case was taken all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court who then rejected her case 5-4, because she did not sue within the 180 day time limit.

Unfortunately the new law is not retroactive, and Ledbetter will not see any money from this new ruling, but President Obama signing this bill into law is a giant step forward for all women in the workplace. However, it is disgusting to me that it took until 2009 for this law to be put on the books.