Sunday Reflection: The Equal Pay Fight

 

"We sought justice because equal pay for equal work is an American value. That fight took me ten years. It took me all the way to the Supreme Court. And, in a 5-4 decision, they stood on the side of those who shortchanged my pay, my overtime, and my retirement just because I am a woman.

The Supreme Court told me that I should have filed a complaint within six months of the company's first decision to pay me less even though I didn't know about it for nearly two decades." -- Lilly Ledbetter (4/14/1938 - 10/12/2024) whose story of pay discrimination led to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, after a Republican-dominated Supreme Court sided with the company, Goodyear Tire and Rubber, that discriminated against her. She never got the back pay she had earned, but was proud to pave the way for women's equal pay for equal work. With today's reactionary Trumpist Supreme Court, she wouldn't have won her case either, once again demonstrating that elections have consequences beyond the candidates at the top of the ticket.

(photo: Ledbetter stands behind President Obama at signing of the act named after her. Ron Edmonds / AP)

 

Lilly Ledbetter Chews Up, Then Spits Out Willard

While I agree with brother Hackwhacker's estimations of last night's Democratic Convention speakers, I particularly loved Lilly Ledbetter, whose fight for pay equality resulted in the "Lilly Ledbetter Act," signed into law by President Obama as one of his first official actions in January 2009. Referring to the average pay differential per dollar between men and women, Ms. Ledbetter let a certain smug plutocrat have it right where it hurts:

"Maybe 23 cents doesn't sound like a lot to someone with a Swiss bank account, Cayman Island investments and an IRA worth tens of millions of dollars."

I loved what she said, and I loved the way she said it.