Equal Work, Unequal Pay

Seventy-year-old Lilly Ledbetter lost an important gender pay-equity case before the U.S. Supreme Court almost a year ago. But the former supervisor for an Alabama Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant is still a champion for the equal-pay cause. "Miss Lilly" came to Washington this week to push for a Senate measure to ease restrictions on suing employers for pay discrimination based on race, gender, religion, or national origin. The House already has passed the measure in the wake of the 5-to-4 Supreme Court ruling, which said that employees must file a formal complaint within 180 days of an employer's initial decision to pay them less than what they think is fair. Ledbetter, who left Goodyear in 1998, sued the company only later; before leaving the plant, she'd received an anonymous note informing her that she made less than her male counterparts.

The measure, now in the Senate, would extend the deadline for filing a complaint. It would have each discriminatory paycheck trigger a new claim-filing period, that is, another 180-day window in which to file a case with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Observers think the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act will face tough sailing in the Senate. Meantime, the White House has threatened a veto.

Ledbetter spoke Wednesday with U.S. News:

You earned $3,727 a month—15 percent less than the lowest-paid male area manager and 40 percent less than the highest-paid area manager. What was your reaction when the Supreme Court decision came down? The court basically said, "You waited too long to complain. You're out of luck."
The Supreme Court said that an individual like myself should have complained after the first paycheck that I got that was discriminatory, even though I had no way of knowing. I had no suspicion at that time, none whatsoever. And 180 days is only six months. And a lot of times that is in the beginning of your employment and you don't want to make waves. You don't want to be known as a troublemaker.

A jury in a lower court initially awarded you $3.8 million, which the judge reduced to $360,000. Now, will you ever see a dime?
My case is over, I'm sad to say. [She adds that her salary affected her retirement benefits, including pension, a 401(k) plan, and Social Security.] So the way I understand it, I was treated like a second-class citizen for my 19 years and 10 months at Goodyear—as well as into my retirement.

Is receiving less in the twilight of your life a hardship or a sore point?
It's a big hardship. I'm not bitter, but it is very hard because we live 150 miles round trip from Birmingham where my husband [Charles] has most of his cancer [treatments] and surgeries.

When the Supreme Court handed down its decision, what was your reaction?
I was very disappointed. I really felt that we would get Justice Clarence Thomas [to take my side]. He's an African-American, and he's from Georgia, was raised in the South. He came up the hard way, so to speak, and I understand, too, at one time he worked for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a strongly worded dissent, said that the court's majority did not comprehend or was indifferent to the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination. She pointed out that pay information is often hidden from an employee's view.
That's right. Goodyear gave instructions when I hired in: "You do not discuss your pay." There were two things that I was required to do: that was to give my fair share to the United Way campaign, being a salaried person, and the other was not to discuss my salary with anyone outside my family.

Did you ever ascertain who left the note showing you were being paid less than male supervisors?
No, I have no idea.

Do you have a sense why this person acted?
It was just something that I probably needed to know, which I did.

What was your reaction when you saw the note?
I was shocked. I lost my composure. I had to go into the ladies' lounge and sit down because it was just like falling; you look around and see who's looking at you.

Do you have an expectation of what the Senate will do on the Fair Pay Act?
I'm hoping they pass it. My gut says maybe they will. What is so amazing to me is the fact that I have a dining room table at home that is full of correspondence from all over the country, from states like California, Oklahoma, New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, and I've been speaking all over the Southeast, well, Northeast, too. And I find that in every group, women come forward...they're physicians, they're surgeons, they're teachers, professors, nurses, all walks of life. It's not just the first-line supervisor like I was. It's all walks of life are being shortchanged if they're female.

On the opposing side are groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers and U.S. Chamber of Commerce. What is your thought about the interests, all the way up to President Bush, lining up against you?
I understand where they're coming from, except President Bush.

You just turned 70, and in retirement you're the symbol of the fight for equal pay. What's that like?
I had no idea that equal pay was so far behind. I thought this was a southern problem, and I've learned that it's national. But what has inspired me so much is all of the correspondence and contacts and speak-out articles that the men have provided in support of this. Because today, they have [working] wives, they have [working] granddaughters, they have [working] daughters.

How many letters do you think you've received in support?
Boxes. I have not answered them all, either. I need a secretary.

Do you get hate mail, crank calls?
No, no. Absolutely not. I've had nothing but good.

What's your relationship like with former colleagues?
They're really nice. I ran into one of the human-resources employees at a fast-food place the other day, and he's now teaching at the college in town, and he said, "Hey, Lilly, we talk about you all the time in my classes." And he said, "I would like you to come speak to the class, if you're not too expensive." And I said, "Well, just my gas money, and I actually could walk."

In your earlier years, was Lilly Ledbetter a fighter?
Yes, always a fighter.

Where do you get that spirit?
I'm going to tell my deep, dark secret here. I grew up in the country, and my mother, even though I was an only child, she felt like I needed to learn the ethics of work, and so in the summers and the fall, I had to work in my grandfather's cotton patches. I was in my teens, like 12, 14, along in there. It was hard. Hard and hot. In my day, there were no fast-food places to go work. If there were, there wasn't a vehicle to take to go there. It was very hard work. And I knew then, and I made a determination, that I never, never wanted to work in the fields for a living.