The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was signed into law on January 29, 2009.

The act states that the 180-day statute of limitations for filing an equal-pay lawsuit regarding pay discrimination resets with each new paycheck affected by that discriminatory action.

The law reverses a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that had narrowed to 180 days the time period during which an employee can file a claim of wage discrimination after the original pay-setting decision. The Act amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

The bill is named after Lilly Ledbetter, a retired worker at a Goodyear factory in Alabama who discovered that she was paid less than her male counterparts.

Ledbetter sued her employer in 2003, but lost her equal rights case three years later, because she didn't file her complaint in time - never mind she was unaware of receiving 40% less payment than her male peers doing the same job for almost two decades. Ledbetter fought the Supreme Court decision since then..