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Lilly Ledbetter Was Keynoter At AAUW Conference On Pay Equity
By Marian Wattenbarger
On Saturday, January 24th, AAUW of New Jersey hosted a conference entitled Achieving Pay Equity at Brookdale Community College, which cosponsored the event along with Business & Professional Women of New Jersey. The American Association of University Women's overall theme of the day was the gender pay gap, the difference between compensation paid to women and that paid to men for comparable work. The longstanding differences were addressed by each of the speakers, and strategies were offered for reducing the inequities in pay between the genders.
Conference participants were energized by the appearance of Lilly Ledbetter, a woman who has fought for pay equity for women in a battle that took her to the Supreme Court in a losing 2007 case and to the presidential inauguration and landmark legislation in 2009. Ms. Ledbetter was the keynote speaker at the conference, arriving directly from Washington D.C., where she had attended President Obama's inauguration and danced with him at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball. She returned home to Alabama briefly after the conference, only to return a few days later to Washington D.C. where on January 29th, President Obama signed his first piece of legislation into law - The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Ms. Ledbetter was in attendance and attended a private luncheon at the White House following the signing. The AAUW conference opened with a discussion of the data on the gender pay gap including explanations, examples, and policy responses presented by Dr. Basen-Cassino, assistant professor of Sociology and Women's Studies at Montclair State University and Dr. Mar y Gatta, senior research scientist, Gender and Workforce Policy at the Center for Women, and a professor in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University.
The professors noted research that has shown that in the U.S., 63% of women with children under the age of six are employed outside the home and that women still earn 78 cents for every dollar a man earns. One sentiment expressed repeatedly by many at the conference was that pay equity is not just a women's issue, but a family issue. Women working hard but earning less than their male peers contribute less to their families financial health. The whole family suffers as a result. Suggestions made to help address this issue were encouraging women to train for and enter into nontraditional jobs, encouraging policies that support care giving responsibilities, and teaching women from the time they are young to speak up and ask what they think their pay is worth.
The conference closed with an excellent workshop led by lecturer and author, Lindsey Pollack. She conducted a spirited interactive session about negotiating for fair pay, which experts consider a critical component in achieving pay equity.
In her keynote address, Lilly Ledbetter shared her stor y with par ticipants. Thir ty years ago, Ms. Ledbetter went to work for Goodyear Tire in Gadsden, Alabama as a supervisor in the tire plant. Shortly before her retirement, after working at the plant for 19 years, Lilly received an anonymous tip that she was being paid significantly less than her male colleagues, and had been for many years. She filed a complaint, it went to trial, and the jury awarded Ms. Ledbetter more than $3 million in back pay and punitive damages.
The trial judge was forced to reduce the award to $300,000 due to damage caps. In 2007, the case went to the Supreme Court. In a 5-4 ruling, the justices found against Ms. Ledbetter. They said she had to have complained each time she received a pay raise that was smaller than her male colleagues and that she had to do it within 180-days of each raise she received. Justice Ginsburg dissented from the majority opinion of the court. She argued against the 180-day pay limit because discrimination often occurs in small increments over large periods of time. Furthermore, pay information of fellow workers is normally confidential, and thus would be unavailable for comparison.
After the ruling, Democratic members of Congress introduced the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which revised the law to state that the 180-day statute of limitations for pay discrimination resets with each discriminatory paycheck. In January of 2009, the bill was signed into law by President Obama. The law now conforms to the interpretation cited by Justice Ginsburg in her dissenting opinion.
Although Ms. Ledbetter was delighted that the bill was passed, she encouraged everyone to learn about a second companion bill, the Paycheck Fairness Act, and to work for its passage. She stated that this is a critical update to the 45-year-old Equal Pay Act. The bill would empower women to negotiate for equal pay, create stronger incentives for employers to follow the law, and strengthen federal outreach and enforcement efforts.
Ledbetter lost her case and will not benefit from the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
One poignant note of the day was when Ms. Ledbetter pointed out that it was not just her earnings that suffered from the discrimination. Her pension, 401K and social security benefits were affected as well, and as a result, her retirement income is much lower than it would have been had she been compensated fairly.
Asked why she continued to pursue the cause of pay equity, she replied "For my daughter and her daughter, and for your daughters and their daughters."
Ledbetter thanked AAUW of NJ and co-sponsors, the Business and Professional Women of NJ, for their ongoing work in support of pay equity. She was especially grateful for the support given to her during her long personal struggle for pay equity. To find out more about this issue or AAUW, please contact AAUW/Northern Monmouth County Branch at www.aauwnj- nmcb.org.
