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LYNDON CENTER, VT: The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was the first bill signed into law by President Barak Obama. The law’s namesake will share her story at Lyndon State College on Thursday, March 10.

Lilly Ledbetter worked for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company from 1979 until she retired in 1998. Most of that time she held the position of area manager, a post traditionally filled by men. In the beginning Ledbetter’s pay was comparable to the salaries of men performing essentially the same work. By the end of 1997, however, her yearly salary was $6000 less than the lowest paid of the fifteen males with the same duties and job title.

Because of a contractual agreement with her employer Ledbetter had no way of knowing of this discrepancy: Goodyear workers were forbidden to discuss compensation with their colleagues.

Ledbetter filed an equal-pay lawsuit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act six months before her retirement. Courts at the time gave mixed verdicts, ultimately landing the case in front the U.S. Supreme Court. She lost in a 5-4 ruling in 2007. Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito barred the suit because the discriminatory actions regarding her compensation had been made more than 180 days prior to the date she filed her charge.

The subsequent firestorm of protest led congress to pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which clarified the law in ways thatfavor employees who suffer from long-term, systemic workplace discrimination.

On March 10 Lilly Ledbetter will talk about her experiences as a Supreme Court litigant, a fair pay activist, and her ongoing efforts as a champion of equal pay for equal work.

Ledbetter will speak at 7:30 in the Alexander Twilight Theatre on the Lyndon State College campus. The event is free and open to the public. Ledbetter’s appearance is presented as part of Lyndon’s Centennial Celebration Series—lectures, events, and performances in recognition of the College’s 100th anniversary.

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Last year, I was honored to be invited by Senator Patrick Leahy to meet Lilly Ledbetter, the courageous women who is now the face of pay discrimination in America. Her name is in the title of landmark legislation that guarantees the rights of all Americans to receive equal pay for equal work. We should be proud that our entire congressional delegation co-sponsored this civil rights legislation.

Unfortunately, a year after that historic victory, eight years after Vermont’s pay equity law and nearly 50 years after President John F. Kennedy signed into law the original “Equal Pay Act”, women in Vermont still make 81 cents for every dollar a man doing the same job earns.  Looking at this another way, a woman, doing the same job as a man, has to work until April 20th in order to earn the same wages paid to a man during the previous year. That’s nearly four months!

It’s not all bad news though. Today, Vermont women make up a greater size of the workforce than in any other state in the country. The working women of Vermont can lead our economic recovery.

Young women between the ages of 18-24 are paid 91 cents to the dollar men of the same age earn.

There are over 20,000 businesses in Vermont owned by women. That accounts for about $1.5 billion a year in economic activity for Vermont. The number of  women business leaders in our economy should be a bright spot in this “lost decade” of economic stagnation and can be seen as a good indicator of what Vermont does well and where our economic future can take us. And we see signs of improvement with the next generation. Young women between the ages of 18-24 are paid 91 cents to the dollar men of the same age earn.

The long fight for pay equity is not just a women’s issue. It is a family issue. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research found the average family would gain nearly $6,000 per year from wage equity. That is $500 per month not available to our working families; money that would certainly be welcome to help pay the bills during these hard times.

We know from years of experience that changes in the law do not, on their own, change discriminatory behavior.  To tackle pay equity we must look at our own practices and attitudes about the value of “women’s work” and we need to get serious about enforcement.  Vermont’s businesses are some of the most socially responsible businesses in the country. But this week is a good time for all employers, whether in business, the nonprofit sector or government,  to take a clear-eyed look at what we are paying our workers to make sure that all of our employees are being treated fairly.

As a parent, I want my two daughters to have the same opportunity to succeed as my  my son; and as governor I will fight to ensure that all of our children and grandchildren are treated fairly.  Equal pay for equal work is not only the right thing to do – but it recognizes the reality that women will play an important role in Vermont’s economic recovery.

Observing Equal Pay Day is a clear reminder of the values that make Vermont strong.  Our motto is freedom and unity.  We value hard work and individual responsibility.  We also know that we all do better when we ensure that every one of us has an equal opportunity to succeed.

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Activist says women can’t support their families because of pay discrimination in the workplace

Former Goodyear Tire plant manager details her nine-year struggle to bring her case to the U.S. Supreme Court

With her thick Alabaman drawl, Lilly Ledbetter roused a crowd of several hundred people at Vermont Technical College in Randolph with stories from her 11-year battle to bring the issue of pay discrimination to the attention of the federal government.

In January, President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law, which gives workers who have been denied equal pay because of discriminatory business practices legal recourse to obtain a limited amount of back pay.

Ledbetter, a petite blond woman, could barely see over the podium, but her voice rang out in the VTC gymnasium at Vermont’s 13^th Annual Women’s Economic Opportunity Conference as she spoke candidly about the nine years she spent fighting in the courts to obtain earnings she was denied from Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company because of her status as a woman.

Employed as a night shift supervisor in Goodyear’s Gadsen, Ala., plant, Ledbetter finished second among 150 mostly male trainees in electrical, pipefitting and maintenance coursework. She moved up through the ranks and was tapped for special management projects over the course of her 19-year career.

Weeks before her retirement, she was given an anonymous note that listed the salaries of her co-workers with the same position, title and less seniority. They were earning 35 to 40 percent more than she did.

“I learned one evening when I went in for a 12-hour shift how much less I was making,” Ledbetter said. “I can tell you I was very degraded.

“My retirement was based on a percentage of my pay. And I got exhausted thinking about how much my family had lost and the quality of education my children would have had.”

She filed gender and age discrimination charges with the Alabama Equal Employment Opportunity Council in 1998. Her attorney took the case pro bono and in 2003 an Alabama jury found she had been deprived of more $200,000 in back pay and awarded her $3.8 million. She received $360,000 because of a federal cap on the award.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the jury verdict in 2007. Ledbetter said the EEOC, which had championed her case up until that point, supported Goodyear’s allegations when the suit reached the Court.

“When I lost in the Supreme Court it didn’t hurt just my family, it hurt all of you,” Ledbetter said. “Women can’t support themselves on what they’re making. It’s not right because we’ve earned it. We’re legally entitled. I didn’t ask any employer to give me anything. Just treat me fair.”

In Vermont, the wage gap is significant. The median wage for Vermont women is $13.82 per hour, while the median for men is $16.08, or $5,000 more per year, according to a 2009 Vermont Commission on Women report.

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