Letter: Praise for new law

Dear Editor,

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act provides workers more time to file suit after they discover that their employers didn't pay them an equal wage.

Ledbetter had worked for Goodyear for 19 years when she learned that men doing the same job that she was doing earned far more than she did. She won a $360,000 judgment which was overturned by a 5 to 4 decision of the Bush U.S. Supreme Court because she had waited too long to sue, even though she didn't sue until she learned that she had been cheated by her employer.

Bush appointee Samuel A. Alito cast the deciding vote. An angry Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a Clinton appointee, read a rare oral dissent from the bench saying she hoped that Congress would repair the damage done to workers. Congress did pass a Ledbetter bill in 2008 but it was killed by Senate Republicans.

During the last presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised to stand by Lilly Ledbetter and all women who are underpaid by their employers. The current Congress passed a new Ledbetter bill. A week after he danced with with Ledbetter at an inaugural ball, Obama delivered on his campaign promise and signed the bill. "This one is for Lilly," Obama said as he handed a presidential signing pen to Lilly Ledbetter.

The Lilly Ledbetter bill was the first piece of legislation that Obama signed and no longer will workers be underpaid by their employers.

Ray Anderson, River Falls

Tags: letters to the editors