Woman who changed federal law promotes equal pay

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Lilly Ledbetter, the Alabama woman whose discrimination lawsuit changed federal law, says the persistent wage gap between men and women is a human rights issue.

Ledbetter urged lawmakers Thursday to pass an equal pay bill pending in the U.S. Senate after she rallied for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at a Las Vegas campaign event.

Ledbetter, who endorsed Reid in his race against Republican Sharron Angle, said she is confident the Nevada Democrat will get the legislation through the Senate. The House passed the bill in 2009.

The measure, known as the Paycheck Fairness Act, would protect employees who share salary information with co-workers and require employers to show that wage differences are job-related, not gender-based.

Federal studies show women earn roughly 81 cents for every dollar earned by men.

"It is a matter that should just be a human right, to treat people equally and fair with their pay," said Ledbetter, whose discrimination suit fueled the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009.

President Barack Obama supports the equal pay legislation.

Some Republican lawmakers have argued that the bill would do more for trial lawyers than women.

Ledbetter said companies will continue to pay women less than their male counterparts unless they are forced to change.

"It saves them a lot of money," she said.

Ledbetter was a supervisor at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. factory who sued the company over discrimination when she learned that she had earned less than her male peers during her 19-year career. A jury ruled in her favor, but the Supreme Court threw out her complaint in a 5-4 vote in 2007, saying she had failed to sue within the 180-day deadline after a discriminatory pay decision was made.

Ledbetter said she was humiliated when she learned of the discrimination and is still suffering from it.

"I try not to dwell on it," she said. "But, on occasion, when the air conditioning isn't working or something else is broken, it suddenly gnaws on me that I wouldn't have to be so worried if I had been paid what I was owed and entitled to under the law."