Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

Abigail can’t believe it. She’s worked for Fried Foods, Inc. for five years. She just found out that she makes two-thirds of what her male counterpart does, and he’s been there for the same amount of time and has the same level of experience. That doesn’t seem fair. Luckily for her, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act went into effect in 2009, which means she can go after Fried Foods for pay discrimination, even though the discrimination started five years ago.

Under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employees could file equal-pay lawsuits against their employers—but only if they did it within 180 days of receiving that first disparate paycheck. But since people tend not to discuss their salaries with other employees, a lot of the time people didn’t know they were on the receiving end of pay discrimination until a lot more than five months had gone by. Like Abigail.

So, in 2009, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was passed. It says that the 180-day statute of limitations renews with every paycheck. In other words, every time Abigail receives one of those paychecks for 1/3 less than her male colleague’s, her timeline to file suit against Fried Foods starts over.