One of few female supervisors at the Goodyear plant in Gadsden, Alabama for almost two decades, Lily Ledbetter was consistently awarded lower pay raises than her male counterparts. When she finally learned of the discrimination, Ledbetter filed a formal charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), in which she asserted, among other claims, a Title VII pay discrimination claim and a claim under the Equal Pay Act of 1963.  Ledbetter’s case went to trial, and the jury awarded her back-pay and approximately $3.3 million in compensatory and punitive damages for the extreme nature of the pay discrimination to which she had been subject.

The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed the jury verdict, holding that her case was filed too late – even though Ms. Ledbetter continued to receive discriminatory pay – because the company’s original decision on her pay had been made years earlier. In a 5-4 decision authored by Justice Alito, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Eleventh Circuit decision and ruled that employees cannot challenge ongoing pay discrimination if the employer’s original discriminatory pay decision occurred outside of the statute of limitations period, even when the employee continues to receive paychecks that have been discriminatorily reduced.