The act was created in honor of Lilly Ledbetter, who sued her employer, Goodyear Tire Company, for paying her significantly less wages than her male coworkers.

There was a “time limit for filing a charge” rule which stated that if you’re discriminated against, your lawsuit concerning the discrimination has to be filed within 180 days of when the discrimination took place: http://www.eeoc.gov/employees/timeliness.cfm

Because of this rule, Lilly was only allowed to file charges which concerned her checks that had were no older than 180 days since their date of issuance. Lilly never knew about the pay discrimination until nineteen years after starting work at Goodyear.

Lilly found out in 1998, when she retired, that although she started at the same salary as the men, by retirement she was earning $3,727 per month compared to the 15 men who earned from $4,286 per month (lowest paid man) to $5,236 per month (highest paid man).

The Lilly Ledbetter Act revises the 180 rule, stating that when it comes to equal pay, charges can be filed which concern any pay received since the initial discriminatory paycheck. This would have allowed Lilly to cite every discriminatory check she’s ever received in her lawsuit vs. her employer, instead of merely her paychecks which were less than 180 days old.