Lilly Lynn McDaniel Ledbetter (April 14, 1938 – October 12, 2024) was an American activist who was the plaintiff in the United States Supreme Court case Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.[1] regarding employment discrimination.

[9] After graduating from high school, Lilly McDaniel married Charles Ledbetter and had two children, Vicky and Phillip.

[9] On October 12, 2024, Ledbetter died from respiratory failure at a hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, at the age of 86.

The Supreme Court did not consider the issue of whether a plaintiff's late discovery of a discriminatory action would excuse a failure to file within the 180-day period because her attorneys conceded it would have made no difference in her case.

[17][18] In dissent, United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote: Lilly Ledbetter was a supervisor at Goodyear Tire and Rubber's plant in Gadsden, Alabama, from 1979 until her retirement in 1998.

He said: "When I came into office, we passed something called the Lilly Ledbetter Act, named after a good friend of mine, Lilly Ledbetter, who had worked for years and found out long into her work that she had been getting paid all these years less than men, substantially.

[22] Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a framed copy of the bill, Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, in her chambers.

[15] On August 26, 2008 (Women's Equality Day), Ledbetter spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, on the topic of pay equity.

Her book chronicles her life from her humble beginnings in Alabama to the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, signed by President Obama in 2009.

[15] On October 31, 2012, Lilly Ledbetter appeared as a guest on the Colbert Report to promote the book.