More on Lilly Ledbetter

PunditMom, who I had the good fortune to meet this week, has an excellent idea in her post: Goodyear, You Can Spare $360K for Lilly Ledbetter

As so many women have been basking in the glow of the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the news reports reminded us that even though Lilly has become a standard bearer for the fight for fair pay for women, Lilly herself will never see a nickel of the money that she sued Goodyear Rubber & Tire for. [...]

It's really been bothering me that a corporation like Goodyear that reported profits of $602 million in 2007 (its most current annual SEC filing) most likely spent much more on attorneys' fees than the $360K it could have paid Lilly, trying to convince us it didn't practice gender discrimination. According to its 2007 annual report, Goodyear did, however, pay millions to settle other types of lawsuits. So I thought, wouldn't it be refreshing if Goodyear would do the right thing and pay Lilly Ledbetter the back wages it should have paid her in the first place?

If we really want to honor Lilly and what she did for us and for our daughters (and our sons -- they'll benefit from this, as well), I say we should all call on Goodyear to pay Lilly what it should have paid her to begin with. You don't even need an envelope or stamp. Here's a link to the Goodyear site with the names and online form to contact Goodyear's Global and Corporate Communications honchos.

PunditMom even included a suggested letter you could send:

Dear Goodyear:

Now that President Obama has reversed the Supreme Court decision that denied Lilly Ledbetter her $360,000 in back pay, we call on you to do the right thing and pay Lilly what she should have been paid over the course of 20 years. While the new Ledbetter Law is not retroactive, think about all the public goodwill Goodyear would receive in these tough economic times if it stepped up and did the right thing by Lilly.

Sincerely yours,

(name)

Hey, if you don't ask the answer is always "no."