Lily Ledbetter, a fierce advocate for equal pay, endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday, Equal Pay Day.
“I know Joe Biden. He understands what it’s like to be a single parent. And, he will fight for equal pay and working women, just as he always has,” Ledbetter said in a statement. “That’s why I am proud to endorse him to be our next president.”
Ledbetter, 81, added, “This is the first time in more than 12 years that I am at home on Equal Pay Day. I’m usually in some part of the country with a huge crowd of women and men who are dedicated to closing the pay gap. Instead I am staying home, watching along with so many other people as the current president shows Americans just how little he cares about working families.”
Ledbetter became one of the central faces of the equal pay movement when she won her gender pay discrimination case against her former employer, Goodyear Tire and Rubbery Company.
After the Supreme Court overruled the decision, Ledbetter became a national advocate for legislation to fix the wage gap. Former President Obama’s first piece of legislation that he signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009.
Per the National Women’s Law Center, women in the U.S. make roughly 80 cents for every dollar men make. The gap is even larger for black, Latina and Native American women.
Last year, House Democrats passed the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would add additional provisions and regulations for workplaces to follow, but the bill has yet to be voted on by the Republican-controlled Senate.