President Obama Signed Equal Pay for Equal Work Bill

President Obama signed a new bill that seeks to end decades-long pay disparities between men and women.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act will effectively end a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision saying employees had only 180 days to file a pay-discrimination lawsuit.

The bill is named after a 70-year-old South Carolina tire plant supervisor who filed a suit against Goodyear Tire Rubber Co. plant in Gadsden, Ala., after she learned that men working in the same position made more money than she did.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Ledbetter had waited too long to sue. She brought the suit near the end of her 19-year career with the company.

The new legislation allows suits to be filed years later as long as the alleged pay disparity is continuing.

It amends the 1964 Civil Rights Act and also applies to discrimination based on factors such as race, religion, national origin, disability or age.