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Most people go to work with the promise that their hard work will be fairly rewarded . And for 19 years, thats what Lilly Ledbetter did.

At her job with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in Gadsden, Alabama, she frequently pulled 12-hour shifts and often worked overtime as a supervisor. But in 1998, as she was nearing retirement, she said, she got an anonymous note in her mailbox at work. The scrap of paper had her name and her salary , plus the names and salaries of three men in the same managerial role. She was earning $3,727 per month, while her male peers were paid $4,286 to $5,236 per month.

Its devastating, Ledbetter said about the discovery. You dont know how many people know the story.

By the end of her shift, she resolved to fight back. I could not let it go, she said. She filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and later sued Goodyear. She won on the facts but lost on a technicality. A jury awarded her $3.3 million in damages, but she never saw a cent because Goodyear appealed the decision up to the U.S. Supreme Court and won a 5-4 decision in 2006. The court ruled that she found out too late about being underpaid: She had to file her claim within 180 days of her first discriminatory paycheck.