New Mexico has its own Lilly Ledbetter — thank her

In 1979, Lilly Ledbetter was hired as one of the only women supervisors working the night shift at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in Alabama.

After 19 years of work and ready for retirement in just two years, she arrived at work to find an anonymous and disturbing letter in her mailbox. The letter informed her know that she was getting just a fraction of what her male co-workers were being paid for the same work.

Said Ledbetter at the time, “I had a 12-hour shift in front of me and I had no idea how I was going to get through the long night I was scheduled for. I didn’t see how I could hold my head up with dignity, not knowing how many people throughout the factory knew how much less I made than the men. I was just halfway through the shift when it occurred to me that it was not only the wages I lost out on, but it was also my contributory retirement, my Social Security, 401(k), was so much less than it should have been.”

Lilly Ledbetter decided not to retire and instead fought long and hard for equal pay for equal work. In 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Fortunately, New Mexico has our own Lilly Ledbetter, and her name is Melinda Wolinsky.

Melinda Wolinsky was one of five attorneys who worked for the New Mexico Corrections Department. Like Lilly Ledbetter, she was content at her job and had more experience than any of the other lawyers in the Office of General Counsel at Corrections until just like Lilly Ledbetter, someone slipped an anonymous letter in her mailbox naming all the attorneys in the office identified by names, dates of birth and salaries. Not surprisingly, the only male attorney in the office was paid $8,000 more than Melinda Wolinsky. She filed a complaint against her employer in 2016, one of two women to sue corrections over fair pay.

In 2013, the New Mexico Legislature had enacted the Fair Pay for Women Act to ensure women would be compensated at a rate no less than the rate paid to men for equal work on jobs that require equal skill, effort and responsibility under similar working conditions. Gov. Susana Martinez signed it into law.

The Corrections Department argued the Legislature did not intend to subject the state of New Mexico (one of the state’s largest employers) to the statute’s requirement and that the “general grant of immunity” in the New Mexico Tort Claims Act applied, granting sovereign immunity to the state from any claims under the fair pay act. This argument meant every woman employed in New Mexico was entitled to equal pay for equal work — except all women working for the state of New Mexico.

But the New Mexico Court of Appeals did not quite see it that way. Instead, the Court of Appeals held that the state’s Fair Pay for Women Act’s definition of “employees” did in fact extend to the state of New Mexico and all its agencies. The court held that New Mexico state employers no longer could depend on sovereign immunity to avoid liability under the act. Instead, state entities could incur significant liability and should consider taking steps to correct questionable disparities among genders for those engaged in “equal positions.”

Melinda Wolinsky went on to work as a lawyer for the New Mexico Department of Health, where she is happily working for equal pay for equal work. If you run into her, you might want to say, “Thanks Melinda! Thanks for being the Lilly Ledbetter” of New Mexico.