Sen. Doug Jones, D-AL, introduced his Paycheck Fairness Act, which is aimed at strengthening and closing loopholes in the Equal Pay Act of 1963, exactly 10 years after former President Barack Obama’s Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

Jones collaborated with Democratic colleague Sen. Patty Murray, D-WA, to reintroduce the legislation, one of the first Jones co-sponsored after being sworn into the Senate last year, in order to “guarantee that women can challenge pay discrimination and hold employers accountable,” according to a press release.

“Despite the strides we’ve taken since the Equal Pay Act of 1963, millions of women, and particularly women of color, still face wage discrimination,” Jones said. “It is long past time to level the playing field for America’s workforce and to fulfill the vision Congress laid out over fifty years ago. We took an important step forward a decade ago thanks to the courage and persistence of Lilly Ledbetter, but as long as women still face a wage gap with their peers, we must continue to fight for equal pay.”

Lilly Ledbetter had worked as a supervisor with Goodyear for 19 years when she received an anonymous letter informing her that she was being paid significantly less than her male counterparts.

Ledbetter filed a sex discrimination suit against the company that was overturned due to technicalities by the Eleventh Circuit Court and, eventually, the Supreme Court – both courts ruled that because Ledbetter had not filed the suit within the 180-day timeframe required by law.

In response, Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which restarted the 180-day clock each time a discriminatory check was paid and, therefore, gave women more power to hold discriminating employers accountable.

The act was the first official piece of legislation during Obama’s presidency.

According to a study by the Pew Research Center, women earned just 82 percent of what their male counterparts in 2017.

By that measure, it would take women an extra 47 days of work to earn the same amount of men.

The Jones-Murray legislation would “end the practice of pay secrecy, easing workers’ ability to individually or jointly challenge pay discrimination” and would strengthen “remedies for wronged employees.”