WASHINGTON - A former tire plant worker's complaint that she was paid thousands of dollars less than men in the same job made it to the Supreme Court Monday in a case that could affect pay discrimination claims nationwide.

The justices engaged in a lively but inconclusive debate over how to apply a 180-day deadline for complaining about discriminatory pay decisions under Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Lilly Ledbetter sued Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., claiming that after 19 years at the company's Gadsden, Ala., plant, she was making $6,000 a year less than the lowest-paid man in the same job.

Ledbetter claimed the disparity existed for years and was primarily a result of her gender. A jury agreed, but an appeals court overturned the verdict.

Enforce the statute of limitations strictly and an employee is “condemned to perpetually unequal pay for equal work unless she recognizes and complains about the discrimination within a few short months after it first begins,” Kevin Russell, Ledbetter's lawyer, argued to the court.

Each smaller paycheck should be treated as a new act of discrimination, Russell said.

Allow employees to reach back years to claim discrimination and the deadlines mean nothing, lawyers for Goodyear and the Bush administration said.