President Joe Biden on Sunday signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law, clearing the way for nearly 3 million public workers including teachers, firefighters and police to see an increase to their Social Security benefits.

A previous law from the 1980s has prevented many workers with public service jobs from being able to receive Social Security benefits, despite paying into the system.

For the past half-century, union officials representing these groups have been pressuring Congress to eliminate WEP because they wrongly think the law cheats their members out of Social Security benefits they are due. In each of those years, a bill to eliminate WEP has failed to get approved.