Gibbons Law Alert
Yesterday, Governor Murphy signed the Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act. The new law will go into effect July 1, 2018. For a description of the law and how it will affect New Jersey employers, please see our previous blog post. If you have any questions regarding how to comply with New Jersey’s new pay equity law, please feel free to contact any of the attorneys in the Gibbons Employment & Labor Law Department.
In a precedential en banc opinion, Rizo v. Yovino, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit determined that an employee’s prior salary cannot justify a wage differential between male and female employees under the Equal Pay Act. Significantly, this decision overrules established prior Ninth Circuit precedent that an employee’s prior salary constitutes a “factor other than sex” under the Act upon which a wage differential may be based. Background The Plaintiff, Aileen Rizo, was hired by the Fresno County Office of Education in 2009 as a math consultant. At the time of her hire, her starting salary was determined in accordance with Fresno’s standard operating policy which provided that the salary for all new hires would be set by adding five percent to their previous salary. In or about 2012, Rizo learned that male colleagues who were hired after her were earning more than she. In 2014, Rizo filed a lawsuit against Jim Yovino in his official capacity as the Superintendent of the Fresno County Office of Education alleging violations of the Equal Pay Act, Title VII, and California law. At the District Court, Fresno admitted that it paid Rizo less than her male colleagues for the same work, but argued that the pay differential was permissible based on the Equal Pay Act’s...
Yesterday, the New Jersey Senate and Assembly passed comprehensive pay equity legislation. The legislation passed both houses with significant bi-partisan support and it is expected that Governor Murphy will soon sign the legislation into law. Once in effect, the legislation, which amends the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“the LAD”), will be the most wide-ranging pay equity law in the United States. Significantly, unlike most pay equity laws passed in recent years by other states which target unlawful pay discrimination of women, the New Jersey law will prohibit pay discrimination of employees in any protected class. Specifically, the legislation makes it an unlawful employment practice to discriminate against a member of any protected class by compensating the employee at a lesser rate of pay, benefits, or other forms of compensation than an employee who is not a member of the protected class for “substantially similar work.” The “substantially similar” standard, which diverges from the “equal work” standard of the federal Equal Pay Act, mirrors the California Fair Pay Act. Moreover, the legislation provides that comparisons of wage rates shall be based on wage rates in all of an employer’s operations or facilities regardless of where located. An employer will be permitted to pay a different rate to an employee if it can show that the...
Governor Phil Murphy has signed an executive order which bars state workers from asking job applicants seeking positions with the state about their previous salaries in his first official act after his swearing-in on January 16, 2018. State entities may now only inquire as to an applicant’s past salary history after the entity has made a conditional offer of employment, which includes an explanation of the compensation package being offered to the applicant. The goal of the executive order is to eliminate wage inequalities that result from female employees who accept lower starting salaries and then remain on a lower compensation track, with pay disparities compounding over time. Significantly, at the signing ceremony, the Governor stated that he would sign a bill that extended these same provisions to private sector employers which the legislative sponsors vowed to move quickly to his desk. In fact, legislation has already been introduced that prohibits an employer from inquiring about the salary history of an applicant. Assembly Bill 1094 was introduced on January 9, 2018 by Assemblywoman Joanne Downey (D-11) and referred to the Assembly Labor Committee. Senate Bill 559 was introduced by Senator Nia Gill (D-34) on January 9, 2018 and referred to the Senate Labor Committee. The legislation, described by legislative sponsors as an effort to promote...
Equal pay for equal work is by no means a new concept. Achieving pay equity, defined as eliminating sex (and other) discrimination in the wage-setting system, has been debated for decades. Recently, however, pay equity has become a significant public issue, prompting many state and local governments to enact legislation aimed at eliminating pay disparities, with a strong focus on closing the gender wage gap. To date, attempts to pass pay equity legislation in New Jersey have been unsuccessful. However, with the recent election of Phil Murphy as governor, pay equity legislation in New Jersey appears almost certain. In this recent article published by the New Jersey Law Journal, Suzanne Herrmann Brock, Elizabeth Cowit, and Brittany E. Grierson provide insight into the most recent developments in state and local pay equity laws and discuss legislation on the horizon for New Jersey.
The sponsors of pay equity legislation passed by the New Jersey Senate and Assembly earlier this year have announced that the State Senate will attempt to override Governor Christie’s veto of the bill on December 19, 2016. Senate Bill 992/Assembly Bill 2750 would amend the Law Against Discrimination (“LAD”) to promote gender pay equality. The New Jersey bill follows a trend of recently enacted state laws, in California, New York, Maryland, and Massachusetts, that aim to make it easier for plaintiffs to bring pay equity claims and subject employers to potentially greater damages.
Earlier this month, Massachusetts became the latest state to pass expansive pay equity legislation to combat the gender wage gap, surpassing even the rigorous new requirements passed by New York and California in late 2015. Notably, Massachusetts is the first state to ban employers from requesting salary history as part of the interview or employment application process. The legislation, which passed unanimously and was signed into law by Governor Charlie Baker, will go into effect on January 1, 2018. To prepare for its implementation, employers with employees in Massachusetts should begin to adjust their hiring process and compensation policies, and consider conducting a self-evaluation of their pay practices to take advantage of Massachusetts’ law’s affirmative defense.