TRENTON – Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg issued the following statement on the governor’s conditional veto of pay equity legislation (S-992) that she sponsored to help close the wage gap between men and women in New Jersey:
“The governor’s veto of this legislation is wrong. Women still earn just 80 cents to a man’s dollar in New Jersey, a wage gap that is far worse for women of color. If wage growth continues at its current pace, it will take decades to achieve pay equity in New Jersey. That’s unacceptable.
“This legislation would have required employers to justify why a woman is not paid the same as a man for the same work, eliminating loopholes that allow inequities to persist if employees have different job titles. It would have provided worker protections against retaliation by employers for discussing their pay. In addition, it would have reset the statute of limitations every time a claim is filed in furtherance of discrimination, and allowed a victim to recoup lost wages from each discriminatory paycheck. It would also have provided wage transparency in state contracting.
“These are strong, and more important fair, provisions that would have helped to close the wage gap in our state, and to finally move toward ending pay discrimination in the workplace. We are not going to give up on this effort. We are going to continue to work to strengthen our laws. I will also be reaching out to the governor’s chief counsel to request a meeting to talk about this legislation.”