Assemblymember Brindisi Works to End Wage Discrimination

April 18, 2012

Assemblymember Anthony J. Brindisi (D-Utica) supported a package of bills in the Assembly aimed at ending wage discrimination in New York State.

"Equal pay for equal work, it’s just that simple," said Brindisi. "All workers, regardless of sex, race or national origin should be paid the same rate for doing the same work."

The Assembly legislation would establish a state policy of setting salaries based on comparable work and make it easier to enforce equal pay regulations. The legislation would:

• enact the New York State Fair Pay Act to address and enforce pay equity, including broadening equivalent job definitions, determining equivalent skills, making it unlawful for an employer to discriminate between employees on the basis of gender, race or national origin and ensuring that traditional and minority jobs are not undervalued (A.6130-A);
• establish a state policy of equal pay for similar work regardless of sex, race or national origin (A.6448-A);
• implement a state policy that compensates employees in state service equally for work of comparable value by eliminating wage inequality in job titles segregated by sex, race or national origin and requiring civil services to establish methods to review and fix those titles (A.1780-A); and
• design and publish a report evaluating wage disparities of public employees related to job titles, segregated by the gender, race and/or national origin of employees in the same position (A.9623).

"Experience, effort and skill should dictate what wage an employee earns," Brindisi said. "Anything else is unacceptable, especially when many families are struggling to make ends meet."

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