Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. (I, D, WF, WE – Sag Harbor) announced that he passed legislation to help ensure women earn equal pay for equal work. The package of bills coincides with Equal Pay Day – April 4 – which represents just how far into the year women must work to earn the same amount their male counterparts made during the previous year.

“The wage gap hurts women and it hurts their families,” Assemblyman Thiele said. “But the biggest injustice is that we’re continuing to allow women to be treated like second-class citizens. It’s disgraceful. It goes against everything we value here in New York State – equality, opportunity and a fair chance to succeed.”

Women across the country only earn 80 cents for every dollar a man does. The pay gap costs women hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of their lifetimes, and this issue is compounded as more women remain single or raise a family on their own. A recent survey also revealed that out of 550 occupations, women only earned more than their male counterparts in a mere seven of them.¹

While there are laws against wage discrimination, they do not go nearly far enough. New York may be closest to closing the pay gap in the United States, but women here still only make 89 cents for every dollar a man makes.² To ensure women have greater protections under the law, the Assembly’s legislation includes the New York State Fair Pay Act to address and enforce pay equity, including broadening equal pay protections to include equivalent jobs and ensuring that traditional female and minority jobs are not undervalued A.4696.

Further, the Assembly passed legislation that would implement a state policy of wage equality for state and municipal employees, as well as direct the Civil Service Commission to study and publish a report evaluating wage disparities among public employees in order to establish where and how inequities exist. This will help ensure that, moving forward, employees with equal jobs receive the same compensation regardless of gender, race and national origin (A.658, A.2549).

The legislative package also includes a measure to ensure the state complies with the federal Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and gives public employees a private right of action to sue for compensation and enforce equal pay disparities A.2425.

“While it seems that we should be past this in 2017, we’re not,” Assemblyman Thiele said. “We still have a long way to go. I’m never going to stop fighting for pay equity.”

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¹ www.timesunion.com/jobs/article/Jobs-where-women-are-worth-nearly-half-of-their-11033771.php

² aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap