Assemblyman Zebrowski (D-New City) announced today that the Assembly passed legislation he sponsored to end gender-based wage discrimination in New York State.

“Here we are in 2011 and women in New York State are still earning roughly around 83 percent of what a man makes and for women of color this drops to about 52 percentⁱ , this is completely appalling and this must end now,” Zebrowski said. “Wages must be based on skill, responsibility, and experience – not gender or skin color, that is why the Assembly has consistently passed this legislative package year after year.”

The legislative package passed by the Assembly would make it easier to enforce equal-pay policies and create a statewide comparable-salary policy. The bills would:

• make it a discriminatory practice to compensate employees of different sexes differently for work that is of comparable worth (A.3690);
• enact the New York State Fair Pay Act to address and enforce pay equity, including broadening equivalent job definitions, specifying methods to determine equivalent skill, making it unlawful for an employer to discriminate between employees on the basis of sex, race or national origin and ensuring traditional and minority jobs are not undervalued (A.6130);
• make it a discriminatory practice for public employers to compensate employees of different sexes differently for work that is of comparable worth (A.6448); and
• establish a statewide policy of equal pay for both sexes and comparability of value of work and ensure corrective action (A.1780).

“Women work just as hard – and are just as qualified – as men,” Zebrowski said. I urge my colleagues in the Senate to follow the Assembly’s lead to pass these bills and for the governor to sign them into law so we can end this shameful practice in New York once and for all.”

ⁱ http://www.aauw.org/learn/research/statedata/upload/table_data.pdf