S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                    24
 
                        2017-2018 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                                (PREFILED)
 
                              January 4, 2017
                                ___________
 
 Introduced by Sens. HOYLMAN, COMRIE, HAMILTON, KAMINSKY, PERKINS, RIVERA
   -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to
   the Committee on Investigations and Government Operations
 
 AN  ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to prohibiting employers
   from seeking salary history from prospective employees
 
   THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section  1. Legislative intent.  The legislature hereby finds that New
 York should lead the nation in preventing wage discrimination.
   The wage gap between men and women is  one  of  the  oldest  and  most
 persistent effects of inequality between the sexes in the United States.
   The  1963  Equal  Pay  Act and the 1964 Civil Rights Act in the United
 States established the legal right to equal pay for equal work and equal
 opportunity. Yet half a century later, women are still subjected to wage
 gaps and paid less then men.
   The concept of comparable worth attacks the  problem  of  gender-based
 wage  discrimination  by  mandating  that  jobs characterized by similar
 levels of education, skill, effort, responsibilities, and working condi-
 tions be compensated at similar wage levels regardless of the gender  of
 the worker holding the job.
   The goal of pay equity is to raise the wages for undervalued jobs held
 predominantly  by  women.    Today,  women  make only 77 cents per every
 dollar earned by a man for a comparable job, a gender  wage  gap  of  23
 percent.
   This  translates into thousands of dollars of lost wages each year for
 each female worker, money that helps them feed their families, save  for
 a college education and afford decent and safe housing.
   Pay disparities affect women of all ages, races, and education levels,
 but  are  more  pronounced  for  women  of color. Minority women make as
 little as 54 cents per dollar for a comparable job held by a man.

  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
              

                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD05679-01-7

 S. 24                               2
 
   Female-dominated jobs pay twenty to thirty percent less than  male-do-
 minated jobs classified as comparable in worth and more than one half of
 all women work in jobs that are over seventy percent female.
   Women are more likely to enter poverty in old age for several reasons:
 A  lifetime  of  lower  wages  means  women have less income to save for
 retirement, and less income that counts  in  their  Social  Security  or
 pension benefit formula.
   The  current  life expectancy for women means they will, on an average
 of three years, outlive men. Yet they will have to stretch their retire-
 ment savings, which are less to begin with,  over  a  longer  period  of
 time.
   The  existence  of  pay inequity is a manifestation of deep-seated sex
 discrimination that prevents both equality of pay for women and equality
 of opportunity for both sexes.
   More women in the United States  are  obtaining  college  degrees  and
 increasing  their  participation  in the labor force and family-friendly
 legislation, including the Equal Pay Act, Family and Medical Leave  Act,
 and  Pregnancy  Discrimination  Act,  and policies such as flex time and
 telecommuting, have increased options to create a win-win situation  for
 women and their employers.
   Despite  the  progress,  women  continue to suffer the consequences of
 inequitable pay differentials: in  2010,  the  average  college-educated
 woman  working full-time earned $47,000 a year compared to $64,000 for a
 college-educated man.
   During 2012, median weekly earnings for female full-time workers  were
 $691,  compared  with  $854  per  week  for men, a gender wage gap of 19
 percent.
   Fair pay strengthens the security of families and eases future retire-
 ment costs while also strengthening the American economy.  In  order  to
 achieve fair pay, policymakers must enact laws that prevent gender based
 wage discrimination from when women enter the labor force.
   In  order  to  do  so,  it is necessary to prevent employers to base a
 woman's pay based on her  previous  pay  history.  Because  the  pay  is
 already  based  on  gender  discrimination,  allowing  pay history to be
 requested by employers is equivalent to maintaining a standard of  lower
 pay  for  women performing similar jobs as men.  This practice of asking
 for pay history must be outlawed.
   § 2. Section 296 of the executive law  is  amended  by  adding  a  new
 subdivision 19-a to read as follows:
   19-A. IT SHALL BE AN UNLAWFUL DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICE OF ANY EMPLOYER,
 LABOR  ORGANIZATION, EMPLOYMENT AGENCY OR LICENSING AGENCY, OR EMPLOYEES
 OR AGENTS THEREOF, TO SEEK A SALARY HISTORY FROM A PROSPECTIVE  EMPLOYEE
 FOR AN INTERVIEW OR AS A CONDITION FOR EMPLOYMENT.
   §  3.  The department of labor, in conjunction with the New York state
 division of human rights, shall establish a public  awareness  campaign,
 available on their respective websites, informing employers in the state
 that  it  is illegal to seek salary information from prospective employ-
 ees.
   § 4. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day  after  it  shall
 have become a law.