S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________

                                  6680

                       2013-2014 Regular Sessions

                          I N  A S S E M B L Y

                             April 12, 2013
                               ___________

Introduced by M. of A. CRESPO -- read once and referred to the Committee
  on Governmental 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.
                                                           LBD10201-02-3

A. 6680                             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.
  S 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.
  S  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.
  S 4. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day  after  it  shall
have become a law.