Senate Bill S6342

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

                                  6342

                            I N  S E N A T E

                               (PREFILED)

                             January 6, 2016
                               ___________

Introduced  by  Sen. HOYLMAN -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
  printed to be committed to the Committee on Investigations and Govern-
  ment 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.
  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.

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

                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                           LBD06362-01-5

S. 6342                             2

  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.