Establishes policy of equal pay for comparable work regardless of sex, race or national origin and requires corrective action therefor

Summary of provisions

Section One - states it is the policy of the state of New York to comply with the letter and spirit of the federal "equal Pay Act of 1963" which requires that employees of both sexes receive equal pay for equal work, the federal "Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, race and national origin in all terms of employment, section forty-c of the civil rights law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, sexual orien- tation or marital status and article fifteen of the executive law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, race, sexual orientation or national origin in all terms of employment.

Section One - will make New York state consistent with this law, it is the policy of the state to ensure a fair, non-biased wage structure for its employees in which sex, race, sexual orientation or national origin is not a consideration either directly or indirectly in determining the properly compensation for a title in state service, not in determining the proper compensation or a title in state service, nor in determining the pay for any individual or group employees. The state will declare a policy of the state to provide equal pay for similar work and for work of comparable value.

Section Two - states comparable value shall be determined by comparing job titles on the basis of standards which include the composite of such basic elements of a job as the knowledge, skills, accountability, mental or physical stress and effort, extraordinary dangers and responsibil- ities normally required to satisfactorily perform the job. The principle of fair and equal pay for work of comparable value requires that consid- eration of sex, race, sexual orientation or national origin shall not influence directly or indirectly the establishment of salaries.

Section Three - states the comparability of value of work, segregated job titles reviewed and adjusted. The legislature finds that despite the policy of the state, job titles may have undervalued and assigned wages which do not reflect the relative worth of the job. It is the intent of the legislature to remedy such undervaluation and to correct such disparities. "Segregated titles" are defined as titles or any class of titles in which the number of incumbents of a sex, race or national origin is greater than the sum of the percentage of that sex, race or

national origin in the state service, (P) plus twenty percent of that percentage (.2 (P)). This is represented by the formula (X = P + .2 (P)).

Section Three - states the President of the Civil Service Commission shall, by January first of each year, submit to the legislature and the office of employee relations, a list showing, by employee organization and for management/confidential employees, those segregated titles for which a disparity exists based on the comparability of the value of work. The president shall also submit to the legislature, the office of employee relations and the division of the budget along with the list, an estimate of the appropriation necessary to correct such disparities.

Beginning with the budget requests for the second fiscal year commencing after the effective date of this section, the governor shall include the appropriation necessary to ensure that salaries are set in accordance with subdivision one of this section. No salary shall be reduced to achieve comparable compensation under the provisions of this section.

Section Four - this act shall take effect immediately.

Justification

Only a portion of the difference between men's and women's pay can be attributed to measurable differences in women's and men's character- istics, while the remainder of the pay gap is most likely due to system- atic sex discrimination. According to the Government Accounting Office (GAO) by 2010 (when 46 percent of workers were female) women overall were averaging 77 cents for that dollar, slow but significant progress. However, that number belies some additional margins: Black women earned only 61 cents and Latino women earned only 52 cents, lower than the total average in 1963.

This legislation will implement the state policy of compensating employ- ees in state service equally for work of comparable value by eliminating wage inequality in job titles which have been segregated by sex, race or national origin.

Legislative history

Same as A.2661A, 2007

Fiscal implications

To be determined.

Effective date

This law will take effect immediately.