Enacting the New York State Fair Pay Act; will provide that it shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to discriminate between employees on the basis of sex, race and/or national origin by paying different wages” – New York State Fair Pay Bill (A2712)

The New York State Pay Equity Coalition—NYSPEC

History and Information:

Pay Equity law.  For 25 years, Women on the Job and the WOJ Task Force have fought for the rights facing working women.  One form of discrimination that persists is wage discrimination.  This occurs when job titles where women and minorities predominate are paid less than other jobs that require equal skill, effort, responsibility and education.

After a ten-year long investigative and judicial process in the Division of Human Rights, Women on the Job was told the clericals in the Sachem School District (the largest school district in New York State) could not get fair pay because there was NO LAW AGAINST UNEQUAL PAY for different job titles.  So we set out to make sure there is a law in NYS to protect women and minorities against being paid unfairly. We founded the NYS Pay Equity Coalition (NYSPEC) to expand advocacy efforts to educate the public, media and legislators about comparable worth in NYS and the NYS Fair Pay Bill.

Current Equal Pay Law applies only to jobs with the same title, so thousands of NYS employees who work in female/minority dominated occupations – clerks, secretaries, health aides, early childhood educators, and nurses among others – are underpaid.  It is a myth that women and minorities are protected from unequals pay. At both the State and the Federal level, there are just token laws with no enforcement teeth.  Home