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New Jersey's new Equal Pay Law  goes into effect on July 1, 2018. It establishes protections for all protected classes listed under the New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination regarding the area of pay discrimination. Under the new law all protected classes are to be paid at a rate comparable to payrates for substantially similar work. Penalties include treble damages and six years of back pay liability. Additionally, all state contractors will be required to report to the state detailed information regarding protected classes and compensation. The law leaves much of the details regarding how pay discrimination is determined and quantified to the Courts and the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

New Jersey's new statewide Earned Sick Leave Law goes into effect six months from now. Meantime, the existing NJ municipal ordinances on earned sick leave are still operational. The actual bill contains a significant amount of detail for New Jersey's employers, so reviewing it would be very insightful (unlike the Equal Pay Law). The new law essentially requires all NJ employers to allow their NJ employees to accrue at least 1 hour of earned sick leave for every 30 hours worked, and the employee can use a maximum of 40 hours of earned sick leave in accordance with the employer's policy in a consecutive 12- month period (the benefit year). The maximum carryover from one benefit year to the next is 40 hours. Employees can start to use their accrued sick leave after they have been employed more than 119 consecutive calendar days with the employer. If an employee leaves an employer, accrued sick leave does not have to be paid to the employee. If the individual returns to work for the employer within six months of the individual's departure, previous unused earned sick leave accrual amounts are reinstated. Once the state's law goes into effect all of the current NJ municipal ordinances on earned sick leave will be voided.

NJSA's Legislative Committee is particularly concerned regarding how the staffing industry needs to educate and guide clients on these new laws and their application to temporary staff on assignment. For instance, bill rates (and pay rates if they are set by the client) for substantially similar positions cannot discriminate based on protected classes (i.e., different rates for men versus women) as described by this new equal pay law. Regarding the earned sick leave, educating clients on the temporary employee's rights to take earned sick leave under your firm's policy is going to have to be understood by the client, and the client cannot take retaliatory actions against a temporary employee for legitimate use of earned sick leave.

As additional information is made available on both of these new laws, NJSA's Legislative Committee will forward it to NJSA's members.   Members are also encouraged to contact their professional advisors and ask for their guidance in these matters.

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