On April 24, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed the Diane B.
Allen Equal Pay Act into law. Most commentators consider it the
strongest equal pay law in the nation.
The law amends New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination to
make it illegal to pay employees of protected classes rates of
compensation, including benefits, less than the rate paid to
employees not of the protected class for "substantially
similar work when viewed as a composite of skill, effort and
responsibility." The protected classes are broad and include
characteristics such as age, disability, gender, race, sex, and
sexual orientation.
The phrase "substantially similar work" in New
Jersey's law is a departure from most laws aimed at the gender
wage gap, which tend to require "equal pay for equal
work." While it remains to be seen how the courts will apply
this phrase, employers should assume that it would cover workers
with different titles in different departments who have similar
levels of
