The state Assembly has passed legislation aimed at ending wage discrimination statewide.

The legislation is accompanied by a resolution proclaiming April 17, 2012, as Equal Pay Day in New York State (K.1141).

Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell (D-Theresa) supported the legislation and is pleased by its approval in the Assembly.

“Today, we took another step in the right direction toward ending wage discrimination against women,” Russell said. “North Country women are fundamental in today’s workforce and the fact that they do not receive equal pay for an equal job is simply unacceptable.”

The legislation would make it easier to enforce equal pay regulations, while establishing a state policy of setting salaries based on comparable work. The legislation would:

• enact the New York State Fair Pay Act to address and enforce pay equity, including broadening equivalent job definitions, determining equivalent skills, making it unlawful for an employer to discriminate between employees on the basis of gender, race or national origin and ensuring that traditional and minority jobs are not undervalued (A.6130-A);

• establish a state policy of equal pay for similar work regardless of sex, race or national origin (A.6448-A);

• implement a state policy that compensates employees in state service equally for work of comparable value by eliminating wage inequality in job titles segregated by sex, race or national origin and requiring civil services to establish methods to review and fix those titles (A.1780-A); and

• design and publish a report evaluating wage disparities of public employees related to job titles, segregated by the gender, race and/or national origin of employees in the same position (A.9623).

“Closing the wage gap is absolutely the right thing to do. Wages should be based on skill, effort and experience – not gender,” Russell said.

Russell noted that, across the country, women make 77 cents for every dollar paid to men. While women in New York fare slightly better on average, making 83 cents for every dollar men earn, this still amounts to an annual gap of nearly $8,700 between men and women working full time in New York, with women of color being subject to even greater disparities.*

New York women lose out on $24 billion each year as a result of the wage gap, Russell said. If a working woman in New York was making as much as her male counterpart, she could afford roughly 15 more months of food, four additional months of mortgage payments and utility bills, nearly two and a half years worth of health insurance premiums for her family, or over 2,200 gallons of gas.**

With nearly 40 percent of American homes relying on the woman as the family breadwinner, families are missing out on resources that could be used to pay bills, put food on the table and help pay the cost of a child’s education.***

“For more than 10 years, the Assembly has passed legislation to address pay equity throughout New York,” Assemblywoman Russell added.

*www.pay-equity.org

**www.nationalpartnership.org/site/DocServer/wf.epd.factsheet.NY.pdf

***www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1983185,00.html