Jaffee Battles to Close Wage Gender Gap

In New York State, women lose billions of dollars each year as a result of the wage gender gap.

It's a number assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee (D-Suffern) is looking to slash.

Jaffee introduced and led to passage in the assembly legislation yesterday that aims to end state-wide wage discrimination through easy to enforce pay regulations and a policy that sets salaries based on comparable work.

"Our state has historically set the standard for equality in this nation, and in the year 2012, it is simply unacceptable that many New Yorkers are not earning equal pay for equal work," said Jaffee. "To combat this problem, I and my Assembly colleagues passed a package of bills to address this issue and put an end to unfair pay gaps."

If adopted into law, Jaffee's legislation would not only combat the wage gender gap, but also "design and publish a report evaluating wage disparities of public employees related to job titles," she said.

"Implementing pay equity would ensure that all workers, regardless of sex, race or national origin, are paid at the same rate for the same work," Jaffee added. "Jobs should be evaluated to determine what is comparable and a fixed pay rate must be set based on the skill, effort, responsibility and education required to perform the job."