Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt introduced legislation Thursday to bar employers from asking job applicants about their salary history.
“Young women are often offered a lesser salary than their male counterparts, and this inequity will follow them for the rest of their career,” said Lampitt (D-Camden/Burlington). “My legislation will force companies to evaluate new hires based on their skills and experience, not what they made in a previous position.”
Lampitt’s legislation would amend New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination, to strengthen protections against employment discrimination and promote equal pay for women. Prohibiting employers from seeking the wage or salary history from a prospective employee helps young adults entering the work force as well as men and women moving into new fields.
In New Jersey, women make 80 cents to every dollar a man makes for comparable work. Lampitt also stated that a recent study by the National Women’s Law Center noted New Jersey has the second-widest pay gap for African American women in the nation.
“I’ve been working for years to close the wage gap here in New Jersey,” said Lampitt. “We can no longer sit on our hands and ignore the issue. We must demand equal pay for equal work, and work to change the system that has devalued women in the workplace.”