During a Statehouse press conference, New Jersey State AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Laurel Brennan called on legislators to override the governor’s veto of pay equity legislation (S-992) and resolve to end pay discrimination once and for all.
Recognizing Senate President Sweeney, Majority Leader Weinberg, Assemblywoman Lampitt and the bill’s prime sponsors, she described the measure as commonsense and long-overdue.
It’s hard to believe that in 2016, we are still fighting this battle. Pay equity is not a party issue nor is it a women’s issue. Equal pay for equal work strengthens families and ensures that our state affords equal opportunity to all.
The path forward is clear: we are counting on all legislators – Republican and Democrat – to stand with all New Jersey working families and override the governor’s veto. New Jersey should be playing a leadership role on this issue but instead, the governor has kept our state on the sidelines and behind the times.
Alice Paul once said that America is not a democracy when twenty million women are denied the right to vote. What does it say about the workplace when millions of women are denied the right to equal pay for equal work?
Organized labor has been and will remain a tenacious advocate for pay equity, and fight to ensure that no one is left behind.