Nov 14, 2012 General Employment Issues

UPDATED: New Notice Obligations for New Jersey Employers

Updated December 18, 2013

The New Jersey Department of Labor (NJ DOL) has now published the gender equity notice described in our article of November 14, 2012.  Beginning on January 6, 2014, New Jersey employers with 50 or more employees must conspicuously post the gender equity notice in each of their workplaces, distribute written copies yearly and on first request to employees and new hires and collect signed acknowledgments that employees have read and understood the notice.


November 14, 2012

Governor Chris Christie recently signed A2647, a law imposing new notice obligations on New Jersey employers with 50 or more employees.  Under this new law, covered employers must post and distribute to employees a notice regarding their right to be free of gender inequity or bias in pay, compensation, benefits or other terms or conditions of employment under New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which prohibit wage or compensation discrimination based on gender.

A.        Requirements of the New Law:

The New Jersey Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development (“Commissioner”) will issue by regulation a form notice that covered employers must post and distribute under this new law.  Covered employers must then:

  1. conspicuously post the new notice, in a place or places accessible to all workers in each of the employer’s workplaces; and
  1. provide each worker of the employer with a written copy of the notice and obtain a signed acknowledgment that the worker has received the notice and has read and understands its terms. 

The written notice must be provided:

a.      no later than 30 days after the Commissioner issues the form notice;

b.      at the time of a worker’s hiring (if the worker is hired after the issuance of the form notice);

c.       annually, on or before December 31st of each year; and

d.      at any time, upon the first request of the worker. 

Written notice may be accomplished: (1) by e-mail; (2) via printed material, including, but not limited to, a pay check insert, brochure or similar informational packet provided to new hires, an attachment to an employee manual or policy book, or flyer distributed at an employee meeting; or (3) through an Internet or Intranet website, if the site is for the exclusive use of all workers, can be accessed by all workers, and the employer provides notice to the workers of its posting.  The worker’s acknowledgment must be: (1) signed in writing or by means of electronic verification; and (2) returned to the employer within 30 days of its receipt.

Employers must post and distribute the notice in English, Spanish, and any other language that “the employer reasonably believes is the first language of a significant number of the employer’s workforce,” provided the Commissioner has released a form notice in that language. 

B.        Timeline for Compliance:

While this new law is scheduled to take effect on November 19, 2012, the law’s posting and distribution requirements (described above) are not triggered until the Commissioner issues the form notices by regulation, a process which can take several months.  When the final form notices are published, we will issue an update to this client alert with a link to the Commissioner’s form notices.  In the interim, please do not hesitate to contact any of our attorneys if you have any questions regarding this new law.