Morristown New Jersey Employment Law Blog

A new wage equity law bans New Jersey employers from asking job applicants about their salary histories. Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver signed the bill into law, saying that she’s “proud to sign this bill today for our women, children and families, which will institute this policy as state law, and put an end to this discriminatory workplace practice once and for all.”

Proponents of New Jersey’s wage inequity law believe it will help to narrow a gender wage gap that they say results in female employees (full-time and year-round) being paid 82 cents on the dollar that similarly employed men receive in the state.

Many of our Morristown neighbors enjoy National Public Radio programming beamed out of Newark’s NPR station. The network recently aired an installment of its special series called Planet Money in which participants talked about a feature of white-collar employment contracts that is increasingly present in blue-collar job contracts: non-compete clauses.

As New Jersey employers know, these traditionally white-collar professionals contract clauses can help to protect valuable intellectual property and talent. As the labor market has improved in recent years, it is becoming more difficult for employers in some industries to fill open positions with qualified workers. Some employers today are hanging on to valuable blue-collar employees by requiring them to sign contracts containing the clauses as a condition of employment.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), its plans to revisit the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) regulations have two goals in mind. The first is to "better protect and suit the needs of workers," the DOL says. The second goal is to "reduce administrative and compliance burdens on employers."

The federal agency will issue a Request for Information (RFI) seeking comments from the business community and from workers in its effort to improve FMLA rules. The request is expected by April of next year or sooner, according to a business publication.

Regular readers of our Morristown employment law blog will no doubt recall that in our previous post, we took a look at the recently enacted omnibus law that is bringing significant changes to New Jersey employment law.

Effective July 1, the law makes changes to the Family Leave Act, SAFE Act, Temporary Disability Benefits Act and more.