LALOR TELLS THE TRUTH (AGAIN): Pay Bill Boosts Trial Lawyers, Not Equality

“New York already legally requires equal pay for equal work. Paying women less than men for the same job is illegal right now. No one is opposing equal pay. But this isn’t about pay equality, it’s about delivering a payday to trial lawyers. Arbitrary government-imposed pay scales will open the door to a flood of law suits. The Assembly is giving the trial lawyer industry another weapon to extort money from taxpayers and the business world.

“This is a classic case of politicians demagoguing with misleading bill titles. Pay discrimination is wrong and it’s already illegal in New York. These bills don’t require equal pay for equal work, as their titles suggest. They do something completely different; setting up an arbitrary pay-scale system, imposed by government bureaucrats. The ‘wage gap’ Governor Cuomo and Speaker Silver point to, is not a wage gap when men and women have the same jobs. Their ‘wage gap’ is between completely different jobs. That’s not what New Yorkers expect when they hear ‘wage gap.’ It’s disturbing that the governor could be so dishonest with New Yorkers.

“These bills have been opposed by a diverse coalition of groups ranging from the Business Council and the National Federation of Independent Businesses to the New York Conference of Mayors and the New York State School Boards Association. But, they are not opposing equal pay. No one voted against equal pay. We oppose dishonest bills that would be a bonanza to trial lawyers and do nothing for equal pay.

“Governor Cuomo needs to stop grandstanding for 2016. New Yorkers are struggling in this economy. We need to make New York more business friendly. We need to bring jobs to the state. Today’s bills don’t do that. Today’s bills don’t help women or workers. The only winner is the trial lawyer lobby.”

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