Compliance with Section 503 and VEVRAA: Still Required
Recent changes in federal regulations regarding affirmative action have left many employers wondering what is going on with their other federal...
4 min read
Debra Milstein Gardner
:
May 2, 2023 1:40:59 PM
NJ Temporary Workers’ Bill establishes guidelines for temporary help service firms and third-party clients to ensure workers receive equal pay.
The “Temporary Workers’ Bill of Rights” [A1474/S511] was signed into law on February 6, 2023, making New Jersey the first state in the nation to provide temporary employees pay equal to permanent employees. Attempting to advance pay equity, the bill will “allow for temporary workers to be paid at least the same average rate of pay and equivalent benefits as the third-party client’s permanent employees performing the same or similar work on a job that requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility.”
If there is no work available at the third-party client’s worksite where the temporary worker is assigned, they must be paid for a minimum of four hours of pay at the agreed rate. If the temporary worker can work at another location during the same shift, they must still be paid for a minimum of two hours of pay at the agreed upon rate.
The bill does not cover all temporary positions but those that the legislature has considered to be “at greatest risk of exploitation.” That includes temporary workers performing work in the following occupational categories designated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS):
The bill provides for oversight of temporary help service firms and third-party clients by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) and the Division of Consumer Affairs (DCA) with the Department of Law and Public Safety. The DCA will oversee the certification requirements for temporary help service firms. Third-party clients will be prohibited from contracting with uncertified firms.
According to the NAACP NJ Conference President, Richard Smith, “Black temp workers in particular face serious discrimination and rarely see the types of wage raises and access to benefits that their direct-hire counterparts enjoy.”
New Jersey leads the country by passing this law to protect temporary workers who have long been excluded from equal pay legislation and access to benefits. The bill is exhaustive with many requirements imposed on both the temporary services firm and the third-party contractor. Third-party contractors should review and possibly renew their agreements with temporary service firms to ensure compliance with this new law prior to the May 7, 2023 implementation and review the law further to identify the provisions to be implemented before August 5, 2023.
Even though the purpose of the law is to create equal pay for those temporary workers in lower paying positions, this task is a difficult one without knowing the wage rate or range of the comparable regular worker, which does not appear to be required of the third-party vendor to pass to the temporary agency. Therefore, as written, it appears to be more of a pay transparency, rather than a pay equity law.
For additional support, feel free to reach out to us at info@outsolve.com or by calling 888.414.2410.
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