Women in New Jersey still make, on average, 80 cents for every dollar a man makes doing comparable work. But the Democrat-controlled legislature has a plan to address this.
As recently as May, Gov. Chris Christie was vetoing every equal-pay bill that passed across his desk.
But the majority of Garden State voters are women, and Christie is among the least popular governors in the nation.
Those two facts, say state Democratic leaders, may encourage some Republicans to break ranks and help them override Christie’s veto of the Equal Pay Bill.
Sussex County’s legislative delegation—Sen. Steve Oroho and Assembly members Gail Phoebus and Parker Space—all voted against the bill, which would protect women against pay disparities and other forms of employment discrimination. The bill passed overwhelmingly nevertheless, but was vetoed by Christie, who called it “nonsensical.”
A vote to override Christie’s veto is scheduled for Monday, and to be successful, two Republican senators and three Republican Assembly members would have to join all of the legislature’s Democrats in voting yes.
Given that all 120 legislative seats are up for election in 2017, women make up the bulk of New Jersey’s registered voters, and Christie is pretty much toast in the eyes of four-fifths of the electorate, Democrats are hoping that Republicans will see the writing on the wall and vote to finally, in 2016, establish parity for women workers in New Jersey.