The New York State Assembly Passes the Women's Equality Act

  All ten reforms points of the Women's Equality Act that Governor Cuomo had requested have been retained, and passed by the New York State Assembly.

 

The ten reforms are: 

1. Protect a women's right to make decisions about her own body: Codifies existing federal law to protect a woman’s right to obtain an abortion prior to 24 weeks, or when necessary to protect her life or health
2. Achieving pay equity: Eliminates the ability of employers to justify pay disparities based on gender and instead requires that their pay decisions be based on legitimate reasons
3. Stopping sexual harassment in the workplace: Protects all employees by banning sexual harassment in every workplace, regardless of the number of employees
4. Strengthening human trafficking laws: This legislation creates the “Trafficking Victims Protection and Justice Act,” which will strengthen New York’s existing human trafficking laws
5. Empowering domestic violence victims: Creates a pilot program to allow domestic violence victims to seek temporary orders of protection through electronic means rather than having to appear in person
6. Ending housing discrimination for victims of domestic violence: Prohibits landlords from discriminating against victims of domestic violence
7. Ending family status discrimination: Prohibits employers from denying work or promotions to employees simply because they have children
8. Ending pregnancy discrimination: Creates a specific protection that requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant employees  
9. Removing legal barriers to fighting discrimination: Allows successful plaintiffs to recover attorney’s fees in employment or credit discrimination cases based on gender 
10. Ending source-of-income discrimination: Creates a task force to study the impact of source of income on access to housing  

     

    Several Assembly members have said "As a legislative body, we believe that the actualization of these initiatives denoted within this bill will provide women with more equal footing in our great state. We could not be more in favor of such a grand agenda. It's now up to our colleagues in the New York State Senate.

    Our governor is waiting to sign, the Assembly has done its part. It's now up to the Senate...

   The State Senate has said that it can not pass item #1 about the right to an abortion at any time, and several senators including Senator Jeff Klein and the IDC are taking heat for it. The senate has said that they will pass items # 2 through 10, but not item # 1.

   It will have to be seen who wins this showdown in Albany.