Employment

New Jersey’s increase in the minimum wage by one dollar an hour beginning January 1, 2022 is insufficient for most workers to sustain themselves. Commencing immediately on  January 1, 2022, the minimum wage will increase in twenty-one states and thirty-five other jurisdictions. In the majority of those jurisdictions, the minimum wage will be or surpass $15 per hour to be required to be paid some or all employers. Four states and more than twenty other jurisdictions later in 2022 will institute additional minimum wage rate increases. Before December 31, 2022, eighty-one jurisdictions in the United States i.

All employment positions must be carried out under the umbrella of state and federal laws,  and for some driver employees that includes maintaining an accurate driving-time logbook. Valid whistleblower claims can relate to your objecting to what you reasonably believe is your employer committing fraud upon the public or the government, or complaining about violation of other laws such as the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. I have successfully represented employees in whistleblower claims and was successful in recovering six figure settlement money for them. In one such case,  the employer terminated the head of HR who was in charge of hiring. The employer instructed the head of HR to not hire persons of a certain race; when the employee objected to this illegal business practice and refused to do so, the employer illegally terminated her in retaliation.

“I earned a Masters’ degree and Doctorate and the men who do my job still earn more money than me,” - a present day women’s lament heard among professional women in all occupations.

It is demoralizing to women who have given their time, paid extensive money and frequently gone into debt, and made numerous other personal sacrifices to achieve a higher education, that it has not been beneficially for them financially in terms of being on salary par with men.

Higher education for women does not close the pay gap relative to men for women of all educational levels.

Women who are high school graduates with no college education only earn 76.2% of what men who are high school graduates without a college education earns according to 2020 annual averages released in

Some employers exploit their employees based on their immigration status. Many of these workers are prevented or manipulated from asserting workplace rights for fear of retaliation. If one worker complains and then is suspended or fired in retaliation, the termination sends a chilling message to all the other exploited workers to remain silent. Laws in general prohibit employers from retaliating against immigrant workers for exercising their workplace rights regardless of the workers' immigration status. NJ state laws and Federal agencies seek to protect all workers from employer violations regardless of immigration status.

Construction workers may face a bevy of hazardous job conditions from abrasive blasting to construction in confined spaces that make working unsafe. Because of the unique nature of their work, there are physical dangers related to their employment that workers in other professions do not encounter. Public and private employers of those who do construction work are required to adhere to legal regulations under Federal and State laws for workers related to the following (not all inclusive list):

Potential Combustible Dust Explosions 

Storage of Flammable Combustible Materials

Demolishing or Salvaging Structures Where Asbestos Is Present (extremely important as the damage to one’s body may not become evident until decades later)

Electrical Hazards

Cranes and Derricks in Construction and Qualified Riggers

Signal Person Qualifications as to Cranes and Derricks

Compressed Gas Cylinders

Scaffolding as to Employee Safe Access, Platforms and Guardrails

Protection from Falling Objects

Chemical Toxic Gases, Vapors, Fumes, Dusts, and Mists (damage to one’s body may not become evident until years later)

Lead Poisoning (extremely important as the damage to one’s body may not become evident as to decades later)

Crystalline Silica (employees must be protected from crystalline silica by appropriate engineering controls, personal protective equipment, respirators)

Malfunctioning Power Tools, Improper Maintenance of Power Tools

If you are construction worker who  reported to your employer, complained about, or refused to participate in what you reasonably believe to be employer violations of health or safety codes or other legal regulations, and your  employer retaliated against you by cutting your hours, demoting you or by other forms of retaliation, you may have a valid Whistleblower claim under the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act, (CEPA) N.J.S.

When you cast your vote for the elected officials whom you want to represent your interests, you, the voter, determine which representatives you want to write, sponsor and pass bills that will affect your civil rights and which determine your rights as an employee.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act was approved by the US House of Representatives on August 24, 2021. It has been widely discussed that the bill faces an uphill battle in the Senate.

Rejecting a more narrowly tailored definition of homosexuality as is used by some other states, the NJ legislature specifically includes many employees to be protected workers who have a right to employment without discrimination because of affectional or sexual orientation, sex, gender identity or expression as well as some other protected classes.

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD) Has a Broad Definition of “Homosexuality” as to Protected Workers.

This broad definition give legal protection to many persons who otherwise would not be covered under the legal protective umbrella of the NJLAD. The statute states that:

“Homosexuality means affectional, emotional, or physical attraction or behavior which is primarily directed towards persons of the same gender.”

The NJLAD specifically stipulates that all NJ workers have a right to employment without discrimination because of affectional or sexual orientation, sex, gender identity or expression as well as some other protected classes.

New Jersey employees who are victims of race discrimination in their employment frequently mistakenly believe that they have to spend time first filing an administrative claim,  a complaint, with a government agency before they are allowed to file a discrimination lawsuit in Court. Not true.  While this is true if an employee or a terminated employee wants to file the discrimination lawsuit under federal law, New Jersey victims of employment race discrimination have a quicker route and may file a race discrimination lawsuit directly in New Jersey Superior Court under New Jersey’s state law without having to first file an administrative complaint with an agency. This is true for all types of employment race discrimination claims, i.e.

New Jersey, as in other states, is in short supply for educated, trained, and qualified employees in many essential professions such in the medical professions. Similar to racial status, an individual’s immigration status can no longer be used as an excuse to discriminate among equally educated, trained, and qualified persons.

Last year New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation (S2455). This legislation prohibits lawful presence in the United States as a qualification to obtain a professional or occupational license, provided that the applicant meets all other requirements for licensure. This NJ legislation affects approximately 500,000 undocumented residents in New Jersey.

Female executives and managers are fewer in number than males in many US industries according to a government study. In management occupations in business and financial operations,  women hold just 42% of the management positions. US employers promote males to high level executive management positions in larger numbers than the females. For employment title/positions as “Chief Executives”, the gap is even larger: executives who are women hold only 31% of the title/positions as “Chief Executives”. The demographics of employees who are classified as a “General and Operations Manager” is 72% males to 28% females.

Persons sometimes think that the issue of voting rights has no direct bearing on them personably. These are typically persons who have not experienced their names being wrongly purged from voter registration lists, nor prevented from voting, or having their votes not be counted by other unanticipated voter suppression methods. However, when you cast your vote for elected officials, you are casting your vote for your representatives who will draft, promote and vote on passing laws that expand your rights as an employee or diminish them. These are laws that establish rights for employees who are members of a protected class, such as race, gender, disability, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, members of the Armed Forces, etc. The laws also define the classes that are legally protected from job discrimination.