New Jersey Pay Equity Expert Witness

NEW JERSEY PAY EQUITY LITIGATION & COMPLIANCE

The most punitive equal pay statute in America.

The Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act made New Jersey the jurisdiction employers fear most: substantially-similar-work comparisons across every protected class, comparators drawn from all of an employer’s operations rather than a single location, a six-year lookback, and — uniquely — mandatory treble damages for violations. Add the 2025 pay transparency law now in active enforcement, and New Jersey pay decisions carry more legal weight per dollar than anywhere else. Grahall provides the statistical analysis, privileged audits, and expert testimony these matters demand, for employers and for plaintiff or defense counsel.

The Diane B. Allen Act, in Practice

New Jersey requires equal pay for “substantially similar work,” assessed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility — across every class protected by the Law Against Discrimination, not just sex. Two features widen exposure beyond any other state. First, comparators are drawn from all of the employer’s operations and facilities, so a pay difference between employees in different offices is squarely in scope. Second, a differential survives only if the employer proves it rests on seniority, merit, or bona fide factors such as training, education, or experience that are job-related, consistent with business necessity, applied reasonably, and account for the entire gap — and even then it fails if an alternative practice would serve the same purpose without producing the differential. Violations carry back pay across a six-year lookback (each discriminatory paycheck restarts the clock) plus treble damages — three times the underpayment, automatic rather than reserved for willfulness — plus attorneys’ fees. Employers may not cut anyone’s pay to come into compliance, and salary history questions have been banned since 2020.

Transparency and Reporting

Since June 1, 2025, employers with 10 or more employees that do business, employ workers, or take applications in New Jersey must include the compensation range and a general description of benefits in job postings — including national advertisements — and must make reasonable efforts to announce promotional opportunities internally. Enforcement is active in 2026, with civil penalties of $300 for a first violation and $600 for each subsequent one. Separately, employers performing public contracts must report pay data broken down by gender, race, and job category to the state — a standing statistical record of covered pay structures. Jersey City maintains its own local ordinance as well.

Where New Jersey Disputes Are Fought

• Superior Court LAD actions — jury trials, fee shifting, and the treble multiplier make individual claims economically viable and class claims severe.
• Class actions built on the all-operations comparator — statewide or multi-site classes assemble quickly when every facility is one comparison pool.
• Agency matters — Division on Civil Rights complaints and Department of Labor posting enforcement.

How Grahall Helps in New Jersey

• Privileged pay equity audits at the direction of counsel — testing pay across all locations against the substantially-similar standard, with the entire-differential defense in mind, before a posting or complaint exposes it.
• Transparency readiness — defensible ranges and benefits descriptions for postings under the 2025 law, scoped correctly for national advertising that reaches New Jersey.
• Public-contract reporting support — the analytics behind gender and race pay data filings, with a pre-submission read of what the numbers signal.
• Litigation support and expert testimony — comparator construction across operations, regression analysis under the entire-differential standard, class certification statistics, six-year and trebled damages quantification, and rebuttal of opposing experts, for either side.

New Jersey Questions We Hear Most

How is treble damages different from other states?

Elsewhere, multiplied damages are typically reserved for willful violations. In New Jersey they attach to the violation itself — three times the underpayment across up to six years, plus fees. A modest per-person gap becomes a severe number quickly, which is why New Jersey matters settle differently and why early statistical clarity is worth so much.

Our offices pay differently by location — is that a problem here?

It can be. New Jersey draws comparators from all of an employer’s operations, so geographic pay differences must be defensible as bona fide, job-related factors that explain the entire gap. That is a statistical question before it is a legal one.

Does the posting law reach employers outside New Jersey?

Yes, if you have 10 or more employees and do business, employ people, or take applications in the state — national job advertisements count. Multi-state employers with any New Jersey nexus should treat the posting rules as applying by default.

See also: our national pay equity guide, plus the New York and California guides.

This page summarizes New Jersey law as of July 2026 and is general information, not legal advice. Confirm current requirements with New Jersey employment counsel.