On Thursday, March 14, 2013, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez signed into law The Fair Pay for Women Act (HB 216).
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Get Your Report Now!The law was sponsored by Representative Brian Egolf, who told The Texas-New Mexico Newspapers Partnership that his inspiration was the federal Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and his goal was to make it easier for New Mexico women to go through state courts with pay discrimination lawsuits, rather than only federal courts.
The law also stipulates that a woman must only prove that she was paid less than a man or men in the same position, “the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility and under similar working conditions,” and not that the discrepancy was intentional.
The law also states that an employer may not “discharge, demote, deny promotion to or in any other way discriminate against an employee in the terms or conditions of employment in retaliation for the person asserting a claim or right pursuant to the Fair Pay for Women Act.
Exempt from the law are merit and seniority systems and jobs where compensation is based on quantity or quality of employee production.
Employers who violate the Act may be liable for punitive damages. Enforcement will be under the state’s Human Rights Act (Sections 28-1-10 through 28-1-13 NMSA 1978).