Civil Rights in New Jersey, 1945-2020: Employment Discrimination

• 1933 - Law passed prohibiting discrimination in employment on public works contracts based on race, creed or color
• 1938 - Law passed prohibiting state, counties or municipalities form discriminating against applicants based on age
• 1941 - Law passed permitting citizens to hold office or employment regardless of sex or marital status, and forbids discrimination in compensation, promotion or dismissal based on sex or marital status. 
• 1942 - Made discrimination based on race, color or creed in public employment or employment in industries engaged on defense contracts a misdemeanor.
• 1945 - Laws created to establish the Division Against Discrimination and to broadened all civil rights laws, including employment.
• 1947 - New Jersey has a new Constitution with a Civil Rights clause.
• 1949 - First Freeman bill was introduced in 1948, but died in Senate Committee after passing Assembly.  It was passed in substantially the same form in 1949. 
• 1951 - Amendments enlarged scope of 1945 law to prohibit discrimination by employers or labor organizations based on liability for military service.
• 1962 - Amended Law Against Discrimination to prohibit discrimination based on age
• 1966 - Amendment includes employers with fewer than 6 employees within definition of "Employer."
• 1970 - Amendments prohibited discrimination based on sex and marital status.
• 1972 - Law Against Discrimination amended to prohibit discrimination based on physical “handicap.”
• 1992 - New Jersey became one of a handful of states to protect individuals based on sexual orientation.
• 1977 - Amendments prohibit employment discrimination based on nationality.
• 1977 - Clarification regarding employment discrimination regarding private social clubs or religious organizations.
• 1993 - Lehmann v. Toys R' Us, Inc. New Jersey Supreme Court held, for the first time, that a hostile environment caused by sexual harassment constitutes sex discrimination in violation of the LAD. Employers can be held liable for failing to prevent and remedy hostile working environments.
• 1996 - Prohibitions against discrimination based on genetic information added
• 2003 - The Legislature passed the historic Domestic Partnership Act, prohibiting discrimination based on domestic partnership status.
• 2006 - The  Law Against Discrimination was amended to add prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression.
• 2007 - The Law Against Discrimination was amended to require employers to reasonably accommodate their employee’s religious beliefs.
• 2013 - Provisions prohibiting discrimination against, and requiring reasonable accommodations of, pregnant and breastfeeding people were added.
• 2018 - The Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act amended the LAD to require equal pay for “substantially similar work” for those in protected categories—giving NJ the strongest equal pay law in the nation at the time. 

The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) prohibits employers from discriminating in any job-related action, including recruitment, interviewing, hiring, promotions, discharge, compensation and the terms, conditions and privileges of employment on the basis of any of the law's specified protected categories. These protected categories are: race, creed, color, national origin, nationality, ancestry, age, sex (including pregnancy and sexual harassment), marital status, domestic partnership or civil union status, affectional or sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, atypical hereditary cellular or blood trait, genetic information liability for military service, or mental or physical disability, including AIDS and HIV related illnesses.