New Jersey’s Gender Equity Notice requirements apply to every employer with 50 or more employees and involve three ongoing obligations: post Form AD-290 in the workplace, give a written copy to every worker (at hire and once a year through December 31), and collect a signed acknowledgment within 30 days of each distribution. The rule comes from N.J.S.A. 34:11-56.12, enacted as part of the Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act.1Justia. New Jersey Code 34-11-56.12 – Notification to Certain Employees
Who Has to Post the Notice
The posting obligation kicks in at 50 employees. That count includes full-time, part-time, and temporary workers, and it reaches employees whose duties are performed outside New Jersey, provided at least one person’s primary workplace is in the state.1Justia. New Jersey Code 34-11-56.12 – Notification to Certain Employees
Smaller employers are not off the hook on pay equity itself. The substantive prohibitions in the Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act cover any employer with at least one employee whose primary place of work is New Jersey, regardless of headcount or public-versus-private status.2New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Guidance on the Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act What the 50-employee threshold controls is the notice-and-acknowledgment paperwork, not the underlying ban on pay discrimination.
Where to Get Form AD-290
The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development publishes the official notice as Form AD-290, in both English and Spanish, on its Employer Poster Packet page.3State of New Jersey. Wage and Hour Compliance – Employer Poster Packet Before circulating it, fill in the date of issuance and the company’s identifying information.
The notice explains the right to be free from pay discrimination based on gender and other protected characteristics, and it cites the laws that back that right: New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination, the state’s equal pay statutes, Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act, and the federal Equal Pay Act of 1963.1Justia. New Jersey Code 34-11-56.12 – Notification to Certain Employees Pull a fresh copy from the state site each year rather than reusing an old file, since the form can change.
How to Distribute the Notice
The statute treats posting and delivery as two separate duties. Doing one does not satisfy the other.1Justia. New Jersey Code 34-11-56.12 – Notification to Certain Employees
- Post the notice conspicuously at every New Jersey worksite, in an area accessible to all workers. Break rooms and main hallways are typical spots.
- Give a written copy to every current employee. New hires must receive the notice at the time of hiring.
- Redistribute a fresh copy to every employee once a year, no later than December 31.
- Electronic delivery through company email or an intranet portal is allowed if every worker can actually access the platform. If an employee asks for a paper copy, provide one.
The annual redistribution deadline is the date most employers plan around. Building it into a year-end HR checklist alongside benefits enrollment is a practical way to keep it from slipping.
The Signed Acknowledgment
Every distribution of the notice must be paired with an acknowledgment form. The employee has 30 days from receipt to sign and return it.1Justia. New Jersey Code 34-11-56.12 – Notification to Certain Employees Because the notice goes out annually and to each new hire, employers should expect a new signed acknowledgment every year for every worker. Signatures may be collected on paper or through a secure electronic signature platform that records the date.
Keep the signed acknowledgments on file. They are the primary evidence that the employer met its obligation, and they matter both in a Department of Labor audit and in any later dispute over what the employee was told. A tracking system that flags missing signatures inside the 30-day window is worth setting up, particularly for larger workforces with turnover.
What Happens if You Don’t Comply
The statute does not fix a specific dollar penalty for skipping the notice, but noncompliance exposes an employer to enforcement action by the New Jersey Department of Labor. It also creates a practical problem in litigation: if an employee later brings a pay discrimination claim and the employer cannot produce signed acknowledgments showing the worker received the required notice, that gap in the record works against the employer.
The Notice and the Underlying Equal Pay Act Are Not the Same Thing
Handing out AD-290 does not satisfy the Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act. The notice is a disclosure requirement; the Act itself, codified at N.J.S.A. 10:5-12(t), prohibits paying any worker in a protected class less than a worker outside that class for substantially similar work when judged as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility. Pay comparisons run across all of an employer’s operations, not just within one location, and the protected classes covered mirror the full list under the Law Against Discrimination: race, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, marital status, and others, in addition to sex.4Justia. New Jersey Code 10-5-12 – Unlawful Employment Practices
A compliant posting program is the visible piece of a broader obligation. Employers with 50 or more employees should treat the December 31 redistribution date, the 30-day acknowledgment window, and the new-hire delivery at onboarding as three recurring calendar items, and they should keep the signed forms with the personnel file rather than in a general HR folder that turns over with staff changes.