Scoring a significant preliminary victory, an out-of-state remote employee who lives and works in New Hampshire will be allowed to pursue pay discrimination claims based on the law of New Jersey, where the company is headquartered.

Here’s what happened:

In March 2022, an employee sued her employer under federal and New Jersey law, alleging she received lower pay than some of her male colleagues.

The employer filed a motion to dismiss the state law claims on the grounds that the woman, a remote employee, did not live or work in New Jersey.

To support the motion to dismiss, the employer pointed out that:

• The employee was a resident of New Hampshire.
• The employee worked only in New Hampshire during the relevant time period.
• The employee’s only connection to the state of New Jersey was that the company was headquartered in the state.

Under these circumstances, the company argued that the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination did not apply.

Does state law protect out-of-state remote employee?

First things first: This dispute wasn’t about pay equity – yet.

At this early stage in the proceedings, the issue was whether protections provided under the state’s anti-discrimination law extended to an employee who works for a New Jersey company from an out-of-state location.

Because the state supreme court has not “issued a controlling decision” on the matter, a federal court in New Jersey looked at existing case law to “predict how the Supreme Court of New Jersey” would rule in the...

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