Emergency panic buttons are mandatory for NJ hotel workers

Have you ever seen the movie "Panic Room" starring Jodie Foster and a young Kristen Stewart?

Long story short, it's about a woman and her daughter who are forced into their panic room to protect themselves from three intruders that have entered their home.

Most people don't have panic rooms within their homes. In fact, the average cost of a home with a safe room in the United States is valued at over a million dollars.

Most of us don't have that luxury. The workers within the hospitality industry don't even necessarily have that luxury should someone or something target a hotel.

What hotels do have now, though, and have since 2019, are panic buttons.

Unfortunately, hospitality staff, particularly housekeeping, deal with their fair share of harassment. What's a housekeeper to do if they encounter a disgruntled guest and the situation escalates?

Thanks to a new law put in place in the Garden State back in 2019, it's now required that all hotels supply their housekeeping staff with panic button devices should any dangerous situation arise while doing their job.

The law was enacted in June 2019 and requires staff to be equipped with panic devices while working in a guest room solo.

If a hotel or motel owner does not comply with this law, they could face some hefty fines up to $5,000 for the first violation. Each subsequent violation is double that.