New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed off on a bill which requires most hotels to supply wearable panic buttons for housekeeping employees.
The law, which NJ calls the first of its kind, is effective from January and mandates the panic buttons at hotels with 100 or more rooms.
The governor was flanked by housekeepers from each of the nine Atlantic City casinos.
The hotel workers and union officials present described their experiences of being physically and verbally harassed in the course of their daily work.
"Today the lawmakers in New Jersey stood up with my co-workers and I to say no more to guests exposing themselves to us, soliciting us for sex, and allowing us to be unsafe as we open the door to a guest room, with no idea what is waiting for us behind it," said Iris Sanchez, a housekeeper at Caesars.
Union chief Bob McDevitt said: "Our country has been preoccupied with millionaire entertainers being sexually harassed by billionaire owners, but what is being lost in all this are the working women who are far more likely to face this kind of behavior at their jobs."
Similar legislation has been drafted in Illinois, Florida and Washington state and hotel chains such as Marriot and Hilton have vowed to arm some workers with panic buttons in jurisdictions where they are not mandated by law.
