{"id":1512,"date":"2021-03-04T00:38:35","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T00:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/data\/?page_id=1512"},"modified":"2021-08-02T14:01:42","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T14:01:42","slug":"pay-equity","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/data\/pay-equity\/","title":{"rendered":"Pay Equity in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dear New Yorkers,<\/p>\n

Every day, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers wake up and go to work for the City that they love. They are our sanitation workers, our social service workers, our firefighters, and our custodians. They come from the City\u2019s many diverse communities and bring a wealth of skills, knowledge, and experience to their jobs. However, as has been true in industries across this country for generations, the compensation that these individuals receive for their hard work is not always equitable.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the New York City Council heard and passed Local Law 18, which required the Mayor\u2019s Office of Data Analytics to report pay data from City agencies. The bill required the Mayoral Administration to provide the Council direct access to the data, so the Council could conduct its own statistical analysis and determine whether any disparities exist across gender, race, age, and other categories protected by the City\u2019s Human Rights Law. In advancing Local Law 18, the Council recognized that the contributions of all employees, including non-white individuals and women, and especially non-white women, must be valued where it matters most \u2013 in their paychecks.<\/p>\n

Of course, pay inequity is not a new problem. It is one that has evolved over time; and one that has become more difficult to identify as instances of direct wage discrimination have subsided. This report, like others before it, finds that individuals with the same civil service title generally receive equal pay. This success can be directly attributed to the strength of our unions and their ability to bargain collectively. However, our analysis also found that municipal employees are often concentrated in certain jobs along gender and racial lines, and that these jobs come with vastly different levels of compensation. Inequity in this form, known as occupational segregation, is not unique to the municipal workforce; however, government can and should lead the way in eradicating inequity wherever it arises.<\/p>\n

Our municipal workforce came together like never before this past year as our City faced the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing meals to students and their families, staffing our testing and vaccination sites, and facing the virus head on when providing emergency services. The work these individuals do keeps the Greatest City in the World running, and it is only right that they be compensated equitably and fairly. However, we can only address these disparities if we know they exist. Identifying the ways in which inequity persists in our City\u2019s pay structure, as set forth in this report and analysis, is therefore a necessary step toward ensuring that all our City\u2019s employees are valued for their extraordinary contributions.<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Corey Johnson
\nSpeaker<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Pay Equity in NYC<\/h3>\n

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<\/i> Read Report<\/a>
\nData Team Home <\/i><\/a>
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Executive Summary<\/h1>\n
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In 2019, the New York City Council passed Local Law 18 (the \u201cPay Equity Law\u201d or \u201cLocal Law 18\u201d), sponsored by Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo, for the purpose of analyzing pay disparities based on race, ethnicity, gender, and other protected classes among employees of the City of New York (NYC).<\/p>\n

The call for pay equity, or to provide \u201cequal pay for equal work\u201d in the United States is a multi-faceted and evolving problem that has persisted for generations. Federal, state, and local governments have attempted to address inequality in employment opportunities and unequal pay through various forms of anti-discrimination policies and legislation since the 19th century<\/a>.However, those efforts\u2014which have made it unlawful to discriminate in hiring or pay based on protected classes and have allowed individuals the opportunity to file complaints and take legal action if they have been discriminated against<\/a>– while helpful, have not eliminated these issues.<\/p>\n

Nationally, there continue to be significant wage gaps based on gender, race, and ethnicity. At the local level, the Council\u2019s analysis revealed small wage gaps within the same positions in City government. Additionally, among New York City municipal employees, the analysis found that inequity continues to exist in the form of occupational segregation. That is, certain races, ethnicities, and genders are concentrated in certain positions within City government, and those positions and careers are compensated differently than jobs filled by a different demographic of employees. This siloing of demographic groups in particular types of work may contribute to inequity in compensation and exacerbate the pay gap<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The impact of inequity in compensation among the workforce affects more than just individual employees. In fact, studies have estimated that eliminating the pay gap could reduce child and family poverty by more than 40%<\/a>. The salaries that families live on also affect the type of housing they can afford, the educational opportunities they have access to, the quality of the food they eat, the healthcare they receive, the transportation choices available to them, and the activities and experiences they have throughout their lifetimes<\/a>. The lack of equal financial opportunity can therefore have a cyclical, generational impact; New York City\u2014as the largest employer in the city<\/a>\u2014can and should play a vital role in ensuring equity for all New Yorkers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The report outlines the Council\u2019s analysis of pay among the NYC municipal workforce, including an overview of the Pay Equity Law, takeaways based on the dataset received, recommendations for achieving greater equity in City worker compensation, and areas for further analysis.<\/p>\n

For purposes of this report, the \u201cNYC municipal workforce\u201d refers to employees represented in the dataset provided to the City Council pursuant to Local Law 18. For additional details on which employees this includes, see \u201cData, Limitations, and Methodology,\u201d. The data reported by the Mayoral Administration pursuant to Local Law 18 requires the Mayoral Administration to provide data on \u201csex\u201d; however, the data received was presented as \u201cgender,\u201d but uses the terms \u201cmale\u201d and \u201cfemale.\u201d Additionally, race information was presented as: \u201cWhite,\u201d \u201cBlack or African American,\u201d \u201cHispanic or Latino,\u201d \u201cAsian,\u201d \u201cOther,\u201d and \u201cEthnicity Unknown or Chose Not to Disclose.\u201d The Council\u2019s analysis and this report thus also use these terms, to reflect the information exactly as it was provided by the Administration. For details on the grouping of race and ethnicity, see Appendix B.<\/p>\n

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Key Findings (2018)<\/h2>\n

Citywide Findings<\/h3>\n
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There is a very large non-adjusted pay gap between Black or African American or Hispanic or Latino employees and white employees, and between male and female employees in the NYC municipal workforce.<\/p>\n

This pay gap shrinks dramatically when comparing individuals in the same job title. This suggests that occupational segregation\u2014the over- (or under-) representation of certain demographic categories of individuals in occupations that pay differently\u2014remains a driving force of inequity among City employees.<\/p>\n

Within the NYC municipal workforce, the median salary for male employees is $21,600 higher than the median salary for female employees, looking only at differences in salary by gender. However, a female employee with the same civil service title, who is in the same agency and has the same demographic characteristics as a male employee, would expect to make 99.6% the salary of a male employee.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Adjusted Pay Gap by Race\/Ethnicity and Gender<\/h4>\n

Adjusted Cents on the Dollar Earned<\/small><\/p>\n