Courtesy of City Council
By Forum Staff
The City Council on Thursday released its annual report on pay inequities within New York City’s municipal workforce, showing continued inequities. In conjunction with the release of the 2022 Pay Equity report, the Council also is holding a hearing on pay inequities in the City’s workforce and legislation to address them.
The 2022 report reveals two persistent, large pay gaps in the City’s municipal workforce – one between Black, Latino, and white employees, and another between male and female employees. The data confirms non-white employees and female employees predominantly occupy civil service titles with the lowest median salaries, and the same groups represent a much smaller proportion of employees who occupy civil service titles with the highest median salaries. This produces an ‘occupational segregation’ that results in pay disparities.
Female municipal employees on average make 73 cents for every dollar made by male employees; Black city workers on average make 71 cents to every dollar for white employees; Latino workers on average make 75 cents to every dollar for white employees; and Asian employees on average make 85 cents to every dollar for white employees.
Furthermore, pay inequity is particularly higher among non-white female employees. Black and Latino women municipal employees make 69 cents to every dollar made by white male employees, and Asian women city workers make 82 cents for every dollar made by white male city workers.
While a small but significant pay inequity can be observed within the same civil service titles (Black, Latino and Asian city workers earn about 99 cents on every dollar for white workers of the same civil service title), the pay inequity is most pronounced for non-white female employees. While Black or African-American male employees make 0.9% less than White male employees with the same title, Black or African-American female employees and Hispanic or Latina female employees make even less—1.4 percent and 1.3 percent less, respectively.
The new legislation introduced at Thursday’s hearing would require City agencies to include an analysis of compensation data and measures to address pay disparity and occupational segregation, as well as report on recruitment and retention efforts to expand diversity across city government. It would also amend the existing Pay Equity Law 18 of 2019 to require that agencies provide new categories of information to the Council for each City employee, expand the definition of ‘agency’ to capture more of the City workforce, and provide the Council with the pay and employment data year-round to provide more robust oversight over public municipal employee data. The three proposed bills will be heard at a Thursday oversight hearing of the Council’s Committees on Civil Service and Labor & Civil and Human Rights. Earlier this week, the Council announced legislation to improve the diversity, equity and inclusion practices at the Fire Department.
“As the most diverse and first women-majority Council, we will not rest until all New York City workers are valued equally with job salaries and opportunities for their contributions to our City regardless of gender or race,” Adams said.
