Politics
De Blasio Administration Skirts Reporting Provisions in Living Wage Law
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has presented himself as a champion of the living wage law. He has budgeted for raises that bring nonprofit staff contracted to perform social services in sync with the pay mandate and signed an executive order broadening the initiative’s scope.
Yet progress on public disclosure provisions of the law appear not to have kept pace with the mayor’s pronouncements.
The City Council passed the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act—colloquially called the living wage law—in 2012. The legislation mandates that any project receiving $1 million or more in city benefits pay workers $10 an hour with benefits or $11.50 an hour without—with increases tied to consumer price index changes. While former Mayor Michael Bloomberg opposed the bill, lawmakers overrode his veto, and the matter wound up in court.
Months into office, de Blasio dropped the case and issued an executive order applying the legislation to retailers, restaurants and other tenants in commercial projects. The law ultimately did not extend the wage requirements to nonprofits, small businesses, affordable housing developments, manufacturing companies or those taking advantage of city benefits extended to all qualified applicants—such as property tax abatements.
Early on, supporters touted the law’s transparency planks. A provision requires the New York City Economic Development Corporation and other agencies overseeing projects backed by $1 million or more in city benefits to save four years of annual certificates stating whether these projects are complying with living wage provisions or have been given an exemption. The city and its affiliates must “make [the certificates] available for public inspection,” the law states. The EDC, however, told City & State it needed to file Freedom of Information Law requests with “individual agencies” to view these documents, which some have questioned.
"This may very well be a violation of the rules,” New York City Economic Development Committee Chairman Daniel Garodnick said in a statement. “Whether or not they are complying with the letter of the reporting laws obscures the much larger point: New Yorkers deserve to know where their money is going and how it is being used. The city needs to be doing more to make that information available, faster."
Bronx Borough President Ruben Díaz’s Jr., who spurred the introduction of the living wage bill, called for centralizing the data and making it easier to use.
“We will be in touch with NYCEDC and other appropriate agencies to discuss ways to make data pertaining to the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act more available,” Díaz’s communications director John DeSio said in a statement.
Officials pointed out NYCEDC and the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development publish annual reports detailing projects that fall under the living wage law online, as is required by the law. These reports do not always disclose which projects are required to comply with the living wage law.
The mayor’s office and the bills’ sponsors—former City Councilman Oliver Koppell, Councilwoman Annabel Palma and Diaz—either said they did not know or declined to answer questions about whether additional agencies administer benefits valued at $1 million or more, and therefore, must legally be included in the city’s annual report or reports on living wage matters.
UPDATE: The NYCEDC issued a statement saying exemption certificates can in fact be viewed in person at its office, even though the city entity did not tell City & State that for nearly two months.
“[The Economic Development Corporation] is 100 percent compliant with the Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act and requirements to make certain reports available for public inspection. EDC publishes a list of ‘living wage’ projects that have received $1 million or more in city benefits on behalf of EDC, [the Industrial Development Agency] and Build NYC online at the Mayor’s Office of Operations’ website, and exemption certificates can be viewed in person at our office at 110 William St.,” NYCEDC said in a statement. “We do not maintain documents for other city agencies, nor are we required to do so under the law.”
After weeks of discussing with NYCEDC what documents are publicly available, City & State on March 25 sent an NYCEDC spokesman an e-mail pointing out that “the Fair Wages law requires the city to keep certificates for four years for all projects that receive $1 million or more in city benefits, including annual certifications for projects.” City & State also requested assistance in setting up a time to come in and view the certificates in person.
The NYCEDC spokesman responded on March 27 that he was “not 100 percent sure” how many agencies administer initiatives that fall under living wage, but that both NYCEDC and HPD publish related annual reports that detail living wage data. He also wrote, “regarding the certificates by the project companies that they’re either paying or are exempt, you would have to FOIL the individual agencies for that.”
(After this article was published, the spokesman said there had been a miscommunication, and he believed City & State was solely requesting documents for non-EDC projects.)
At that point, City & State filed Freedom of Information Law requests with NYCEDC and with HPD. (HPD handles FOILS via mail, so only EDC documents are posted below.)
City & State also reached out to the administration to ask whether examining HPD’s and NYCEDC’s portfolio would encompass all projects that fall under living wage and to inquire about the FOIL policy. The administration only responded after this article was published, at which point a de Blasio spokesman emailed a link to HPD’s and NYCEDC’s annual reports and said, “It’s all linked on this page, which has additional info.”
These reports fail to specify whether every project is complying with the living wage law or lack job or wage information.
Below are the FOIL requests and exemption and compliance certificates City & State received in response.
First EDC FOIL by City & State NY
Certificate 1 by City & State NY
Certificate 2 by City & State NY
Certificate 3 by City & State NY
Certificate 4 by City & State NY
Certificate 5 by City & State NY
Certificate 6 by City & State NY
Certificate 7 by City & State NY
Certificate 8 by City & State NY
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