Happy Labor Day, Supporting Workers and Their Rights

New York Office of State Comptroller sent this bulletin at 09/03/2022 07:00 AM EDT

Happy Labor Day, Supporting
Workers and Their Rights

As we enjoy this long Labor Day weekend, I'd like to recognize the hardworking men and women who are the backbones of our communities. Thank you to the workers who serve, protect, build, educate, heal and strengthen New York. As State Comptroller, I will continue to do all I can to support workers and protect their rights.

My office has closely studied issues impacting the workforce. Earlier this year, I issued reports on the gender wage gap in NYS and women’s engagement with the labor force in NYC during the pandemic. I encouraged the State to study these issues in more depth, and I'm pleased to see the NYS Department of Labor (DOL) is looking at how COVID-19 affected women in the workplace and pay inequality. This is a positive step, and I encourage DOL to do similar work for other groups that my reports have shown face employment challenges, including people with disabilities, youth, workers without a college education and immigrants.

My office has also identified shortcomings in the State’s workforce development programs, the need for more job training and resources for the growing green economy, and inadequate safety protections for workers at NYC construction sites. Also, I will continue my engagement with companies to urge them to address workplace safety and other issues. On this Labor Day and every day, we must support the hardworking New Yorkers who are keeping our State strong.

State Comptroller DiNapoli attended the New York State Fair this week, where he spent a full day experiencing all the great things that New York has to offer and connecting organizations and individuals with their lost money.

The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) is not doing enough to protect construction workers on building sites, according to an audit released by State Comptroller DiNapoli. The audit found DOB needs to be more aggressive in its oversight, inspections and use of enforcement powers to make sure violations are corrected to help prevent construction-related accidents, injuries and fatalities.

MetroPlus, a subsidiary of NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H), offers low-cost to no-cost health insurance coverage to eligible New Yorkers through a variety of plans. Between February 2020 and June 2022, MetroPlus enrollment reached a record high of 670,915 members, an increase of 159,284 (31%), according to a report released by State Comptroller DiNapoli.

New York State is failing to promote and increase use of a key system designed to assist people with disabilities find employment services, according to an audit by State Comptroller DiNapoli. The audit found that the State Office of Mental Health, which oversees the New York Employment Services System, needs to do much more to make sure State agencies, and their contracted employment service providers, make use of the system — and better serve New Yorkers with disabilities.

In July, the Office of the State Comptroller approved 1,232 contracts for State agencies and public authorities valued at $2.2 billion and approved more than 1.8 million payments worth more than $9.4 billion. The office rejected 120 contracts and related transactions valued at $294.2 million and nearly 2,100 payments valued at nearly $58.1 million, primarily for mistakes, insufficient support for charges, and improper payments. More information on these contracts and payments is available at Open Book New York.

State Comptroller DiNapoli announced employer contribution rates for the New York State and Local Retirement System. Employers’ average contribution rates for the State Fiscal Year 2023-24 will increase from 11.6% to 13.1% of payroll for the Employees’ Retirement System and from 27.0% to 27.8% of payroll for the Police and Fire Retirement System.