Directs the department of labor to post on its internet website and annually update the names of employers who employ 50 or more employees who receive public assistance.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A987
SPONSOR: Mamdani TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the labor law, in relation to requiring the department
of labor to publish the names of employers which employ 50 or more
employees who receive public assistance
PURPOSE:
Establishes disclosure requirements for certain employers whose work-
force receives public assistance.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends the Labor Law to include a new section 12a, which
mandates the publication of employers with employees receiving certain
forms of public assistance. The department shall post and annually
update the names of employers that employ fifty or more employees who
work not less than twenty six weeks a year and not less than ten hours a
week, and who receive public assistance on its website.
Section 2 determines the law shall take effect immediately.
JUSTIFICATION:
In October 2020, the Government Accountability Office examined companies
with employees on public benefits. It found that Walmart, McDonald's,
Amazon and Dollar Tree are some of the main beneficiaries of federal
benefits programs that is, a significant number of their employees
receive federal aid through programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Meanwhile, these companies rack in
sky-high profits: Walmart, for example, reported a net income of $1.76
billion in the first quarter of 2021 alone.
Further analysis documents the prevalence of businesses passing off
responsibility for employee livelihood to the welfare state. An April
2015 report published by the University of California, Berkeley's Center
for Labor Research and Education analyzed State and federal spending for
programs such as Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program,
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, SNAP, and the Earned Income Tax
Credit. It found that American taxpayers in general, and New York State
taxpayers in particular, are subsidizing companies that pay low wages to
its employees to an alarming degree. According to the report, "Overall,
we find that between 2009 and 2011 the federal government spent $127.8
billion per year on these four programs for working families and the
states collectively spent $25 billion per year on Medicaid/CHIP and TANF
for working families for a total of $152.8 billion per year. In all,
more than half - 56 percent - of combined state and federal spending on
public assistance goes to working families" (Jacobs, Perry and MacGill-
vary). Further, 52 percent of all state spending supported working fami-
lies (defined in this study as working for 27 or more weeks a year and
10 hours per week). Similarly, UC Berkeley concluded that in 2013, $3.3
million of public assistance went to annual expenditures on
Medicaid/CHIP and TANF for working families in New York.
It is clear that too many companies in New York are not paying their
employees a living wage, relying on state and federal programs - and
ultimately taxpayers - to fill the gap they have created.
While the struggle to increase wages in New York State continues, this
bill would add much-needed transparency to companies' treatment of their
employees, and how our taxes are spent funding that which companies
refuse to do themselves.
This bill mandates that the Department of Labor disclose on its website
the name of any employer in the state that has fifty or more employees
on any of the listed types of public assistance.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2015-2016: S5291/ A7624 Blake
2017-2018: S166/ No Same-As
2019-2020: S478/ No Same-As
2023-2024: A4689 /S2953
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
987
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. MAMDANI -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Labor
AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to requiring the department
of labor to publish the names of employers which employ 50 or more
employees who receive public assistance
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The labor law is amended by adding a new section 12-a to
2 read as follows:
3 § 12-a. Publication of employers with employees receiving public
4 assistance. 1. The department shall, on its internet website, post and
5 annually update the names of employers which employ fifty or more
6 employees who work not less than twenty-six weeks a year and not less
7 than ten hours a week, and who receive public assistance.
8 2. For the purposes of this section "public assistance" includes:
9 a. medical assistance pursuant to title eleven of article five of the
10 social services law;
11 b. child health insurance pursuant to title one-A of article twenty-
12 five of the public health law;
13 c. assistance funded by the federal temporary assistance for needy
14 families block grant program;
15 d. the earned income personal income tax credit pursuant to subsection
16 (d) or (d-1) of section six hundred six of the tax law; or
17 e. supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits pursuant to
18 section ninety-five of the social services law.
19 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00183-01-5
