Black, female workers leaving city jobs at higher rates

Black and female workers are leaving the city workforce at disproportionate rates, and members of the City Council want to know why.

Although 32 percent of the city workers are Black, they represented 39 percent of the workers who separated from the municipal workforce last year, according to data from the city’s Equal Employment Practices Commission cited by the Council.

Similarly, 47 percent of all exits were women, even though 41 percent of the total city workforce is female. 

“That is alarming to this Council, it’s alarming to us as a city, especially because … this committee has delved into some of the vacancy rates that we have in agencies,” Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, who chairs the Civil Service and Labor Committee, said during a hearing on pay equity and diversity in the city workforce Thursday.

The disproportionate number of exits of workers from underrepresented groups has contributed to underutilization — the gap between the expected and actual number of employees from a demographic group, the EEPC report found.

For example, Black workers had the highest underutilization rate in the city workforce, and were found to be underutilized in 19 percent of job groups. De La Rosa noted that Black workers were underutilized in positions “that offer higher than average salaries and long-term career growth,” including managerial roles and policing and detective positions. The underutilization rate among Black and Asian workers also grew compared to the previous year.

Although Adams administration officials noted that they had not studied why the disproportionate rates of exodus were happening, they highlighted issues that could potentially be contributing to the problem.

“One of the gaps is that they weren’t aware of the professional development or career advancement opportunities available to them,” said Kadian Outar, the assistant commissioner of workforce operations at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. The Council has proposed legislation that would require agencies to provide career counseling sessions to city workers. 

Opportunities created for women

But the officials noted that the city has in recent years made strides in recruiting more women in positions that have been disproportionately male. For example, the rate of female employees in protective service jobs has grown from 28 to 33 percent since Fiscal Year 2023.

“So the hiring of women has gradually increased,” said Silvia Montalban, the chief citywide equity and inclusion officer at DCAS. “And it’s important to note that because even though there is attrition, it is a bit offset by the efforts that we continuously make with agencies to make opportunities for women in areas where they’re underrepresented.”

So far, the administration has analyzed 90 civil service titles to expand the hiring pool, and has made revisions to 61 of those job titles. Staff analysts, for example, who previously were required to have a bachelor’s degree can now qualify for the job with a high school diploma and a minimum number of years of job experience.

Daniel Pollak, the first deputy commissioner at the city's Office of Labor Relations, added that the city has made efforts to retain female workers through collective bargaining, such as establishing an annual contribution to District Council 37's child care fund in the union's most recent contract.

A few Council members stressed that the city’s efforts to have an inclusive workforce were particularly important amid the Trump administration’s attacks on diversity and inclusion programs.

“At a time when the federal government is rolling back critical civil rights protections, targeting DEI programs, gutting support for inclusive education, and weakening enforcement of anti-discrimination laws, New York City must stand firm in its values,” De La Rosa stated. “We know that DEI efforts are not about preference; they are about removing barriers that have long-denied qualified people opportunities because of who they are.”

During the hearing, the Council members discussed legislation that would establish a task force to study the gender pay disparity among city workers. Women in the city workforce earned 87 cents for every dollar earned by men. They also are weighing a resolution calling for federal legislation to establish a living wage for musicians, and another resolution to support the right to union elections free from union-busting.

“With the Trump administration attacking workers and unleashing anti-union billionaires like Elon Musk to dismantle the National Labor Relations Board and perhaps attack the NRLA itself, it has never been more important for the city to reassert our commitment to all workers having the right to organize, to unionize and to bargain collectively without intimidation, retaliation or obstruction,” Council Member Tiffany Cabán said.

She noted that employers — particularly large corporations such as Amazon — have turned to captive audience meetings and anti-union lawyers to stop their members from unionizing.

“These undemocratic, and often illegal practices are an assault on our basic democratic values, and now they are being backed up by the union-buster-in-chief in the White House. This resolution is a statement of our core beliefs: that New York City supports the workers who make this city run,” Cabán said.

clewis@thechiefleader.com