BILL NUMBER: S3811
SPONSOR: RIVERA
 
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 12-a under the
Department of Labor, which would mandate the publication of employers
with employees receiving certain forms of public assistance. The depart-
ment would post on its Internet website and annually update the names of
employers that employ fifty or more employees who work no less than
twenty-six weeks a year and no less than ten hours a week, and who
receive public assistance.
Section 2 provides the effective date.
 
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 rake in
sky-high profits: Walmart, for example, reported an annual net income of
13.673 billion dollars in 2022, a 1.21% increase from 2021 (Walmart Net
Income 2010-2022, macrotrends.net).
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
their employees to an alarming degree. According to the report, "Over-
all, 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 spend-
ing on public assistance goes to working families." (Jacobs, Perry, and
MacGillvary). Further, 52 percent of all state spending supported work-
ing families (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.
New York companies are not paying their employees a living wage.
Instead, they are relying on state and federal programs - and ultimately
taxpayers -- to fill the gap between cost of living and wages that they
have created.
This bill would add much-needed transparency to companies' treatment of
their employees and mandate 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 Rivera / A7624 Blake
2017-2018: S166 Rivera / No same as
2019-2020: S478 Rivera / No same as
2021-2022: S3053 Rivera / A9583 Mamdani
2023-2024: S2953 Rivera / A4689 Mamdani
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.