BILL NUMBER: S9141
SPONSOR: RAMOS
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the labor law, in relation to the establishment of a
wage data clearinghouse
 
PURPOSE:
Require the State Department of Labor (DOL) to issue an RFP to form a
partnership with an academic institution with proven experience in
analyzing labor market data to establish a research center to serve as
the State's clearinghouse for wage data. The clearinghouse would be
required to issue reports evaluating workforce preparation, worker
training and selected education programs, and to provide data on work-
force trends. This would allow the state to benefit from the expertise
of academics in conducting important research while keeping the data
protected.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Labor Law - § 44 wage data clearinghouse.
Section 1. The labor commissioner shall establish a wage data clearing-
house in consultation with the commissioner of education and the state
workforce investment board.
Section 2. The wage data clearinghouse shall be administered by an
academic institution in New York state with proven experience in analyz-
ing labor data.
Section 3. The department shall provide the wage data clearinghouse with
all state and federal wage and employment-related data it has available.
Section 4. A nine-member advisory board is established
Section 5. The wage data clearinghouse shall provide analyses on the
effectiveness of workforce preparation programs and other related
research.
Section 6. The advisory board will consult with DOL, the commissioner of
education and the state workforce investment board.
Section 7. The clearinghouse shall release reports and aggregated data
to the department, which shall be made available online.
Section 8. DOL shall issue an evaluation of this data clearinghouse
within one year, and every four years thereafter.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
The state spends billions of state and federal dollars each year on
educating and training future workers through the PK-12 system, public
colleges and universities, workforce development and preparation
programs, and adult literacy classes. Yet policymakers and the public
have little idea which programs are effective and actually help partic-
ipants get on career paths that lead to living wage employment. Since
the enactment of a state law in 2013, colleges and public workforce
programs have had access to the earnings and employment information of
people who completed their programs. While most large institutions do
have the capacity to meet the state's exacting standards for using the
information safely and effectively, smaller workforce preparation
programs, which might benefit from information, do not have the techno-
logical capacity and analytical expertise to use the data.
Most other states are using wage data, often in combination with educa-
tion data to assess education and workforce programs. Examples of Data
Aggregation: *Colleges and universities can now look at the earnings of
graduates, see not only whether students got a job after graduation, but
whether they stayed in a job and were able to move into higher-paying
positions.
* Individuals and policymakers can identify which educational and work-
force development programs are producing the best outcomes for partic-
ipants.
* This data will help the state and localities identify how many people
are trained in specific skills, where they are, whether they are out of
work or are looking for similarly skilled jobs, how many went through
such skill programs, are grads of programs and are successful in train-
ing more.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-24: S9665 (Ramos) Referred to labor
2021-22: S7489 (Kaplan): Referred to labor
 
FISCAL IMPACT:
TBD
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately