TESTIMONY
Katrina Porter, Deputy Commissioner and Chief Human Capital Officer at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, on Strengthening Diversity, Equity, and Pay Parity in New York City's Municipal Workforce
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11 min
Porter delivers testimony highlighting the city's efforts to increase workforce diversity, promote pay equity, and create more equitable opportunities through the civil service process.
- The city has diversified talent pools, revised job requirements to be more inclusive, and launched hiring initiatives across the five boroughs
- Compared to white employees, pay gaps have improved for Black (by 9%), Hispanic/Latino (by 7%), and Asian (by 7%) employees.
- Strategies include targeted recruitment, career counseling, removing education barriers for certain titles, and increasing representation in highly-paid job categories
- The city aims to address occupational segregation and historic inequities through an equity-focused approach to workforce development
Katrina Porter
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Good afternoon, Chair Del Arosa, Williams, and Lewis, and members of the committee on civil service and labor, civil and human rights, and women and gender equity.
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I am Katrina Porter, the city's chief human capital officer and deputy commissioner of the human capital at the Department of citywide administrative services, commonly known as Decast.
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I'm joined today by my colleagues, Sylvia Montalvan, Decash Chief Citywide Equity And Inclusion Officer, Deputy Commissioner Dan Pollock, First Deputy Commissioner at the Office of Labor.
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Relations, and Sadia Sherman, chief equity officer and commissioner at the mayor's office of equity and racial justice.
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I'd like to first begin by thanking you for the for this opportunity to discuss pay equity in the municipal workforce.
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A matter that I am deeply invested in improving.
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Equity is at the forefront of the work we do at Decast to better serve all New Yorkers.
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This is true of the way we think we think about addressing paid disparities among among our municipal workforce and the strategies we employ to help close the gap.
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As a black woman who has charted my entire career in city government, I am keenly aware of the challenges that have created barriers to advancement and have limited earnings for some based on their race or gender.
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Despite witnessing past inequity's firsthand, I am fortunate to be involved in the efforts to revolutionize and reimagine the municipal workforce every day.
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Our vision has never been clearer, and we view our work from a lens that magnifies equity.
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Our agency is committed to providing opportunities for all New Yorkers and leveling the playing field through the civil service process.
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Since we last testified on this matter, the city has made significant progress to diversify our talent pools.
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Increase equity and access and remove barriers to municipal employment, including through the ongoing review of our minimum qualification requirements.
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In June 2023, we supplemented the bachelor's degree requirement for certain job titles.
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Today, we have completed our review of 23 entry level titles with the potential to impact 20,000 jobs and expand eligibility for civil service positions that were previously restricted and made difficult for many applicants to meet minimum qualification requirements.
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With an updated review, the city is now more inclusive and equitable, focusing on relevant work experience and practical skills rather than formal education.
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We are also building the foundation to expand and review to eventually include supervisory and discretionary positions in titles where we've historically seen the greatest pay gaps.
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Moreover, last year, we bareheaded the innovative and impactful New York City government hiring the whole model to help fortify our workforce.
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With 16 New York City government hiring halls held, we touched every corner of the five boroughs and yielded more than 2000 same day job offers.
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Today, of the of the 2000 job offers, the city has onboarded 1540 candidates and there are over 1325 still working at city agencies at agency citywide.
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Collectively, efforts have collectively, these efforts have helped us better position the city of New York as both an employer of choice and an employer of opportunity for all New Yorkers truly reflect reflecting the diversity of the city we serve.
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As we continue to focus on strengthening our workforce, increasing diversity, and creating new opportunities.
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We are also cognizant of the challenges posed by historic and systematic inequities as it relates to occupational segregation and pay equity.
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We have shown continued intentionality in revamping our approach and thinking innovatively about weaving equity into all aspects of recruitment and workforce development and training.
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This includes working to address occupational segregation by enhancing recruitment for a more diverse pool of titles and EEO job categories, that are highly paid but predominantly white or male.
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The council's most recent published paid disparities report shows there have been strides in minimizing the pay gap.
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Compared to the first report, black employee salaries have improved by 9% compared to white employees.
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Our Hispanic and Latino colleagues have improved 7% and our Asian employees have also improved their salaries by 7%.
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Based on these numbers, it is evident that there are major shifts happening and the tireless efforts that we have been making to promote municipal employment in every corner of the city has been yielding tangible results.
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Our first line of defense has and will continue to be our civil service system.
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By design, it prioritizes Meredith Fitness, and and mitigates issues with pay inequity.
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Furthermore, the salaries for the vast majority of employees are set through collective bargaining between the city represented by the office of labor relations and unions representing our city's workforce.
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So our employees themselves have a seat at the table through their union representation.
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In addition to utilizing our civil service system to increase equity, we've also been laser focused on bolstering diversity.
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In fiscal year 22, the cumulative representation of historically marginalized groups among new hires exceeded those who self identify as white in all job categories.
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The number also tells a story of advancement in the workplace for women.
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Among new hires, female appointments exceed the appointments in more job categories than previously reported.
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Including administrative support, officials, and administrators, professionals, and power professionals.
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Excuse me.
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This also should suggest that we are actively remedying the impacts of occupational segregation as women have been hired in the categories of protected services fields that are typically male dominated, but are diversifying.
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We recognize that inclusive recruitment and targeted outreach to marginalized groups is a vital part of increasing diversity and access.
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With that in mind, we continue to focus on creating opportunities and sharing resources for those interested in municipal employment through Decast's office of citywide recruitment or OCR.
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In fiscal year 23, OCR participated in over 209 out reach events and reached nearly 26,000 participants sharing widely the benefit of city employment and promoting pathways into civil service for New Yorkers.
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OCR's recruitment efforts also target students enrolled at colleges And Universities, including promoting and disseminating information about internships and fellowship opportunities like our civil service pathway fellowship.
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Which is the the civil service pathway fellowship, a decast and city of New York Partnership.
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Is a 2 year fellowship that provides recent CUNY graduates with pathways to permanent civil service employment.
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With all of the efforts in mind, we are confident that the work we're doing makes our city's workforce more equitable, starting from recruiting through career training, development, and advancement.
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As such, we value the council's input and welcome discussions related to the proposed legislation being considered today.
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It is important to highlight that we have already set into motion a number of initiatives and strategies whose goals are reflected in some of your bills.
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And so I'll go into our position of around a few of your bills.
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Intro to 743, We agree in spirit with the bill and wants to highlight that the city has employed similar strategies and municipal government for many years now.
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Across agencies, citywide, career counseling is already offered to employees.
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In considering the intricacies and logistics of career counseling, We wish to remind the council that hiring and promotions occur at the agency level.
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Thus, decast insight into the full breadth of opportunities and paths paths to advancement is limited and beyond the scope of our purview.
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Considering that there are over 300,000 total city employees.
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The type of resources that would be needed to centralize career counseling through DCAS as prescribed by the language and the legislation would be significant and frankly impractical.
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That said, we welcome a future dialogue log with the council about how we can make the existing career counseling process work better, so equitability uplift, and and empower our city's workforce.
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Intro to 767, similarly, intro to 767 seeks to gain insight on city employee experiences in the workforce.
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That we have been actively working together.
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DeCast is constantly checking the pulse of of the fellow agencies on what they need to help retain and improve employee engagement and satisfaction.
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We think there is an opportunity to harmonize this bill with our latest efforts to achieve these shared goals and welcome future discussions with counsel about the best way to mend that work together.
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Intro to 809, CCaaS has serious operational concerns about this bill and seeks a future discussion with the council to better understand its intent in proposing this legislation and the goals it is designed to achieve.
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Aside from our view aside from our view that any prospective implementation of this measure would be impractical.
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The data that would need to call to produce an annual report as this bill pro prescribes lies beyond the scope of our current resources.
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Additionally, Decast was to take an opportunity to briefly acknowledge the 2 other bills being considered by the council here today.
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Enrolls 829 and 828-829.
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Unfortunately, we will we will not be able to comment on these measures, giving the recent inclusion, so the agenda for this hearing, thus not affording us an opportunity to review the language and prepare commentary on them.
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In conclusion, we thank the council for its ongoing commitment to increasing pay equity and improving the city's municipal workforce.
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Having fellow partners in government provides us with an appropriate channel to cross pollinate and reimagine the city's workforce.
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To best serve all New Yorkers.
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As reflected by this hearing, combating disparities based on race, ethnicity, and or gender and occupational segregation is indeed an all hands on deck issue.
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As you have heard from our testimony, decast undertakes many initiatives and offers many pathways to address inequities and pay, and we will continue to do so in close coordination and collaboration with our fellow agencies and the council.
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Please know that our continued pursuit for equal opportunity and equity for all New Yorkers is reflected in the work we do every day.
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Thanks again.
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And at this time, I'm happy to answer any questions.
