PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Miriam Clark, Legislative Chair of the New York Affiliate of the National Employment Lawyers Association, on Salary Transparency Legislation
2:14:19
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3 min
Miriam Clark, representing the National Employment Lawyers Association, testified in support of Intro 808-A, emphasizing the importance of comprehensive salary transparency legislation to address wage gaps and promote pay equity in New York City. She highlighted key aspects of the bill that would improve job postings and benefit both employees and employers.
- Clark stressed the need for job postings to include all forms of compensation, including non-cash benefits and crucial benefits like paid maternity leave and long-term disability insurance.
- She emphasized the importance of including job descriptions in postings to prevent workers from being misled into low-skilled positions.
- Clark argued that salary transparency for current employees would allow for informed career choices and help identify potential pay equity issues.
Miriam Clark
2:14:19
Hi.
2:14:19
I'm Miriam Clark.
2:14:21
I'm the Legislative Chair of the New York Affiliate of the National Employment Lawyers Association.
2:14:27
We're a 350 lawyer organization of people representing employees.
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I'm also a partner in the law firm of Ritz Clark and Ben Asher.
2:14:36
I've been representing New York employees for 35 years.
2:14:40
As you have heard from others, the wage gap in New York City between white men and women, especially black and Latinx women, is enormous and disgraceful and current complaint based laws, no matter how strong such as the one in New York City, do not seem to be chipping away at this problem.
2:14:59
A solution that has been shown to work is salary transparency legislation and thanks to your leadership, New York City has taken the lead in this area.
2:15:09
However, the changes contained in 808A are necessary to achieve that transparency.
2:15:15
I'm going to talk about just some of the most important changes that we see affecting our clients in 808A.
2:15:22
First of all, the need to describe all forms of transportation in a job posting.
2:15:28
I know that was briefly alluded to in prior testimony, but it's important to know that when employers are allowed to omit from job postings things like stock options or RSUs or all sorts of non cash forms of compensation, they can then pick and choose which favorite employees will have access to these valuable perks.
2:15:51
In many jobs, these perks far exceed the value of somebody's base salary.
2:15:56
On the other hand, the availability of crucial benefits such as paid maternity leave, long term disability insurance can be fundamental to the decision making of an employee.
2:16:08
But employees are understandably reluctant to ask at an interview about the availability of these benefits because they're afraid they'll signal to the employer that, God forbid, they're about to get pregnant or they have an illness that might cause them to be disabled.
2:16:23
By requiring upfront employers to inform people of these incredibly important, often life changing forms of compensation that it it would be only empty to have the job postings as they are now simply focused on base salaries.
2:16:43
These are the things that really matter.
2:16:46
It's also important that job postings include job descriptions.
2:16:50
When employers are permitted to post jobs without job descriptions, workers may be lured into accepting dead end low skilled positions without realizing it.
2:17:01
We know this happens all the time to women workers and workers of color who end up getting foisted into, for example, administrative work, while similarly qualified workers who are male or white are put on management training tracks.
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Finally, salary transparency for current employees allows employees to make informed choices about their possibilities for growth and advancement.
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It also allows both employees and employers to flag and address potential examples of failures of pay equity.
2:17:33
For example, I've had quiet clients who were highly equity that New Yorkers deserve and justice requires.
2:17:54
Thank you.
