Ever wonder why city workers are not answering your calls, returning your emails or processing your applications?
They might be working on one of the hundreds of meaningless reports required by city laws. There’s even a law requiring the city to report how many reports are required. As of 2019, according to a 57-page analysis, there were 842.
The City Council is trying hard to get to 1,000. Last week, by overriding Mayor Eric Adams’ vetoes, it added another, and compounded the error by forcing businesses as well to file annual reports that will accomplish absolutely nothing.
Under Intro 982-A, employers with more than 200 employees in the city must now submit annual pay data reports broken down by race or ethnicity and also by sex.
A second law, 984-A, requires the city to turn these reports into an analysis to identify disparities by industry. This must be done every single year, even though the numbers barely change from one year to the next.
Mike Bloomberg liked to say, “You can’t fix what you can’t measure.” But wage disparities have been measured a thousand times. All the studies show that men make more than women and white people make more than people of color.
But few show why. And these two new laws are no different.
Like most of the others, the city study required by 984-A will not show how much of the disparities stems from racism or sexism and how much is attributable to other factors, including employees’ job responsibilities, hours, experience, seniority, commissions, etc.
As a result, it will be totally useless, except for grandstanding purposes.
We’ve all heard the statistic that women earn 82 cents for every dollar that men make. Twenty years earlier, in 2002, it was 80 cents. It barely changed because the discrepancy is caused by factors that are not affected by publicizing it.
Politicians like to chalk up the male-female pay gap to sexism, but economists have figured out that choices by women — usually related to child care and working in lower-paying fields, such as teaching — are the primary reason. Discrimination is a factor, but it’s small.
Reality check: If you work more hours, generally you make more money. Become a journalist and interrupt your career to raise kids, as I did, and you make less.
In 1982, women made 65 cents for every dollar earned by men. The big jump to 80 cents in 2002 was largely because women began going to college in greater numbers, giving birth later and spending less time at home with children.
No single factor explains pay gaps. But the reports newly required by the Council won’t identify any factors. They will just create work for employers and agencies, making them tally numbers that have no practical value and will not change anything.
Actually, Intro 982-A could change one thing — it could deter businesses from hiring a 201st employee and subjecting themselves to this madness.
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