New York City enacted two new pay data reporting laws for the purposes of collecting demographic and occupational information to use for pay equity studies of the private workforce to identify potential pay disparities. That annual reporting obligation could commence as early as 2027, and could conceivably require reporting of 2026 pay data. New York City’s pay data collection and audits follows similar efforts already in place in California, Illinois, Massachusetts and adopted by the EU Pay Transparency Directive.
At a Glance
- Private employers with at least 200 employees in New York City will be required to report pay data each year to the city’s designated agency. The city’s mayor must identify the designated agency by December 4, 2026 (no agency has been identified yet).
- A standardized form developed by the designated agency will request pay data broken down by job category, gender, race and ethnicity for 12 compensation bands (modeled after the EEO-1 Component 2 reports). The designated agency must develop and publish the standardized form by December 4, 2027 (no form has been developed yet).
- The designated agency will annually review the submitted pay data and publish a public pay study report identifying disparities in compensation based on gender, race, and ethnicity and recommending actions for private employers to address those disparities.
Background
On December 4, 2025, the New York City Council overrode Mayor Eric Adam’s veto of two bills, Introduction Nos. 982-A (L.L. 2025/173) and 984-A (L.L. 2025/174), amending Title 12 of the New York City Administrative Code. The new local laws, codified as N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 12-208.2, supplement existing pay equity-related regulations with the intent to address pay disparities based on gender, race, and ethnicity at large private employers.
Pay Data Reporting
Who’s Covered? Any private employers with 200 or more employees in New York City, whether compensated on a full-time, part-time, or temporary basis (Covered Employer). A Covered Employer’s size may be determined by counting the highest total number of employees employed at any point during the reporting year.
What Agency Will Collect the Data? The new law does not specify a city agency to collect employers’ pay data and publish the annual pay study report. The mayor must designate an agency by December 4, 2026.
How Will the Data Be Collected? Within one year of the mayor designating an agency, the designated agency must develop a standardized fillable form, in either an electronic or web-based format, to anonymously collect the required pay data from Covered Employers. The latest the designated agency may publish the standardized form is December 4, 2027.
What Data Must Be Reported? The standardized form will closely track the requirements of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s EEO-1 Component 2 form for the reporting years 2017 and 2018. By way of background, that data included the number of employees and total hours worked broken down by:
- Job categories (including executives, mid-level officials, professionals, etc.)
- Compensation bands (12 levels ranging from $19,239 and under, to $208,000 and over)
- Race and ethnicity, including
- Hispanic or Latino
- White
- Black or African American
- Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
- Asian
- Native American or Alaskan Native
- Two or more races
- Gender (male or female)
In addition to the categories required by EEO-1 Component 2, the designated agency may modify the form to include, among other changes, the ability to identify employees by gender identities other than male or female and provide explanatory remarks concerning the reported data.
A Covered Employer must also submit a separate “statement of accuracy” through an authorized agent “confirming the submission of the pay report and the accuracy of the information.”
What are the Potential Penalties?
For first-time violations, a Covered Employer will have 30 days from the date of notice to cure the violation and submit the required pay data. If there is a failure to cure, the employer will be subject to a $1,000 civil penalty. Subsequent violations will be subject to a $5,000 civil penalty.
In addition to the civil penalties above, the designated agency will publish a list of Covered Employers who have not complied with the required pay data reporting.
Private Pay Equity Study and Findings
The designated agency will work with the Commission on Gender Equity and other relevant agencies to audit the pay data for pay disparities based on gender, race, and ethnicity. The designated agency will also identify industries with prevalent disparities along with any trends in occupational segregation based on gender, race, and ethnicity.
The designated agency must submit its findings to the mayor and City Council, including among other topics:
- An analysis of the collected pay data
- A statement of pay disparities, if any were identified
- A description of every statistical methodology used to analyze the pay data
- A list of recommendations for addressing any disparities identified through the study
The designated agency must also publish the list of recommendations it has submitted to the mayor and City Council together with aggregated data from the pay data reports. The aggregated data cannot identify any Covered Employers or its employees.
Next Steps for Employers
Employers subject to the pay data reporting obligations should conduct privileged pay equity audits now to understand and address any potential pay disparities before data submission. The reports do allow covered employers to “provide explanatory remarks regarding any information regarding any of the information contained in the report”.
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