Two years ago, in response to inspirational mobilization by thousands of workers in New York City’s service industry, CPD partnered with United New York to hold a one-day symposium and release a report laying out policy prescriptions that would improve the quality of life for millions of working families in the city. Workers Rising: Organizing Service Jobs for Shared Prosperity highlighted the stories of courageous leaders in the car wash, airline, retail, and fast food industries whose efforts had changed the political discourse in the city.

On Feb. 11, New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito gave voice to those workers and turned many of CPD’s policy prescriptions into the official agenda of the city government. In a wide-ranging and widely-praised State of the City Address, Speaker Mark-Viverito laid out a bold vision for raising the quality of service jobs in New York: “Promoting equality and fairness in our City also means facing up to one of the most important socioeconomic challenges of our time: income inequality.”

The Speaker announced her plan to pass legislation creating an Office of Labor that will enforce City laws such as paid sick days and other future workers’ rights laws, in addition to State labor laws once the Council is successful in gaining authority to do so. Furthermore, the Office will serve as a resource for workers and businesses, helping them understand their rights and responsibilities, and assisting businesses to comply with the law. The Office will also develop programs for worker education, safety, and protection. The proposal for a city Office of Labor was first put on the NYC political agenda with the Workers Rising publication and symposium. The Speaker also announced her intention to seek the authority to pass a city minimum wage and to enforce the State’s wage and hour laws. Alongside the 2013 passage (and 2014 expansion) of the paid sick days law, Speaker Mark-Viverito’s announcement means that nearly all of the policy prescriptions that CPD laid out in our early 2013 report are law, are on the way to becoming law, or are stated priorities for New York City’s Mayor and Council Speaker.