The NYC Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) protects and enhances the daily economic lives of New Yorkers to create thriving communities. DCA licenses more than 81,000 businesses in more than 50 industries and enforces key consumer protection, licensing, and workplace laws that apply to countless more. By supporting businesses through equitable enforcement and access to resources and, by helping to resolve complaints, DCA protects the marketplace from predatory practices and strives to create a culture of compliance. Through its community outreach and the work of its offices of Financial Empowerment and Labor Policy & Standards, DCA empowers consumers and working families by providing the tools and resources they need to be educated consumers and to achieve financial health and work-life balance. DCA also conducts research and advocates for public policy that furthers its work to support New York City’s communities. For more information about DCA and its work, call 311 or visit DCA at nyc.gov/dca or on its social media sites, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
The Office of Labor Policy and Standards (“the Office,” “OLPS”), a new division at the Department of Consumer Affairs (“DCA”) aimed at giving workers in New York City a voice in City government, is responsible for enforcing the city’s municipal labor laws such as the Earned Sick Time Act and the Commuter Benefits Law, implementing the Freelance Isn’t Free Act, expanding outreach and public education efforts to vulnerable workers, and conducting research and data analysis to recommend efforts to achieve workplace equity for women, communities of color, immigrants, refugees, and other vulnerable workers. The Office’s Division of Paid Care also assists workers submit complaints regarding federal, state, and local labor and employment law violations and helps the Office coordinate with other government agencies, worker advocacy groups, as well as community, labor, and employment organizations.
The OLPS Research Director is a new position. The ideal candidate has significant experience conducting both qualitative and quantitative labor market research, a track record of designing and managing high-quality research and policy reports in a wide variety of formats, experience supervising staff and the ability to build a research and policy team, and expertise in worker rights issues.
Key responsibilities will include:
• Working with the OLPS senior management to assess the Division’s research and policy needs.
• Analyzing the economics of low-wage industries, drawing on and analyzing government data, academic research and industry trade press.
• Supervision of research and policy team members in labor market research and the execution of projects and publications including major reports, briefs, testimony, and infographics and other visuals. This responsibility includes project/publication planning and oversight of all elements of project execution, including data work and statistical analyses of varying complexity, policy design and report writing;
• In conjunction with OLPS management and operations staff, and DCA’s Data Analysis and Strategic Planning Division, developing a set of metrics to: monitor operational performance, evaluate outcomes, and help formulate the direction of the Office’s research and policy work; identify and develop opportunities to most effectively deploy OLPS’s outreach, enforcement and resources to ensure the City’s most vulnerable workers realize the benefits of city, state and federal labor standards laws; and assess the effectiveness of OLPS’s implementation and enforcement of the City’s labor standards laws.
• Leading the development and execution of an original field research program to build our knowledge of New York City’s low-wage workers and their demographics, their knowledge of their rights under city, state and federal labor and employment law, their needs for additional rights education and enforcement support and City services, the incidence of workplace violations, and the demographics and patterns of abuses in specific industries. The program will include a series of focus groups and individual worker surveys conducted in conjunction with key academic and advocacy partners, as well as other appropriate strategies as needed.
• Keeping abreast of policy developments in other jurisdictions and emerging policy proposals, and, based on OLPS’s and the City goals, and OLPS’s assessment of the most pressing needs of the workers in New York City, develop policy proposals to address systemic abuses in industries with pervasive violations and to lift workplace standards broadly. The Director will also help prepare testimony and comments on proposed City and potentially state and federal bills and regulations.
• Conduct trainings for the entire OLPS staff on issues that are crucial to the Division’s work.
