Mayoral Override: NYC Employers to Face New Pay Data Reporting Obligations

Quick Hits

• The New York City Council enacted two new pay data reporting laws, requiring large employers to submit annual reports detailing pay data by race, ethnicity, and sex.
• The designated agency will collect demographic information modeled after the former federal EEO-1 Component 2 reports and will have the authority to modify reporting requirements, including options for different gender identities.
• Employers face penalties for noncompliance, including written warnings and fines, and the designated agency will conduct annual pay equity audits to evaluate potential pay disparities.

The City Council had initially passed the measures in October 2025, but outgoing Mayor Eric Adams vetoed the legislation on November 7, 2025. The city council then voted to override those vetoes, setting in motion the establishment of a pay data reporting scheme for the city’s largest employers.

Pay Data Reporting

Int. 0982-2024-A will require private employers with more than 200 employees working in New York City to submit pay data reports to a soon-to-be-designated city agency. The reports would include demographic and occupational information and be submitted annually using an electronic form.

Designated Agency

Int. 0982-2024-A establishes a new pay data reporting system. By December 4, 2026, the mayor will designate an agency to “conduct a pay equity study of the private workforce” and set up a system to collect information from covered employers. Within a year after the designation, the agency will “develop a standardized fillable form, which may be electronic or web-based,” to allow covered employers to submit the pay data reports anonymously. Employers will then be required to submit the reports within a year after the publication of the standardized forms and do so annually thereafter.

Reporting Requirements

The pay data reports will collect current demographic information of employees, modeled after the former federal EEO-1 Component 2 reports, which were collected by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2019 for the years 2017 and 2018. Those Component 2 reports required employers to place employees in one of twelve pay bands within their respective EEO-1 job category and separate them by gender and race or ethnicity. Those reports allowed employers to rely on the total taxable wages for federal income tax purposes, as reported in Box 1 of the W-2 tax forms for each employee.

The New York City law would allow the designated agency to make potential modifications to the reports, “including but not limited to inclusion of reporting options accounting for different gender identities.” The reports must also allow covered employers “to provide explanatory remarks regarding any of the information contained in the report.”

Statement of Accuracy

Employers will additionally be required to submit a “signed statement by an authorized agent” confirming the submission of the report and attesting to the accuracy of the information submitted.

Penalties

Covered employers that fail to submit the pay data reports will face a written warning and be provided thirty days to comply. Failure to comply within thirty days could result in a civil penalty of $1,000. Subsequent violations will be subject to a civil penalty of $5,000.

Annual Pay Equity Audits

Int 0984-2024-A provides that the designated agency will use the information from the reports to conduct a study that evaluates whether there are potential pay disparities based on gender and race or ethnicity and deliver the findings within six months to the mayor and the speaker of the city council within one year after employers are required to submit their reports.

The designated agency will be required to publish the aggregate information from the reports submitted by the covered employers in a way that does not identify any particular covered employer or covered employer’s employees.

Next Steps

With the new pay data reporting laws, New York City joins other jurisdictions, such as California, Illinois, and Massachusetts, in the trend of establishing pay data reporting requirements aimed at reducing pay disparities and ensuring equal employment opportunities. It is anticipated that states and local municipalities will continue to impose their own reporting obligations, as the federal government has shifted its focus away from such reporting.

Ogletree Deakins’ New York office, Government Contracting and Reporting Practice Group, Pay Equity Practice Group, and Workforce Analytics and Compliance Practice Group will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Compliance, Government Contracting and Reporting, Multistate Compliance, New York, Pay Equity, and Workforce Analytics and Compliance blogs as additional information becomes available.

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