An alarming new report finds income inequity in New York City has accelerated as the wealthy elite have built immense fortunes through investments, while most everyday workers struggle to survive on a paycheck.
The report by Mark Levine, the city’s comptroller, found that 60 percent of the city’s wealth was concentrated in only 10 percent of the population, intensifying the city’s affordability crisis.
This disparity plays out along racial lines. Last year, the median income for Black New Yorkers was $60,000, compared to $110,000 for white city residents. At the wage level, the racial gap was $16 per hour. Even among the city’s municipal workforce, where greater parity might be expected, workers of color earned 84 cents per dollar compared to white workers.
The comptroller’s analysis suggests Mayor Mamdani must focus on jobs and workforce training that unlocks upward mobility for New Yorkers. His prescription must look beyond tax hikes on the rich, increasing the minimum wage, and holding the line on rents. The most effective steps to drive down inequality long-term are giving more New Yorkers opportunities to enter the middle class through good-paying jobs and ownership of durable assets.
Specifically, the mayor must reform the current system of public, private, and non-profit players that recruit, train, and place thousands of New Yorkers annually into entry-level jobs. These “pathway” roles can be precarious, with starting wages low and retention volatile. As a result, workers’ climb up the ladder toward economic security often produces only temporary gains that rarely, if ever, translate into wealth.
More New Yorkers need to get a foot in the door. That means apprenticeships at Wall Street financial giants, health insurers, pharmaceutical companies, engineering and technology firms, particularly artificial intelligence giants flush with investment capital. Everyone involved should work more closely with City University of New York, which already has strong STEM curricula, to expand its offerings of specialized training programs.
On top of investments in jobs, New Yorkers need safe and stable homes. I strongly support the pending New York City Council bill —the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) — that would give government-vetted, qualified entities the first chance to buy troubled properties. The bill, sponsored by Brooklyn Councilmember Sandy Nurse, would specifically exclude small owner-occupied buildings with fewer than six apartments or parents passing properties on to their children. A complimentary bill pending at the state level, called the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), builds on COPA. Both should be fast-tracked by the City Council and New York State Legislature.
A home is the greatest asset most individuals will own in their lifetime, but only one-quarter of Black and less than one-fifth of Latino city residents own their homes, compared to nearly half of white New Yorkers. COPA and TOPA would open the door to social housing, which can especially help low-income people by creating new opportunities for ownership, control and long-term stability. Residents of social housing can put the money they are not spending on unaffordable rents or mortgages into other investments, be they social (education, training), financial (retirement vehicles, college savings accounts), or physical (equipment, business start-up funds).
Mayor Mamdani’s other announced programs are on target. They range from raising the city’s minimum wage to $30 to the creation of an Office of Worker Power to empower labor unions and local rank-and-file employees. Those steps would enhance his ambitious portfolio of affordability goals, including universal childcare, low-cost grocery stores in every borough, and free bus rides.
Income inequity means something more than money or people in poverty. It speaks to social and economic injustices and persistent racial disparities in health care, wealth, housing, employment, and wages. Nearly two-thirds of New Yorkers are unable to meet the city’s cost of living—coming up $40,000 shy annually on average, according to the city’s True Cost of Living Measure. In addition to struggling to pay skyrocketing rents and high food prices, some New Yorkers still struggle to afford bus and subway fares. They’re digging themselves into a financial hole.
Ironically, New York’s lowest wage earners did not take a pay cut. Wage and salary inequity only slightly increased over the past five years, according to the comptroller’s report. Pay grew fastest for lower-wage positions, such as food preparation and healthcare support. However, when factoring in inflation, real income fell for the bottom 90 percent of earners, while it grew 16.2 percent for the top one percent, the comptroller’s report said.
Low-income workers are not to blame. These are not individual failures; the system is stacked against anyone who lacks college degree or lacks social connections with the people doing the hiring, no matter how hard they try.
Mamdani must keep an eye on the prize: New Yorkers need tangible wealth and better job prospects. Without them, too many of our neighbors will struggle into the future to afford basic necessities.
David R. Jones, Esq., is President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), the leading voice on behalf of low-income New Yorkers for more than 175 years and a member of the MTA Board. The views expressed in this column are solely those of the writer. The Urban Agenda is available on CSS’s website: www.cssny.org.
