Origins and early reforms (1880s–1920s) In 1883, the Bureau of Labor Statistics was established to collect data on labor conditions. In 1886, the Department of the Factory Inspector was created to enforce woman and child labor laws and workplace safety regulations. Between February and May 1901, New York State Department of Labor headed by a Commissioner of Labor replaced and incorporated (into bureaus) the commissioner of labor statistics and factory inspector, and state board of mediation and arbitration. In 1910, a
workers' compensation system was created. In 1911 the
Court of Appeals (the highest court) struck down the 1910 act as unconstitutional, ruling that it violated due process under the state constitution. The
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire happened the day after the decision. On July 11, 1913, thirty-three women and two men lost their lives in the
Binghamton Clothing Company Fire. The Triangle and Binghamton tragedies gave impetus to labor legislation, and the state constitution was amended on November 4 to permit the still-in-force
Workers' Compensation Law. In 1913, reorganization of the Department of Labor led to the creation of the Industrial Board, an advisory board tasked with increasing awareness of and enforcing the NYS Industrial Code, a set of rules and regulations with the force of law that affects the health, safety and comfort of workers. This Board made the Department of Labor an administrative as well as a regulatory agency. The Division for Industrial Hygiene, for technical research, was also established at this time. The NYS Legislature consolidated the Workmen’s Compensation Commission with the NYS Department of Labor in 1915. A five-member Industrial Commission, headed by an Industrial Commissioner, was appointed to run the Department, replacing the Commissioner of Labor, the Industrial Board, and the Workmen’s Compensation Commission. The Industrial Commission created the Bureau of Women in Industry, the precursor to the modern Division of Labor Standards, in 1918. In 1921, the NYS Legislature reorganized the Department of Labor, placing quasi-judicial and legislative powers in an Industrial Board and assigning administrative matters to a single Industrial Commissioner. An amendment to the State Constitution in 1926 reorganized the more than 180 scattered departments, bureaus, boards and commissioners of State government into 18 departments, one of which was the Department of Labor. In 1929,
Frances Perkins is appointed by the newly elected New York governor
Franklin D. Roosevelt as the inaugural industrial commissioner.
The New Deal (1930s) In 1933, the Prevailing Rates of Wage amendment to the NYS Labor Law charged the Industrial Commissioner with determining wages to be paid on all public works of the State (except those done for a city). After the
Wagner–Peyser Act of 1933 created the
United States Employment Service and the
Social Security Act of 1935 authorized unemployment insurance for the jobless, NYS DOL created the Division of Unemployment Insurance, which soon merged with the State Employment Service. The
New York Unemployment Insurance Law was enacted in April 1935 and codified at Article 18 of the
Labor Law and made employers of 4 people over 13 weeks (or more) liable for taxes, excluding government, agriculture, religious, scientific, literary, or educational organizations, and also authorized state employment districts and offices (to become the New York State Employment Service). A Division of Unemployment Insurance was established within the department to administer the act. The
New York Court of Appeals and
US Supreme Court (by an evenly split court) upheld the law in 1936. The
New York State Employment Relations Act, also known as the State Labor Relations Act, SERA, or the Little Wagner Act, and codified at Article 20 of the
Labor Law, was enacted in 1937 and modeled after the
National Labor Relations Act of 1935. In 1937, the rule-making and variance-granting power of the DOL's Industrial Board was transferred to the Board of Standards and Appeals. The Industrial Board retained jurisdiction only in adjudicating workmen’s compensation cases in the
first instance. The Labor Relations Board was established to supervise labor-management relations. And the state passed a minimum wage law protecting women and minors. The
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 set a national minimum wage standard and a forty hour work week, and in this same year, an amendment to the New York State Constitution established a "Bill of Rights" for working people. The
Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board (UIAB) was also established in 1938, to hear appeals from claimants or employers dissatisfied with departmental administrative determinations.
Expansion (1940s–1970s) In January 1942, for the duration of World War II, the President of the United States absorbed the New York State Employment Service into the
National Manpower Program. In 1944, New York State’s Minimum Wage Law was amended to include men. In 1945, the NYS Industrial Board was replaced by the Workmen’s Compensation Board. The National Manpower Program ended in 1946, and control of the Employment Service was returned to New York State. Also in this year, New York first passed laws regulating the hours which minors could work during non-school hours. The
Taylor Law (Public Employees Fair Employment Act) of 1967 defines the rights and limitations of unions for public employees. In 1971, both Unemployment Services and Manpower Services, formerly the part of the Division of Employment, became part of the Department of Labor. The federal government passed the
Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), under which allocation of funds is locally oriented, in 1973, and in 1974, NYSDOL began implementing the act in New York State. In 1975, the Board of Standards and Appeals was abolished and replaced with the newly-established
Industrial Board of Appeals. The power to adopt rules relating to health and safety standards was transferred to the industrial commissioner, while the board was empowered to revoke, amend, or modify any adopted rule, regulation, or order. In 1978, the Workmen's Compensation Board was renamed the
Workers' Compensation Board.
Modernization (1980s–1990s) In 1980, the
Public Employee Safety and Health Act (PESH Act) authorized an
occupational safety and health program for state and local
civil service employees in accordance with the federal
Occupational Safety and Health Act, which excluded them, with
administrative review through the
Industrial Board of Appeals and
judicial review through the
Supreme Court under Article 78 of the
CPLR. In 1982, the title of the head of the department was changed from Industrial Commissioner to Commissioner of Labor. The
Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) of 1982 replaced the CETA. The new law provided localities with federal funds for employment training. In 1987, DOL began its regulation of asbestos control activities in the state. In 1991, New York State became the first state in the U.S. to require both school and parental permission for teenagers to work past 10 p.m. In 1992, it also became the first state in the U.S. to establish enforceable guidelines to protect public employees against tuberculosis in the workplace. Also in 1991, the Labor Relations Board and the State Board of Mediation were disestablished and their functions merged into the newly-established State Employment Relations Board (SERB). The State Labor Relations Act of 1937 was also renamed to the
State Employment Relations Act (SERA). The NYS Department of Labor debuted the first iteration of its website in 1995. In an effort to reform Workers' Compensation, the NYS Legislature passed Governor George Pataki’s New York Employment, Safety and Security Act of 1996, which significantly reduced workers' compensation costs for employers. The
Welfare Reform Act of 1997 implemented the federal
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act and transferred supervisory responsibility for all public assistance employment programs, including those under Family Assistance (FA,
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), Safety Net Assistance (SNA), and
Food Stamp Program, from the
Department of Social Services (DSS) to DOL. The welfare reform legislation lead to the formation of the Welfare-To-Work Division, and DOL began testing Claims by Phone, which was the beginning of the current Unemployment Insurance Telephone Claims Centers.
21st century (2000–present) New York State minimum wage was raised to $5.15 per hour and linked to federal minimum wage in 2000. In 2001, DOL completed the conversion of the Unemployment Insurance program from in-person filing to a new filing system using an Interactive Voice Response systems and a touch-tone phone. Additionally, UI applications went online through the department’s website. In the wake of the September 11th terrorist attack, DOL mobilized to work with state, federal and NYC agencies to aid in the relief and recovery efforts. With $25 million in National Emergency Grant Funding, NYSDOL was able to provide essential services to victims and dislocated workers. In the 2003 budget, the Interest Assessment Surcharge was created to pay interest on loans from the (
Unemployment Trust Fund) Federal Unemployment Account. In 2005, the Department of Labor’s Apparel Industry Task Force was expanded into the Fair Wages Task Force, and its enforcement was expanded to include restaurants, laundries, grocery stores and gardening services. The Fair Wages Task Force was also created at this time, to investigate industries where wages were low and workers were likely to be exploited. In its first year of existence, the Fair Wage Task force completed more than 400 investigations and found more than $5.3 million due to nearly 5,100 underpaid workers. In 2007, the final increment of the NYS Minimum Wage increase from $5.15 to $7.25, and Workers’ Compensation Reform took effect. NYS UI claimants were issued Direct Payment Cards for Unemployment Insurance benefits, and recipients also were given the option of receiving benefit payments via Direct Deposit, rather than via a Direct Payment Card. Also in 2007, the Bureau of Immigrant Workers’ Rights (now the Division of Immigrant Policies and Affairs) was created to address the growing needs of immigrant workers throughout the state. In 2009,
M. Patricia Smith, who later became the Solicitor of the
United States Department of Labor, was the labor commissioner. . 2010 saw the passage of both the NYS Construction Industry Fair Play Act, which made it illegal for an employer to misclassify employees as independent contractors or pay employees off the books, and the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, the first law of its kind in the nation. In 2010, the State Employment Relations Board was abolished and the
Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) became responsible for administering the adjudicatory and conciliation provisions of the
New York State Employment Relations Act. The NYS Commercial Goods Transportation Industry Fair Play Act went into effect in April 2014. This law created a new standard for determining whether a driver of commercial vehicles who transports goods is an employee or independent contractor. According to an audit released in June 2014 by
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, the Department of Labor did not complete many of its
wage theft investigations in a timely manner. As of late August 2013, the DOL had more than 17,000 open cases, consisting of about 9,300 active investigations and more than 7,800 cases pending payment, and of these almost 13,000, or 75%, were at least one year old from initial claim date. By 2015, the caseload had been handled and 85% of investigations were being completed within 6 months. In 2015 alone, the agency had distributed a record $31.5 million to victims of wage theft. In May 2015, acting labor commissioner Mario Musolino appointed a state wage board to investigate wages for
fast food workers. In July, the board issued a report recommending a $15-an-hour
minimum wage for fast food workers, and in September 2015 acting commissioner Musolino issued an order accepting the recommendations. Effective December 31, 2015, the department adopted amended codified regulations (12
NYCRR part 146) implementing the report and order. In 2015, Roberta Reardon, a former
AFL–CIO and
SAG-AFTRA official, was nominated as the state labor commissioner, and was confirmed by the Senate on June 15, 2016. In 2016, as part of the 2016–17 State Budget, Governor Cuomo signed legislation enacting a incremental statewide $15 minimum wage plan. On December 31, 2016, the first in a series of wage increases went into effect. In 2020, tip allowances for employees under the Miscellaneous Wage Order were reduced by 50% by end of June, and eliminated entirely by December 31 (for all industries except hospitality, farmworkers and building service). , New York owed the United States over $6 billion in outstanding loans from the (
Unemployment Trust Fund) Federal Unemployment Account, down from its $10.2 billion peak
during the COVID-19 pandemic. == List of commissioners ==