Comptroller Lander Exposes NYC’s Worst Workers’ Rights Offenders, Launches First-Ever Comprehensive Labor Violations Dashboard

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander unveiled his office’s Employer Violations Dashboard—a new tool that consolidates data from federal, state, and city enforcement agencies—to identify employers who violated key labor laws across the five boroughs. The dashboard tracks businesses’ violations of a range of workers’ rights and protections, including workplace health and safety violations, wage theft, prevailing wage violations, illegal interference with unionization efforts, and discrimination and harassment. 

“When companies steal their workers wages, commit unfair labor practices, or put workers’ lives at risk, the public should be able to clearly see it. By launching this dashboard, my office is making it possible to identify bad actors across multiple violations of workplace laws. This tool can serve as a resource for workers, customers, neighbors, and other businesses as they are looking to work with employers who respect workers’ rights,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. 

The new dashboard tracks labor violations investigated by government agencies and provides detailed information on offenses committed by private sector employers, including some contracted with public entities, within New York City. Covering data from 2020-2023, the dashboard offers a first-of-its-kind comprehensive view of recent labor law enforcement in New York City. The dashboard can be searched by type of violation or by employer, and the full dataset— which brings together information from multiple city, state, and federal agencies—is available for download.  

The dashboard also features an annual “Employer Wall of Shame,” which highlights employers who committed the most significant labor law violations in past years, ranging from workplace safety infractions and wage theft to illegal unionization interference and discrimination. The Comptroller’s Office identified these employers based on the severity and frequency of their violations. 

The following employers earned a place on the 2024 Employer Wall of Shame: 

• Chipotle Mexican Grill committed the highest number of Unfair Labor Practices (ULPs) in New York City in 2023 with seven violations primarily involving coercion and retaliation against employees attempting to unionize. Chipotle also paid over $350,000 to more than 9,000 workers as a result of New York State Department of Labor wage theft investigations and paid over $22 million in settlements with the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protections for failing to adhere to the Fair Workweek and Paid Safe and Sick Leave laws, affecting over 9,000 workers. 

• Planned Companies, which provides building services across multiple states, had the highest number of ULPs in New York City in closed cases from 2020 to 2022, with 20 violations related to illegal interference in union organizing and bad faith bargaining. Planned Companies was also cited for Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) violations related to a fatal accident that resulted from insufficient fall protections. In 2020, Planned settled with the Comptroller’s Office for $450,000 for failing to pay prevailing wages to building service employees. 

• Fadmo Home Health Care Services Agency, based in Staten Island, was the largest wage theft offender investigated by the US Department of Labor in New York City in 2023, owing over $1.45 million to 22 workers. 

• American Business Institute (ABI), a Queens-based home healthcare agency, was the largest wage theft offender across all New York State Department of Labor cases from 2020 to 2022. ABI owed over $14.3 million to 175 workers for failing to pay minimum wage across three investigations. 

• Smile Home Care Agency Inc (Smile Care), a Brooklyn-based home healthcare agency, was the largest wage theft offender investigated by the US Department of Labor in 2023, owing over $427,000 to 246 workers.  

• Timeless Roofing, a construction company, received back-to-back willful OSHA violations in 2022 and 2023 for failing to provide fall protection at residential construction sites in Queens.  

• Amazon had 153 alleged ULP violations, including the highest number of open and ongoing charges, where unions and workers allege that employers committed ULPs in New York City from 2020 to 2023. Of the 153 alleged violations, some ULP cases allege illegal interference in union organizing and bad faith bargaining. Additionally, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection investigated Amazon for local labor law violations and entered into a $222,454 settlement for Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law. The company has been criticized for using third-party contractors and misclassifying workers to evade legal responsibility. 

• Panda Express had the largest Fair Work Week and Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law settlement with the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection in 2023, paying $3.45 million in restitution and civil penalties, which impacted over 1,400 workers.  

• Uber entered into the largest wage and hour settlement by the New York State Attorney General in 2023, paying $290 million for illegally deducting earnings from drivers by shifting costs of sales taxes and Black Car Fund fees onto them. Uber also failed to provide drivers with paid safe and sick leave as required under New York City and New York State law. 

• Lyft, like Uber, settled with the New York State Attorney General for $38 million in 2023 for similar wage and hour violations. Lyft illegally deducted earnings from drivers and failed to provide paid sick leave. 

• Gucci settled with the New York City Commission on Human Rights for $330,000 in a sexual harassment case in 2023, one of the agency’s largest monetary settlements of the year. In addition to the payment, the settlement included affirmative relief, where Gucci was required to provide anti-discrimination training to employees, revise their gender-based discrimination policy with oversight from the Commission, undergo monitoring, and display “Notice of Rights” posters in stores and corporate offices. 

“Our labor laws exist to protect consumers as much as they exist to protect workers,” said New York State Senator Jessica Ramos, Chair of the Senate Labor Committee. “When an employer cuts corners and breaks labor laws, they undercut the health of our local economy and force responsible business owners and taxpayers to subsidize their bad behavior. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. I hope this resource becomes a tool for improved enforcement across our City.” 

“As Assembly Labor Chair, I am dedicated to ensuring the safety and protection of workers, which includes promoting access to tools to protect workers against bad faith employers and unlawful practices which will deny them their rightfully earned wages, workplace safety and more,” said New York State Assemblymember Harry Bronson, Chair of the Assembly Labor Committee. “The newly launched New York City Employer Violations Dashboard will be critical to addressing and tracking violations such as wage theft, workplace safety, and other worker rights, including the right to organize. Importantly this Dashboard also highlights data from not only NYC agencies, but federal and state enforcement agencies as well. These are the tools we need to ensure we are creating an economy of opportunity for all with fairness and equity, and I applaud Comptroller Lander for his work to protect our workers.” 

“A central tool in the fight to protect workers is data,” says New York State Assembly Member Karines Reyes, R.N., Chair of the New York State Assembly’s Subcommittee on Workplace Safety. “I applaud Comptroller Lander and his office for the development of an insightful and precise dashboard exposing the who’s who of bad employers. This vigilance will allow socially conscious actors and consumers to determine which businesses or chains they would like to patronize, while putting bad actors on notice and encouraging them to reform disempowering labor practices. This critical tool will break down local, state, and federal silos by putting information from the varying levels of government in one place, to better coordinate and encourage a response to these entities. The negative and unscrupulous business practices that these employers deploy steal from and abuse hardworking, marginalized New Yorkers. We cannot allow this to continue and I thank Comptroller Lander for his leadership.” 

“I commend Comptroller Lander for launching the New York City Employer Violations Dashboard, a groundbreaking tool that brings much-needed transparency to labor law enforcement,” said New York State Assemblymember Catalina Cruz. “This dashboard will expose employers who repeatedly exploit workers, from wage theft to unsafe working conditions. It will serve as an invaluable resource for policymakers, workers, and advocates alike. By shining a light on these violations, the Comptroller’s office is taking an essential step in holding employers accountable and protecting the rights of workers across our city.” 

“As Labor Chair of the City Council, I’m excited to stand alongside the Comptroller as his office introduces the New York City Employer Violations Dashboard,” said New York City Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, Chair of the Committee on Civil Service & Labor. “This crucial tool will significantly impact workers, particularly those in low-income jobs, by providing transparency on employer violations. As union power grows nationwide, New York City continues to lead in union organizing and protecting worker rights. This dashboard not only holds employers accountable but also strengthens our commitment to empowering workers and advancing justice in the workplace.” 

“The newly unveiled New York City Employer Violations Dashboard represents a critical step forward in data consolidation across city enforcement agencies,” said Council Member Julie Menin, Chair of the Committee on Consumer & Worker Protection. “Keeping employers who violate key labor laws accountable is imperative to protect workers’ rights as well as address workplace health and safety violations in a timely and appropriate manner.”  

“We applaud Comptroller Lander and his team for this innovative new tool which will play a crucial role in exposing employers who flout labor laws across NYC, providing workers and advocates with a powerful resource to hold those who violate our rights accountable,” said New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO President Vincent Alvarez. “By tracking these types of violations, we can better protect workplace safety, prevent wage theft, and ensure fair treatment, respect, and the protected right to organize for all workers.” 

“Far too often unscrupulous employers get away with violating labor laws and the rights of their employees, who are just trying to make ends meet and support their families. Many times, even if they are fined, there is no public notice of these transgressions,” said Gary LaBarbera, President of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York. “Hardworking New Yorkers deserve to know whether their employers or potential employers are committing labor violations so that they can make informed decisions about their careers and be better prepared to advocate for themselves in the workplace. This is why we applaud Comptroller Lander for establishing this labor violations tracker, as it will not only bring more accountability for companies engaging in these activities, but also discourage employers from violating these laws to begin with. Every New Yorker deserves to work in a safe and compliant environment that not only adheres to the law, but also pays fair wages and treats the workforce with dignity and respect.” 

“32BJ SEIU applauds the launch of the Employer Violations Dashboard, yet another example of the commitment the Comptroller’s office is making to ensure that companies that operate in New York City respect workers’ rights,” said Manny Pastreich, President of 32BJ SEIU. “The valuable information included on the dashboard will expose those businesses that violate labor laws and compromise workers’ rights related to wages, workplace safety and the right to unionize.” 

“We applaud NYC Comptroller Brad Lander’s creation of a labor violations tracker,” said Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU). “Not only does the data in this tracker finally shine a light on what unions fight against—health and safety violations, wage theft, illegal interference with unionization efforts, discrimination, and more—it provides detailed information compiled in one place. This data will be instrumental in union organizing drives, procurement of public goods, and potential impact litigation. It will also be useful to every day New Yorkers who can now look up companies that they are interested in working with to see if that employer is fair to their employees before accepting a job offer.” 

“We fully support and offer our thanks to the City Comptroller for launching the very first Employer Violations Dashboard or more appropriately named, ‘Employer Wall of Shame,’ said Thomas Gesualdi, President, Joint Council No. 16, International Brotherhood of Teamsters.  “We are certain the data from city, state and federal agencies in the dashboard will serve as an invaluable tool toward ensuring the rights of working families, while providing transparency in revealing some of the City’s most abusive and exploitive employers.  We are grateful to Comptroller Lander for putting workers’ rights first.”

“Health and safety, wage theft, discrimination and harassment are just some of the ways bosses take advantage of workers on the job,” said Brandon Mancilla, UAW Region 9A Director. “They are also just some of the reasons workers say they have had enough and decide to form a union. We know New York is a labor town, these businesses, spit in the face of that moniker, and that is disgusting. We are grateful to Comptroller Lander for alerting the public to these abuses of corporate greed and overreach and hope this toolkit can be part of the movement to make our city more worker-friendly.”  

“The Employer Violations Dashboard is a valuable new tool in the fight against worker exploitation,” said Mike Prohaska, Business Manager of Laborers Local 79. “Too often wage and safety violations go unnoticed. Now developers will not be able to choose irresponsible contactors and claim ignorance of their history.” 

“American Business Institute received over $1 Billion in taxpayer dollars to provide home care for vulnerable New Yorkers so they may live with dignity in their own homes,” said Helen Schaub, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East Interim Political Director. “Yet instead of using Medicaid funding for home care consumers and the workers who care for them, American Business Institute has stolen over $14 million in wages from some of the lowest paid caregivers–while paying four top executives over $50 million during this same time period. This is beyond shameful, and we commend Comptroller Lander for fighting to protect New York’s caregivers and other workers from this type of exploitation.”  

“At Laborers’ Local 1010, we are committed to holding unscrupulous employers accountable,” said Lowell Barton, Vice President & Organizing Director, Laborers’ Local 1010, LIUNA. “Our support for the New York City Employer Violations Dashboard, a comprehensive database of unethical and irresponsible employers reflects our dedication to protecting workers’ rights and ensuring a fair and safe working environment for all. Together, we can drive positive change and uphold the highest standards of workplace integrity.”  

“Transparency about government operations serves important democratic values, and helps people understand how the government is addressing the challenges ordinary people face in their daily lives,” said Terri Gerstein, Director of the NYU Wagner Labor Initiative. “In the case of workers’ rights, publicly available dashboards and databases deter employer violations, empower workers to report violations, alert consumers about labor practices of the businesses they patronize, enable the media to cover worker issues more effectively, and allow public agencies to consider a corporation’s compliance history in enforcement, contracting, licensing, and other government functions. The Employer Violations Dashboard developed by Comptroller Brad Lander and his Workers’ Rights team will be an invaluable tool for promoting workers’ rights in New York City, and is a model that should be replicated in other cities nationwide.” 

“Make the Road New York applauds the Comptroller’s office for prioritizing workers’ rights and developing this valuable new tool which increases transparency and exposes scofflaw employers,” said Elizabeth Jordan, Co-Legal Director of Make the Road. “The Employer Violations Dashboard will not only help individual workers make informed decisions about where and who they work for, but will also provide critical data revealing patterns of abuse in high violation industries, geographic areas, and employer groups that will meaningfully help with targeted enforcement. We know that wage theft and other labor violations remain rampant throughout New York City’s low-wage industries, and this will make it harder for violators to remain anonymous or hide bad practices.” 

“The Legal Aid Society welcomes this new tool to aid labor and employment law enforcement. The Comptroller’s Employer Violations Dashboard provides a critical means to support enforcement of labor laws and for public education about the incidence and impact of labor law violations,” said Richard Blum, staff attorney in the Employment Law Unit of The Legal Aid Society. “For too long, abusive and exploitative employers have been able to keep their illegal actions in the shadows. By looking holistically at the range of illegal employment practices, this dashboard allows us to see patterns of abuse and exploitation that would otherwise remain obscured. By shedding light on these practices, the Comptroller’s new tool helps guide those of us who are seeking to breathe life into the promise of our labor and employment laws.”  

“New York City’s worst employers, who violate the law without regard for workers’ health and safety must be held accountable,” said Charlene Obernauer, Executive Director of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health. “The Employer Violations Dashboard, launched today by the New York City Comptroller’s Office, is a step in the right direction towards ensuring that no workers’ health and safety is taken advantage of in New York City.”  

View the Comptroller’s Employer Violations Dashboard here. 

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