A Message from the Comptroller
New York City is the greatest immigrant city the world has ever known. For more than 400 years, new generations have moved here and defined what it means to be a New Yorker: the words we use, the foods we eat, the music we dance to, the neighborhoods we love.
Immigrant New Yorkers make our city run – building our homes, caring for our kids and elders, starting new businesses. Yet immigrant workers are far too often exploited by unscrupulous employers. Challenges unique to immigrants, such as language barriers, immigration status, and unfamiliarity with New York City’s services and protections make it harder for them to access and assert their rights in the workplace.
When exploitative employers take advantage of immigrant workers who may be afraid to speak up or may not know what their protections are, the rights of all workers are eroded.
That’s why my office has created this new resource guide that will serve as a roadmap for workers, community leaders, advocates and service providers looking to understand the protections afforded to immigrant workers across New York City.
The NYC Comptroller’s Immigrant Workers Resource Guide features four sections:
- The New York City Workers’ Bill of Rights – a declaration of rights listing the most important protections afforded to workers. These rights are enforced by government agencies at the city, state and federal level and aim to protect workers from exploitation.
- A directory of community-based organizations that offer a myriad of services to help immigrant workers.
- Information on how to access Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement (DALE), which can offer temporary immigration relief to non-citizen immigrant workers who experience or witness labor violations and support the investigations of such violations.
- A timesheet template for workers to practice keeping track of their hours and recording relevant employer information.
My office is committed to using all the tools in its toolbox to fight for immigrant workers. Earlier this year, we released two related resources: the Employer Violations Dashboard, which sheds light on private employers who commit labor violations in New York City; and , a report dispelling prevalent myths surrounding immigrants’ impact on the country and New York City’s population and economy. Now, with the Immigrant Workers Resource Guide, we move one step forward toward making New York City a more welcoming and equitable home for all New Yorkers.
To those of you using this guide – the workers who make our city run and the advocates, organizers, and government employees who fight to uphold immigrant rights across the five boroughs – thank you for the work you do every day to make sure New York remains a welcome harbor for generations to come.
In Solidarity,
Brad Lander
New York City Comptroller
A Message from the Director of Workers Rights
The Bureau of Labor Law and Workers’ Rights at the Office of the NYC Comptroller is excited to present the Immigrant Workers’ Resource Guide. The Comptroller’s Bureau of Labor Law enforces the prevailing wage in New York City for construction workers on public projects; building services employees on certain properties that receive state tax benefits; and building service, temporary service, and food service workers on city contracts. Sadly, all too often, the workers who experience the most egregious abuses of their workplace rights are immigrant workers who are unaware of their rights or fearful of asserting them.
To combat this, our office engages in outreach and education to inform workers about the labor protections available to them under state, federal, and local laws. By collaborating with government agency partners and community-based worker advocacy organizations, our office connects workers to resources that empower them to assert their rights in the workplace.
Over the past several years, our office has conducted a number of “Know Your Rights” trainings and workshops for workers and community members in partnership with consulates, worker centers, and elected officials. In 2024, we launched the Employer Violations Dashboard, a user-friendly, searchable engine that allows the public to access information about private companies that commit labor violations. By analyzing Dashboard data, we learned that between 2020 and 2023, wage theft investigations by the New York State Department of Labor found that $69.6 million was owed to 18,823 workers. For its part, the United States Department of Labor found that $10.25 million was owed to 7,384 New York City workers. In this same time frame, prosecutorial agencies such as the New York State Attorney General and District Attorney’s Offices secured wage and hour settlements for cases involving New York City workers, totaling $361.5 million.[1]
The office also released a report, Safeguarding Outdoor Workers in a Changing Climate, providing recommendations on how to protect New York City workers in extreme heat and poor air quality, including legislation requiring employers to provide protections such as shade and rest breaks, as well as local public health measures.
Now, in celebration of National Immigrants Day, the Comptroller’s office acknowledges the immense contributions that immigrant workers bring to our city. We are committed to enforcing and expanding labor protections for immigrant and low-wage workers via litigation, legislation, policy initiatives, outreach, and education. We want to ensure that all New York City workers, including immigrants, are empowered to assert their rights to fair and safe workplaces, and we hope that this Resource Guide will provide them with the tools and resources to do so.
Claudia Henriquez
Director of Workers Rights
[1] Data analysis of Employer Violations Dashboard data: Wage Theft : Office of the New York City Comptroller Brad Lander (nyc.gov). These amounts only include settlement information made available to the public.