As Pandemic Rages On, Comptroller Stringer and A Better Balance Launch New Work and Family Survey

 

Survey will analyze how New Yorkers’ relationships to work and family have changed amid the pandemic

Women, especially women of color and single mothers, have had to reduce their work hours or leave the work force at significantly greater rates than men

Builds on 2015 Survey that found New Yorkers have limited access to flexible work arrangements and fear retaliation from seeking greater flexibility from their employers

 Today, New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer and A Better Balance launched a new Work and Family Survey to inform and improve critical workplace protections, accommodations, and flexibility for working New Yorkers. As schools face extended closures and many businesses have either shuttered or shifted to remote work, the survey will analyze how New Yorkers’ relationships to work and family have changed amid the pandemic in order to help identify future policy recommendations during this crisis and beyond.

“We want to hear directly from working New Yorkers about their experience with workplace flexibility, especially during the pandemic. I encourage New Yorkers to complete the survey to help policymakers deliver informed solutions that ensure modern workplace practices,” said Comptroller Stringer. “This is about more than just work-life balance – no family should have to choose between taking care of their kids and earning a paycheck. If we want to tap our city’s full economic potential, we have to provide protections for New Yorkers who need it the most – including women, single parents, low-income workers, and frontline workers who are facing extraordinary challenges of full-time caregiving while trying to make ends meet.”

“The pandemic has laid bare the impossible choice too many workers—disproportionately women—face between caring for loved ones and earning a paycheck. As we know from speaking directly with countless workers, New Yorkers need workplace flexibility and support to stay attached to the workforce,” said Dina Bakst, Co-Founder and Co-President of A Better Balance. “We need to hear from all New Yorkers about what they’re experiencing and how we can craft effective policies that address their caregiving needs during the pandemic and beyond. This is a matter of racial, gender, and economic justice.”

With businesses gradually reopening and more people returning to work, workplace accommodations and flexibility will be critical for all New Yorkers, but caregivers in particular. While some businesses consider a more permanent shift to remote work, for many low-wage workers and essential workers, remote work isn’t an option, especially in the retail, hospitality, and health care industries. Workers in frontline industries are disproportionately women and people of color, and far too many of these workers still live in poverty. The burden of full-time caregiving has also fallen largely on women, who comprise the majority of single parents and have had to reduce their work hours significantly more than men. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, of the 1.1 million people who left the workforce in September, 80 percent were women.

Since 2017, New York City has offered employees new protections – including the right to request schedule changes, sick and family leave, and prohibitions on discrimination against caregivers. However, many New Yorkers are still falling through the cracks of these existing laws and these policies were not designed with extended school closures in mind.

The Comptroller’s Office conducted a survey with A Better Balance in 2015 that found New Yorkers have limited access to flexible work arrangements and fear retaliation from seeking greater flexibility from their employers.

To access the 2020 Work and Family Survey, click here.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

we took this survey, and were able to take it a second time. we advise Comptroller Stringer to put in a safeguard where a person can only take this survey only once, because than it is an unreliable source of information.