Half Million NYCers Could Gain $2.4B in Annual Wages by Sealing Past Convictions, NYC Comptroller Lander Finds

 

In a new report, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander calculated that over half a million New York City residents, who are eligible to have their criminal history automatically sealed, stand to gain a collective $2.4 billion in annual wages under the Clean Slate Act.

The Clean Slate NY Act (S.211/A.1029) would seal criminal conviction records for justice-involved people after completing probation or parole and significant time (3 years for misdemeanors and 7 years for felonies) lapsed since their last offense. Sealing prior convictions would allow formerly convicted people, who previously had to disclose their history on applications or submit to a background check, to gain employment, education, and housing opportunities.

“If you committed a crime and served your time, your past history should not become a barrier towards a job, a degree, or a home,” said New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. “Passing the Clean Slate Act would close the employment gap for New York City’s communities of color and half a million New Yorkers would in turn contribute to the economic landscape of our city. Gaining employment is a proven way to stop the revolving door of our carceral system and move toward a system of true justice and economic freedom.”

Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College estimated just under 745,000 individuals have a criminal conviction between 1980 and 2019 in the city and 44% have only a misdemeanor conviction. Under the proposed Clean Slate Act, taking time since last conviction into account, the Comptroller’s Office estimates that about 318,000 people with a misdemeanor and 224,000 individuals with a felony (and possibly a misdemeanor) record would be automatically eligible for full record expungement. Of those possibly eligible people, 417,000 are estimated to be of working age.

University of Santa Clara researchers found that national earnings losses associated with a felony conviction is $6,400 and $5,100 from a misdemeanor. With automatic sealing of old criminal convictions, the Comptroller’s Office estimates that these New Yorkers could see an increase of an estimated $2.4 billion in annual wages.

In New York, only 0.2% of eligible people have successfully sealed their criminal records. According to the University of Michigan Law School, once a criminal record is sealed, a person sees on average a 22% wage increase within one year and is less likely to recommit a crime.

New York City’s 2023 Q1 unemployment rate for Black New Yorkers is at 12.5%, and 6.1% for Latino New Yorkers, both well above the overall 5.4% unemployment rate. While data on race and ethnicity of people with past convictions are only available from 1990 – onward, from that data, 42.4% are Black, and 36.9% are Latinx and over half have only one or two convictions on their record.