Our work on economic policy focuses on low-paid workers, NYC wage, employment and income trends, and public policies and human services supports geared to improving the economic condition of low-paid workers, their families and communities.
We try to understand how broader economic changes affect New York City’s economy and the work it provides, whether wage, gig or other independent contractor jobs, and how those changes affect needed workforce development policies.
Poverty and income inequality go hand in hand—our work documents those trends and explores how the levers of local policy affect those trends.
Nonprofit organizations are an essential part of the city’s social safety net—providing $7.5 billion in government-funded human services. We analyze program and budget trends affecting the nonprofit human services sector and its largely person of color workforce.
Since government budget policy critically affects the well-being of low-income communities, we also regularly analyze the New York City, State and Federal budgets, and the tax structure and policies that finance those budgets.
Latest Economic Updates
Latest Economic Policy Reports
This CNYCA report examines a distinct dimension of inequality in New York City: the distribution of income between labor and capital.
A q&a with the co-founder of Bronx Móvil, a “project of radical love” involving unhoused people who use drugs.
An exodus from frontline service agencies is creating a crisis in local governments across the nation.
Some 873,000 workers in major New York State low-paid industries are misclassified as independent contractors.
Nearly 4.5 people in the U.S. are still exposed to pollution from municipal waste incinerators.
Transit costs often overwhelm the budgets of low-income New Yorkers. Many don’t even know that they’re eligible for half-price fares.
There’s a way to make “billionaires’ row” absentee condo owners pay a fairer tax share – and provide relief to lower-income homeowners, too.
A campaign for fair pay and safe working conditions reveals how being classified “independent contractors” denies workers fundamental protections.
The City should dramatically decrease pollution and increase safety and environmental justice in overhauling its massive commercial waste system.
A new policy breaks up cellblock “gang houses” and injects credible messengers to deescalate violence.
Press Highlights
Mamdani Forces Delivery Apps to Pay Back $4.6 Million Cheated From Drivers, futurism, 02/01/2026
Should NYC pensions pay for universal child care? Brannan pitches $500M investment., Gothamist, 04/24/2025
Hochul, leaders eye ways to eliminate $6B in pandemic-era unemployment debt, Newsday, 04/01/2025
7K NYC families could lose child care subsidies each month under state budget plan, Gothamist, 03/31/2025
Child care for thousands of NYC families at risk due to state budget shortfall, Daily News, 03/27/2025