Legislative Alert: April 12, 2024

President's Message

Better Recruitment and Retention Means Better Public Services

The Tier 6 pension system has become an impediment to recruiting and retaining public-sector workers throughout the state. 

Public-sector staffing shortages have reached crisis status, with employers at every government level sounding the alarm that they cannot recruit enough staff or encourage qualified individuals to stay.

The state has lost nearly 17,000 employees due to attrition since 2021. And taxpayers feel the pain. As a result, according to State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, the state government alone paid a record $1.3 billion in overtime in 2022.

The average pension of state and local government employees, outside of New York City, is just over $27,000. Unless jobs are made more attractive, we will continue struggling to recruit and retain workers, and vital public services will become less reliable.

Not having enough public-sector workers negatively impacts education, health care, transportation, sanitation, law enforcement, firefighters, and government agency workers. These are vital public services that all New Yorkers, regardless of income status, rely upon daily.

This year’s state budget presents the perfect opportunity for our State legislators and the Governor to come together and fix Tier 6. This will protect our public services and maintain a standard of living and quality of life that 20 million New Yorkers have rightfully come to expect and deserve.

Mario Cilento, President

Upcoming Events

LABOR LOBBYISTS MEETING 
Monday, April 15, 2024, 1:00 p.m. 
This meeting will be located at the Albany office of the NYS AFL-CIO, 
100 South Swan St. Albany, NY. Lunch will be served. 
This meeting is for labor representatives only.