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New York at Work 2024

Annual Report

ILR’s annual Outreach report to policymakers and the public recaps some of our research-based data and policy analysis on issues affecting workers, unions, communities and employers

Childcare worker with children over background of solar panels and wind turbines
Read the full report

Justice at Work: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

See more justice at work: diversity, equity and inclusion stories

DisabilityStatistics.org Offers Visualization and Local Data

For those who need data about disability, the revamped DisabilityStatistics.org website offers a wide range of information. A Feb. 26 webinar will introduce new data and features.
Screenshot of Disability Statistics Home page shows the tagline "Disability stats your way". It also shows an athlete doing a sqat. The athlete has a prosthetic leg.
DisabilityStatistics.org Offers Visualization and Local Data

Bill Erickson Has a Spreadsheet with 3.2 Million Rows

As lead researcher for the DisabilityStatistics.org website, Bill Erickson’s goal is to help people understand the numbers behind disability. In this Q&A, Bill shares how he does this and gives insight into his field.
Bill Erickson seated at a speaker’s table while giving a presentation. He is wearing a white button-up dress shirt with a red tie. He is seated in front of an American flag and behind a laptop, mic, and coffee cup.
Bill Erickson Has a Spreadsheet with 3.2 Million Rows

Reframing the Gender Gap Elicits Action by Women, Researchers Say

Flipping the way the gender gap in political leadership is described in news coverage – from women are underrepresented to men are overrepresented – can help narrow the gulf, according to researchers led by Usman Liaquat, an ILR School postdoctoral associate.
A woman shouting up to a man with a bullhorn.
Reframing the Gender Gap Elicits Action by Women, Researchers Say

New York State: Economy, Policy, and Practice

See more stories about our work in New York State

As a New York land-grant college, we have a state mandate to apply our work in service to our local communities, state and regional economies, and partners in governance. We create and share knowledge, build relationships, and inform strategies aimed at improving economic well-being for all New Yorkers.

Coupling our strong physical foundations in Buffalo, Ithaca, and New York City with our rapidly expanding virtual presence in the COVID-19 era, our resources and infrastructure allow us to pursue local innovations that have global implications.

YTI Experts at DREAM in Albany

At New York state’s annual DREAM symposium, the Yang-Tan Institute (YTI) delivered over a dozen breakout sessions that reflected the broad expertise of the institute. The institute also assisted with developing and producing the event.
Yang-Tan Institute executive director Wendy Strobel Gower smiles while chatting with a DREAM attendee. Strobel Gower is professionally dressed in chunky jewelry, black dress and tan wrap; the attendee is wearing a blue scarf over a gray top and a backpack with a floral design.
YTI Experts at DREAM in Albany

You Got a Social Security Overpayment Notice. Now What?

Social Security overpayments are often very costly, and they can be complex to address. Experts at the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability have prepared this fact sheet on how to navigate the issue if it happens to you.
Outstretched hand reaches out from a pile of papers to another hand
You Got a Social Security Overpayment Notice. Now What?

Employment of Justice-Impacted Youth with Disabilities

A new policy brief from the Yang-Tan Institute makes six recommendations for policy changes to improve employment outcomes for formerly incarcerated young adults with disabilities in New York state.
An auto mechanic gives hands-on training to two students
Employment of Justice-Impacted Youth with Disabilities

A driving principle behind our research, teaching, training, and practice is that everyone deserves fair and equal access to jobs, housing, healthcare, and other means for achieving economic security. Our work seeks solutions that remove inequitable barriers to economic opportunities, whether those barriers occur within an individual workplace or at the structural levels of our political and economic systems.

You can see a handful of our recent work below.

What the Proposed Rule to End Subminimum Wage Means for Workers with Disabilities

On December 3rd, 2024, the United States Department of Labor proposed a new rule to end the 14c waiver program for people with disabilities. The Yang-Tan Institute's Ellice Switzer responds to a Q&A on the new proposed rule.
Photo of a hand selecting one person figure out of a line of figures, with a dollar sign over its head.
What the Proposed Rule to End Subminimum Wage Means for Workers with Disabilities

For Many Disabled People, Work Has a Price Tag

Discovering that you owe the government thousands of dollars in Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) overpayments can be life-disrupting. These overpayments happen at no fault of the beneficiary. Jennifer Brooks, a researcher at the Cornell ILR School's Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, provides a personal account of this issue.
Photo of woman in a wheelchair at a table with laptop and letters beside her.
For Many Disabled People, Work Has a Price Tag

HR Tool Helps Job Applicants With Criminal Records Land Jobs

Cornell Chronicle
Cornell Human Resources plans to roll out a pilot of Restorative Records, an online tool where job applicants with criminal records can provide context about their past and details about their rehabilitation.
Barbed wire at the top of a prison wall
HR Tool Helps Job Applicants With Criminal Records Land Jobs

Collective Representation and Worker Voice

See more stories about collective representation workers' voices

We were founded to study and improve the world of work. We have strong research roots in labor relations and negotiations, and our work with varying communities comes from our commitment to understanding collective representation, the perspectives of workers, and improving workers' lives.

Labor Action Tracker 2024 Report

Cornell Chronicle
Better pay, improved health and safety, and increased staffing were workers’ top demands in 2024, according to findings published in the annual report tracking U.S. work stoppages. The report is a collaboration of the ILR School and the University of Illinois School of Labor and Employment Relations.
A screen shot of the Labor Action Tracker findings in 2024
Labor Action Tracker 2024 Report

CAROW Examines How Unions Can Help Direct Care Workers

A pair of published papers released by the CAROW Initiative on Home Care Work shows that unionized direct care workers are likely to earn more money and are more likely to have employer-sponsored health care insurance and pension plans than non-unionized direct care workers.
A nurse tends to a wheelchair bound patient in her home
CAROW Examines How Unions Can Help Direct Care Workers

New Research: “Workers Want a Say in Their Work”

“Voice gap,” which measures a worker’s perceived gap between desired and actual influence at work, significantly impacts job-related outcomes, such as job satisfaction, according to new research by ILR Assistant Professor Duanyi Yang.
A bullhorn and text bubbles over an orange background.
New Research: “Workers Want a Say in Their Work”

Leadership Development

We work with communities, organizations, departments and companies – all to help develop leaders who will make workplaces and employment itself better. Foundations in management and collective bargaining, and our 75 years in industry put us in a unique position to help develop leaders in business, labor and policy.

CAHRS

Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies

CAHRS is the world's leading partnership between industry and academia, devoted to global human resource management. The CAHRS partnership connects leading companies to Cornell University, the ILR School, and leading faculty, students and intellectual leaders throughout the world.

several towers from Cornell's Ithaca campus
Visit CAHRS

Labor Leadership Training

We work with union leaders at national and state levels to develop training programs for aspiring and established leaders within the labor field.

Explore labor leadership programs

Senior Leader Programs

We bring together world-class faculty with business and industry leaders to design and deliver training systems that develop HR, business and management leaders. Learn from world-class faculty dedicated to HR research and driving organizational performance.

Man leaning reflected against city glass door
Find out more about our senior leadership training

Climate Jobs Institute Talks Infrastructure and Green Workforce at 2024 SOMOS Puerto Rico

For two years in a row, the Climate Jobs Institute (CJI) has facilitated a panel discussion at the 2024 SOMOS INC Puerto Rico Conference, from November 6th - 10th. 
A group photo of the panelists
Climate Jobs Institute Talks Infrastructure and Green Workforce at 2024 SOMOS Puerto Rico

Climate Jobs Institute Leads New York Legislative and Labor Leaders on Educational Delegation to Sweden

In late September, the Cornell ILR Climate Jobs Institute (CJI) led an educational delegation of New York State legislative and labor leaders to Stockholm, Sweden.
NYS delegates at the Swedish Parliament with Members of Parliament Monica Hader and Adrian Magnusson
Climate Jobs Institute Leads New York Legislative and Labor Leaders on Educational Delegation to Sweden

Cleaning Up Criminal Records: CJEI Event to Walk Through New Clean Slate Act

On Nov. 18, Cornell ILR’s Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative (CJEI) will cohost an event at Tompkins County Public Library in Ithaca, NY, to educate the public on New York State’s upcoming Clean Slate Act.
Hand pointing to workbook
Cleaning Up Criminal Records: CJEI Event to Walk Through New Clean Slate Act

ILR in the News

Our work from the media

See more ILR news coverage

Inclusive Excellence Podcast: Reentry, Work and Resilience

Cornell Chronicle
In this episode of the Inclusive Excellence Podcast, Erin Sember-Chase and Toral Patel are joined by Thomas Jones ’24, who shares his journey from incarceration to higher education and his role as fair employment practice specialist at Cornell.
Inclusive Excellence Podcast: Reentry, Work and Resilience

Elon Musk’s dream comes true: The federal board that protects workers does not exist, at least for now

CNN
“This is great for employers — they have a nonfunctioning NLRB,” said Cathy Creighton, an NLRB attorney during the Clinton administration and the director of the Buffalo Co-Lab.
Elon Musk’s dream comes true: The federal board that protects workers does not exist, at least for now

January retail sales slipped almost 1%, but views differ on what it means

Marketplace
“If what you’re trying to look at is some measure of consumer confidence, then you don’t want the number that you’re looking at to be driven by whether or not the harvest for avocados was good,” said Erica Groshen, economic adviser at ILR.
January retail sales slipped almost 1%, but views differ on what it means