NYC NOW - Midday News: New York’s Top Court Upholds Election Year Change, Dogs Take Center Stage in the East Village, and New Push for Pay Transparency at Work

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

New York’s highest court has upheld a law moving town and county elections to even-numbered years, rejecting a Republican challenge that claimed the change was unconstitutional. Meanwhile, about 1,200 dogs and their owners are expected to hit the East Village this Sunday for the 35th annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade. And four years after New York City began requiring salary ranges in job postings, a new proposal would expand pay transparency rules to include current employees.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Thursday, October 16th. Here's the midday news from Veronica Del Valle. Towns and counties in New York will soon hold their elections in even-numbered years. WNIC's John Campbell reports that's thanks to a ruling from the state's top court this morning. Republican-led counties argued a state law moving their state law moving their local elections from odd years to even years violated the state constitution. But the court of appeals upheld the law and declined to delay it. Now, races for town supervisor and county executive will

gradually shift to even number years, aligning them with state and federal elections. But city elections are set in odd years by the state constitution. New York City voters will decide next month whether to pre-authorize a move to even years. But it would only take effect, if the state changes the Constitution. The earliest that could happen is late 2027. Organizers say some 1,200 people

and their dogs are expected to participate in the 35th annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade this Sunday in the East Village. Judges will select 20 winners, but only one wins food from dog food brand, Stella and Truis. The winning

owner will receive a Tompkins Square bagel gift card. That's according to Parade founder Fern Watt. We didn't want the dog to be the only one getting a tasty treat for winning this because we know the humans also put in, you know, a lot of work into these beautiful costumes. For the first time this year, the event will include Grand Marshals led by five dogs ready to be adopted. 53 and Sunny right now today, Sunny with a high near 59. Stay close. There's more after the break. On WN.M. M.C. Michael Hill. Four years ago, New York City,

government approved a law that requires employers post-salary ranges in job listings. Now there's a new push to make that information available to current employees as well. Joining us now is City Council Majority with Sylvina Brooks Powers of Queens and Robin Blair Bat, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Communications Workers of America Local 1180. Thank you both for joining us this morning. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Councilmember, New York City already has some paid transparency laws, but you've sponsored a bill to expand that.

Would you talk about that? For me, paid transparency is about fairness. It's about accountability. It's about giving workers, especially women and people of color, the tools to know whether they're being paid equitably. So this bill expands on the work that we've done already on that salary transparency law because we don't. stop with just the salary. We want to know and offer a full picture of what the benefits look like in addition to salary. So for someone who may not have many health issues, they may say, I want more on the salary side. We may have someone that says, I need more on the benefit

side than the salary right now in terms of their personal challenges that they may face. This offered that opportunity of empowering an employee to make a sound judgment call with full information. Councilman, what could the numbers say about pay disparities in New York City? Black women earn 63 cents for every dollar earned by a white man. And that's not just consistent. It's quite honestly a lifetime loss of over a million dollars in earnings. And New York is a city that also sees a lot of these disparities.

And that's why it's so critical that intro 808 builds on the work of what the council has done, which is our goal is to really get to a place where we don't see these type of disparities existing. Robin, how would something like this bill affect members of your union? Oh, it would greatly affect us. You know, it's been a long fight for equal pay for our members, and especially our members who are supervisors and lower level managers for the city. So now it is time to work on our private sectors for transparency for benefits, which we do have non-for-profit organizations that we also have bargaining rights for.

and everybody needs to know when they go to this table and they think about what type of position and what type of jobs they want, they should be able to have access to knowing what their benefits will be or be able to even negotiate what type of benefits they will need. It's just been a long fight and we're still here in 2025 trying to get equal pay, trying to get equal benefits. So it will make a very big difference if this bills pass and everything is on equal level. Robin, workers are often told by the employers

that you just don't talk about salaries in the workplace with colleagues. Can employers actually punish workers who do that? No, they can't punish workers who do that. If any managers are harassing the workers about any transparency, Yeah, they should call their union. Councilmember, where does this bill go now?

So this bill has not yet been scheduled for a vote, but with strong council support and stakeholder collaboration, we continue to work on building the momentum. We're ready to move forward, and I plan on continuing to work with my colleagues to bring this bill to a vote. But I just want to once again reiterate why and how critically important intro 808 is

this bill does three really important things. The first is that it expands transparency so that the employees can request the pay range for their own job title. It also adds clarity for job seekers with the importance of understanding what benefits are being offered. And it protects small businesses because companies with few and 30 employees are exempt from civil liability. So this bill, through the work and the conversations that we have had across the spectrum, whether it's from advocates or legislators or the business community, we have been really intentional to shape this bill into something that is implementable and works to root out the disparities that exist so that workers are able to have full knowledge of what is being offered to them, and businesses alike are also protected. Our guests have been City Council Majority Webb, Sylvina, Brooks Powers of Queens, and Robin Blair Bats, Secretary-Treasurer of the Union CWA Local 1180.

Thank you both. Thank you. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. day three times a date for the latest news headlines and occasional deep times and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.