Community, Labor and Civil Rights Groups Rally Behind NYS Payroll Card Rules

Organizations across the state and country have rallied in support of New York’s proposed rules to rein in the payroll card industry. New York’s rules would be among the strongest in the country and ensure that large employers do not use payroll cards to unfairly shift payroll costs onto low-wage workers.

The New York rules would ban fees that unfairly deplete workers’ wages, and require that workers have convenient, free access to their wages. Our state’s wage laws have not kept up with the emergence of the payroll card industry, and studies show that payroll card fees have unfairly reduced wages for retail and restaurant workers, among others.

Our next post will address the big banks, credit card companies and other industry players’ lobbying against these common-sense rules. In the meantime, a big shout-out to the many organizations that weighed in to support DOL and call for strong final rules:

1199 SEIU
AARP
ALIGN
Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development
Bedford Stuyvesant Community Legal Services
CAMBA Legal Services
Center for American Progress
Central New York Citizens in Action
Consumer Action
Consumers Union
Communication Workers of America 1168
Dēmos
District Council 1707 AFSCME
District Council 37
Empire Justice Center
The Financial Clinic
Food Chain Workers
JASA/Legal Services for the Elderly in Queens
Legal Aid Society, Queens
Legal Services New York City
Legal Services New York City-Bronx
Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union
Manhattan Legal Services
MFY Legal Services, Inc.
National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low income clients)
National People’s Action
New Economy Project
New York Communities for Change
New York Legal Assistance Group
NYC Employment & Training Coalition
New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG)
Queens Legal Services
Public Accountability Initiative
Public Justice
Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York
Retail Action Project
Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU)
South Brooklyn Legal Services
Staten Island Legal Services
Teamsters Local 237
Tompkins County Workers Center
United Auto Workers – Region 9
Urban Justice Center
United Steelworkers District 4
Walmart Free NYC
Western New York Council for Occupational Safety and Health
Western New York Law Center
Western New York AFL-CIO
Woodstock Institute
Worker Justice Center of New York

*In addition to these organizations, more than 40 New Yorkers also weighed in to support New York State’s strong proposed rules.