As the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani signals a major shift in the city’s labor and employment law regulation and enforcement, Goldberg Segalla partner Scott Green authored a Law360 article detailing best practices for employers to properly adjust.

In the article, “How Mamdani Will Shift NYC Employment Law Enforcement,” Scott clarifies that the legal framework governing wages, hours, classification, and workplace protections will remain mostly intact. However, he notes that sophisticated employers should focus on the enforcement posture of City Hall.

“The most effective response to Mamdani’s election is neither alarm nor complacency, but recalibration,” says Scott, who also serves as vice chair of the firm’s national Employment and Labor practice. “Employers should reassess where they sit on the risk spectrum and whether their compliance programs reflect the city’s evolving enforcement posture.”

Scott says New York City already operates one of the most aggressive local labor enforcement systems in the country, but under Mamdani, the administration is “poised to become more coordinated, less forgiving, and more willing to test gray areas in favor of workers.”

As Mamdani received early and sustained support from labor unions, particularly from those representing public employees, healthcare workers, educators, communications workers, and broader labor coalitions, Scott expects the Mamdani administration to focus on policy that benefits these groups.

“For employers, these endorsements are not merely political background noise,” he says. “They signal an administration that enters office with clear expectations from labor constituencies – expectations that are likely to translate into enforcement priorities, agency direction and public messaging around workers’ rights.”

Scott emphasizes that New York City labor law has long been shaped less by sweeping legislative change than by how existing rules are enforced. Mamdani inherits broad discretion over agency leadership, enforcement priorities, staffing levels, and public messaging, and under a more activist administration, compliance margins could shrink.

Scott also discusses wage and hour enforcement, pay equity and transparency, independent contractors, labor relations, a more stringent enforcement culture, as well as practical measures employers should be taking amid the changing times.

“This means stress-testing wage and hour practices, examining pay equity with a critical eye, reevaluating contractor relationships, and ensuring that managers understand both the letter and spirit of New York City employment law,” he says. “It also means recognizing that labor compliance is increasingly visible, politicized, and intertwined with reputational risk.”

As New York City stands on the cusp of a significant shift in how workplace protections are prioritized and enforced, employers are beginning to assess what this evolving regulatory landscape may mean for their day‑to‑day operations. While the coming changes may not alter the letter of existing labor laws, they will almost certainly influence how those laws are applied and monitored. Scott encourages employers to get ahead of tighter enforcement actions before falling behind.

“Mamdani is unlikely to rewrite New York City employment law overnight. What his administration is likely to do is change the intensity, coordination, and visibility of labor enforcement, while aligning municipal power more closely with worker advocacy,” Scott says. “For employers, the baseline legal rules may look familiar, but the environment in which those rules are enforced does not. Those that recognize that distinction – and act on it early – will be best positioned to manage risk and operate successfully in New York City’s next phase of labor regulation.”

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MORE ABOUT GOLDBERG SEGALLA’S Scott R. Green:

In addition to serving as vice chair of the Employment and Labor practice group, Scott is an experienced employment litigator and trusted counselor to a diverse array of employers, ranging from publicly traded and multinational corporations, to nonprofit organizations, small businesses, and individuals. His practice involves defending management against employment discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wage and hour claims in federal and state courts and before various federal, state, and local administrative bodies, as well as defending employers against class action lawsuits and multidistrict lawsuits involving employment issues.