New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) is falling short in enforcing Local Law 144 (LL144) which regulates the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in employment decisions, according to an audit released today by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. The audit found that DCWP had trouble identifying non-compliance with the law, particularly when employers did not disclose AI use or post bias audits. As a result, job applicants are often unaware when AI tools are used to screen them. Additionally, DCWP’s complaint handling and enforcement are inadequate.
“Job seekers deserve a fair and transparent process when they apply for work, and that includes knowing if a company is using artificial intelligence to evaluate their resumes or video interviews, and whether the technology was vetted to eliminate biases,” DiNapoli said. “When New Yorkers have concerns about employers using AI in hiring, it’s not easy to get help. New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection must do more to ensure that employers follow the law and gives complaints the attention they rightfully deserve.”
Automated Employment Decision Tools* (AEDTs) may save companies time and money in the hiring and promotion process, but they come with risks, including amplifying existing biases. To address this, in 2021 the New York City Council passed LL144, which requires employers and employment agencies conduct a bias audit of an AEDT no more than one year prior to using it, post the results to their websites, and inform job candidates when and how the technology will be used. DCWP is responsible for LL144’s enforcement.
DiNapoli’s audit found that DCWP faced difficulties in identifying non-compliance with LL144, especially when employers did not disclose AEDT use or post bias audits. DCWP conducted initial stakeholder education, but it did not do any additional outreach or public education after May 2023, despite agency officials identifying public awareness as a key part to enforcing of the law.
DCWP officials reviewed 32 employers’ and vendors’ websites to check their compliance with LL144 and identified only one instance of likely non-compliance. DiNapoli’s auditors, however, found DCWP’s review was not comprehensive and missed significant issues of non-compliance. Auditors’ review of the same companies found 17 instances of potential non-compliance with LL144. DCWP also did not use procedures created by the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI) in its review process. These procedures were created under an agreement where OTI would provide technical support to DCWP.
Even when a complaint is received, auditors found DCWP’s intake process was ineffective. Complaints submitted through NYC’s 311 system were often misdirected, and instructions for filing complaints via DCWP’s website were unclear. This may result in underreporting of AEDT-related complaints, the audit concluded. For example, auditors made 12 test calls to NYC’s 311 system to file AEDT complaints, but only three calls (25%) were correctly transferred to DCWP, while eight calls (67%) were misdirected to the NYS Department of Labor, and one call was directed back to the employer, indicating significant flaws in the routing process.
The audit made 13 recommendations to improve the city’s oversight and handling of AEDT complaints, including that DCWP:
Ensure complaints are properly handled and routed.Determine why there are a low number of AEDT complaints and take steps to address any issues found.Ensure its bias audit reviews address all potential non-compliance, including using available OTI resources.Improve enforcement by identifying potential non-compliance with LL144 through research and other leads in addition to complaints.
DCWP disagreed with some of the audit findings but agreed to adopt the majority of the recommendations in part or in full. According to DCWP, a unique challenge in identifying non-compliance is that employers often decide for themselves whether or not to post bias audits and inform job applicants about AEDT use. If employers don’t take those steps, DCWP says it is hard to track whether they are following the law. Agency officials said stakeholder education should be combined with complaint-based enforcement to improve compliance.
The agency’s full response can be found in the audit.
Related Work
Office of Information Technology Services/New York State Office for the Aging/Department of Corrections and Community Supervision/Department of Motor Vehicles/Department of Transportation: New York State Artificial Intelligence Governance (April 2025)
New York City Office of Technology and Innovation: Artificial Intelligence Governance (Feb. 2023)
*An automated employment decision tool (AEDT) is any computational process, derived from artificial intelligence, machine learning or data analytics, that issues a score, classification, or recommendation that is used to substantially assist or replace discretionary decision-making in employment decisions.