{"id":330374,"date":"2026-08-26T18:32:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T18:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/330374\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T18:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T18:32:16","slug":"pessimism-cost-of-living-are-on-the-rise-new-york-at-work-report-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/330374\/","title":{"rendered":"Pessimism, cost of living are on the rise, New York at Work report finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

The average household income for New Yorkers has risen by nearly 68% over the past 20 years, but after adjusting for inflation, purchasing power has gone up by only 14.3%.<\/p>\n

Studying two decades of data collected through the Empire State Poll (ESP), researchers have found that the cost of living dominates respondents\u2019 key concerns, eclipsing other priorities, such as the environment. Meanwhile, respondents\u2019 outlooks on their personal finances and on the state\u2019s economy have grown increasingly pessimistic, and trust in institutions has declined.<\/p>\n

Those are among the key findings in \u201cThe Empire State Poll: A Portrait of Work in New York State from 2003-2024<\/a>,\u201d one of 17 reports in the ILR School\u2019s \u201cNew York at Work 2025-26 Report<\/a>,\u201d published Aug. 25.<\/p>\n

\"Cornell<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe annual New York at Work report embodies the school\u2019s land-grant mission by continuing our commitment to enhancing labor policy and practice in New York state,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Alexander Colvin, Ph.D. \u201999<\/a>, the Kenneth F. Kahn \u201969 Dean and Martin F. Scheinman \u201976, M.S. \u201976, Professor of Conflict Resolution. \u201cWe are proud to continue improving labor relations and enhancing the lives of New York\u2019s working people through our research, teaching and outreach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now in its sixth year, the New York at Work report draws on ILR expertise, research-based data and policy analysis to explore a broad range of key issues affecting the state\u2019s workers, unions, communities and employers. It is intended to serve as an informative, accessible and relevant resource for policymakers and the public.<\/p>\n

Much of the research, all of which has been published in the past year, relates directly to the ESP, which ILR\u2019s Center for Applied Research on Work (CAROW) conducts annually to survey New York state residents about how work impacts their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor over 20 years, Cornell University\u2019s Empire State Poll has taken the pulse of New York state residents\u2019 public opinion,\u201d said Anne DeCecco, senior research and policy development associate at CAROW. \u201cThe result is over two decades of rich data on the issues that are most important to New York residents. Our longitudinal study shows the trends that have reshaped residents\u2019 priorities over the years, and how their attitudes toward personal and statewide finances have changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Research and policy briefs in the most recent New York at Work report were contributed by ILR\u2019s Buffalo Co-Lab, CAROW, Climate Jobs Institute, Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative, Ithaca Co-Lab, Labor and Employment Law Program, Worker Institute and Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability.<\/p>\n

Key findings among the various briefs include:<\/p>\n

Black women in Erie County are two to three times more likely to be impoverished than white women and white men, respectively.
\nFederal grant and assistance spending in New York state declined by nearly $7 billion from fiscal year 2024 to 2025.
\nTwenty-six percent of people with disabilities experience some type of justice-system interaction, a rate that far exceeds that of people without disabilities.
\nAs of June 2026, New York has met 44% of its 2030 renewable energy generation target and has reduced statewide emissions by 24%.
\nTens of thousands of workers in Tompkins County, just under half of the county\u2019s wage earners, are making less than a living wage. The figure is highest among Black workers (67%) and Latinx workers (58%), compared with 48% among white workers.
\nNearly 24% of ESP respondents reported experiencing racial discrimination in the workplace, while more than 22% reported experiencing workplace sexual harassment.
\nAlmost 30% of working-age New Yorkers with disabilities lived in poverty in 2024.<\/p>\n

You can also view previous New York at Work reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Julie Greco is the director of communications for the ILR School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The average household income for New Yorkers has risen by nearly 68% over the past 20 years, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-330374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}