About the EEPC

Created by the 1989 amendment to the New York City Charter (City Charter), the Equal Employment Practices Commission (EEPC) is an independent, non-mayoral oversight entity tasked with auditing, reviewing, and monitoring the equal employment practices of the City of New York.

Chapter 36, Section 831(d)(5) of the City Charter empowers the EEPC to audit and evaluate, at least once every four (4) years, the employment practices and procedures of City entities and their efforts to ensure fair and effective equal employment opportunity (EEO) for women and minority employees and applicants seeking employment. City Charter Sections 831(d)(2) and 832(c) authorize the EEPC to make a determination that any City entity’s plan, program, procedure, approach, measure, or standard does not provide equal employment opportunity, require appropriate corrective action, and monitor the implementation of the corrective action it prescribes.

City entities that meet the following criteria are subject to the EEPC's audit, evaluation, and monitoring:

the majority of the board members are appointed by the Mayor;
the majority of the board members serve by virtue of being City officers; or
the entity is funded, in whole or in part, by the City treasury.

The EEPC is not authorized to investigate individual complaints of employment discrimination. Instead, the EEPC’s mandate is to ensure that the City’s employment practices, including EEO policies and programs, are properly structured, efficiently administered, and in compliance with federal, state, and city equal employment opportunity requirements. Programmatic changes resulting from the EEPC’s audits provide a mechanism, at an institutional level, that assists City entities in preventing employment discrimination and avoiding costly litigation.

The EEPC has a duty to:

audit and evaluate the employment practices and procedures of each City entity at least once every four (4) years, and whenever requested by the City Civil Service Commission or City Human Rights Commission, and recommend procedures, approaches, measures, and standards to be utilized to ensure fair and effective programs of equal employment opportunity;
establish a compliance procedure to monitor the implementation of all audit recommendations;
review the standards, procedures, and programs established by the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services to ensure a fair and effective affirmative employment plan of equal employment opportunity for City entities;
review each City entity’s affirmative employment plan to provide equal employment opportunity and provide appropriate comments and suggestions;
advise City entities in their efforts to increase employment of minority group members and women who seek employment with the City;
conduct studies and investigations, hold public and private hearings, compel the attendance of witnesses, and administer oaths for the purpose of ascertaining whether City entities are in compliance with equal employment opportunity requirements;
establish advisory committees;
serve as the City liaison to federal, state, and local entities responsible for compliance with equal employment opportunity for minority group members and women who are employed by, or who seek employment with, City entities;
publish a report to the Mayor and City Council on the effectiveness of each City entity's affirmative employment efforts, and the efforts by the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services, to ensure equal employment opportunity; and
make policy, legislative, and budgetary recommendations to the Mayor, City Council, New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services, and any City entity to ensure equal employment opportunity for minority group members and women.