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2025 Empire State Report

Empire State Report

The 2025 Empire State Poll is a window into New Yorkers’ daily lives, needs and concerns related to labor and employment. The data is collected to help guide policymakers, legislators, unions, employers and advocates in understanding and addressing opportunities and challenges for workers, families and communities statewide.

An elderly couple go over their finances.
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Justice at Work: Belonging

See more justice at work and belonging

Report: Erie Co. Working Women Earn Less, And They Know It

Cornell Chronicle
Women working in Erie County simultaneously experience lower pay and more significant barriers to success relative to men, according to a new report released by the ILR Buffalo Co-Lab.
Gender wage gap
Report: Erie Co. Working Women Earn Less, And They Know It

DisabilityStatistics.org Offers Visualization and Local Data

For those who need data about disability, the revamped DisabilityStatistics.org website offers a wide range of information. A Feb. 26 webinar will introduce new data and features.
Screenshot of Disability Statistics Home page shows the tagline "Disability stats your way". It also shows an athlete doing a sqat. The athlete has a prosthetic leg.
DisabilityStatistics.org Offers Visualization and Local Data

Bill Erickson Has a Spreadsheet with 3.2 Million Rows

As lead researcher for the DisabilityStatistics.org website, Bill Erickson’s goal is to help people understand the numbers behind disability. In this Q&A, Bill shares how he does this and gives insight into his field.
Bill Erickson seated at a speaker’s table while giving a presentation. He is wearing a white button-up dress shirt with a red tie. He is seated in front of an American flag and behind a laptop, mic, and coffee cup.
Bill Erickson Has a Spreadsheet with 3.2 Million Rows

New York State: Economy, Policy, and Practice

See more stories about our work in New York State

As a New York land-grant college, we have a state mandate to apply our work in service to our local communities, state and regional economies, and partners in governance. We create and share knowledge, build relationships, and inform strategies aimed at improving economic well-being for all New Yorkers.

Coupling our strong physical foundations in Buffalo, Ithaca, and New York City with our rapidly expanding virtual presence in the COVID-19 era, our resources and infrastructure allow us to pursue local innovations that have global implications.

New York’s Clean Energy Expansion Needs a Jolt

A forthcoming report and April 30th webinar by the Climate Jobs Institute lays out what’s working, what’s stalling, and how labor-forward climate policy can close the gap
Two workers installing solar panels
New York’s Clean Energy Expansion Needs a Jolt

ILR School’s Impact on New York State

The NYS Public Impact report is a window into how ILR applied research, data shares, tools and training inform labor, economic and other issues at the heart of daily life for many of the state’s 20 million residents.
View of the statue of liberty with NYC skyline behind
ILR School’s Impact on New York State

New Empire State Poll Highlights New Yorkers' Climate Concerns and Expectations for Elected Officials

Over 82% of respondents expressed some level of concern about how climate change will affect today's children and future generations, with nearly 38% indicating they were "extremely concerned."
Statue of liberty
New Empire State Poll Highlights New Yorkers' Climate Concerns and Expectations for Elected Officials

A driving principle behind our research, teaching, training, and practice is that everyone deserves fair and equal access to jobs, housing, healthcare, and other means for achieving economic security. Our work seeks solutions that remove inequitable barriers to economic opportunities, whether those barriers occur within an individual workplace or at the structural levels of our political and economic systems.

You can see a handful of our recent work below.

'Stopping Forced Labor' eCornell Webinar: Jason Judd, Samira Rafaela and Kelly Fay Rodríguez on Global Forced Labor Regulations

Join Executive Director Jason Judd, GLI Visiting Fellow Samira Rafaela and Former Special Representative for International Labor Affairs Kelly Fay Rodríguez on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, 1pm EDT for a keynote presentation on forced labor regulations around the world.
Women working in a field
'Stopping Forced Labor' eCornell Webinar: Jason Judd, Samira Rafaela and Kelly Fay Rodríguez on Global Forced Labor Regulations

Cornell University's Cathy Creighton talks about women's experience in the workplace

Women working in Erie County simultaneously experience lower pay and more significant barriers to success relative to men, according to a new report released by the ILR Buffalo Co-Lab.
Missing alt
Cornell University's Cathy Creighton talks about women's experience in the workplace

Discovery Green hosts 'Stories of Belonging' exhibit showcasing lives, history of migrant workers

The Stories of Belonging exhibit highlights the history and struggles Central American migrant workers with Temporary Protected Status endure.
Crowd viewing the TPS exhibit in Washington D.C.
Discovery Green hosts 'Stories of Belonging' exhibit showcasing lives, history of migrant workers

Collective Representation and Worker Voice

See more stories about collective representation workers' voices

We were founded to study and improve the world of work. We have strong research roots in labor relations and negotiations, and our work with varying communities comes from our commitment to understanding collective representation, the perspectives of workers, and improving workers' lives.

Q&A: Tariff Impacts on Apparel Workers and Fashion Industry

Jason Judd, executive director of ILR’s Global Labor Institute, addressed questions about the potential impacts of U.S. tariffs on workers in apparel-producing countries and on the fashion industry.
Photograph of garment workers in Bangladesh at sewing machines.
Q&A: Tariff Impacts on Apparel Workers and Fashion Industry

‘Pause is the Pathway to Choice’: WI Event Explores Regenerative Organizing for the Labor Movement

On Feb. 27, Cornell ILR’s Worker Institute (WI) hosted “Regenerative Organizing for the Labor Movement: Focus on Care.” The event introduced the Regenerative Organizing model, a pilot program that helped unions and worker organizations address the mounting stress and trauma workers face.
Group of people on stage holding up signs
‘Pause is the Pathway to Choice’: WI Event Explores Regenerative Organizing for the Labor Movement

Cook-Gray Lecture Will Examine Transformative Labor Movement

Annelise Orleck, professor of history and co-chair of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Dartmouth College, will deliver the 2025 Alice Cook-Lois Gray Distinguished Lecture on April 15.
Annelise Orleck, Professor of History at Dartmouth College
Cook-Gray Lecture Will Examine Transformative Labor Movement

Leadership Development

We work with communities, organizations, departments and companies – all to help develop leaders who will make workplaces and employment itself better. Foundations in management and collective bargaining, and our 75 years in industry put us in a unique position to help develop leaders in business, labor and policy.

CAHRS

Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies

CAHRS is the world's leading partnership between industry and academia, devoted to global human resource management. The CAHRS partnership connects leading companies to Cornell University, the ILR School, and leading faculty, students and intellectual leaders throughout the world.

several towers from Cornell's Ithaca campus
Visit CAHRS

Labor Leadership Training

We work with union leaders at national and state levels to develop training programs for aspiring and established leaders within the labor field.

Explore labor leadership programs

Senior Leader Programs

We bring together world-class faculty with business and industry leaders to design and deliver training systems that develop HR, business and management leaders. Learn from world-class faculty dedicated to HR research and driving organizational performance.

Man leaning reflected against city glass door
Find out more about our senior leadership training

Jonathan Lam ’27 Honored by Amnesty International USA

ILR junior Jonathan Lam was recently named the inaugural recipient of the Trailblazer in Organizing and Activism Award given by Amnesty International USA.
 Jonathan Lam ’27 speaking at the People Power Awards ceremony during Amnesty International USA's Annual General Meeting, held in February at the Westin Book Cadillac in Detroit.
Jonathan Lam ’27 Honored by Amnesty International USA

What Are Trigger Laws?

Trigger laws are anticipatory laws that can be used to respond to changing conditions in real time. Megan Thorsfeldt and Gali Racabi from the ILR School explain how this type of law works and what it could mean in a labor context.
Image of law library with scales of justice emblem and a gavel in the foreground
What Are Trigger Laws?

Meeting The Moment

On January 30, Labor Leadership Initiatives hosted a virtual gathering for alumni of the National Leadership Initiative (NLLI). Participants came together to discuss how they are adapting their leadership strategies within unions and organizations to tackle the current challenges facing workers, especially as their protections remain vulnerable.
Stepping into Power ULI 2024. Labor Leadership Initiatives
Meeting The Moment

ILR in the News

Our work from the media

See more ILR news coverage

Trump’s Empire Wind freeze threatens South Brooklyn jobs and economy

Yahoo News
“We were building a whole industry … and the problem with shutting down the project is that it really sends a signal to the developers in the market — like, what certainty is there?” said Lara Skinner, executive director of the Climate Jobs Institute.
Trump’s Empire Wind freeze threatens South Brooklyn jobs and economy

Vending Enforcement Slams Poor Minorities in White Neighborhoods, New Report Finds

The City
Most vending tickets are issued in predominantly white and affluent areas to immigrant and minority sellers living in much poorer outer borough neighborhoods, according to a new report by Andrew Wolf, assistant professor.
Vending Enforcement Slams Poor Minorities in White Neighborhoods, New Report Finds

Nike says its factory workers earn nearly double the minimum wage. At this Cambodian factory, 1% made that much.

“Companies have enormous leeway in what they report. It’s enormously difficult to compare within firms across years. Between firms, impossible. Companies are able to pick and choose how they tell their story,” says Jason Judd, executive director of the Global Labor Institute.
Nike says its factory workers earn nearly double the minimum wage. At this Cambodian factory, 1% made that much.