The Real Estate Board of New York to The Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection Regarding Compensation and Training Standards for Security Guards

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The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) is the City’s leading real estate trade association representing commercial, residential, and institutional property owners, builders, managers, investors, brokers, salespeople, and other organizations and individuals active in New York City real estate. REBNY thanks the Committee for the opportunity to testify on Intro 1391, which, among other things, would establish minimum wage and benefit requirements and enhanced training standards for security guards.

The security sector in New York City is a highly-unionized industry and REBNY members are proud to be a major employer of unionized-security guards who are members of SEIU 32BJ. Collective bargaining is conducted between the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations (RABOLR), on behalf of owners and operators in the real estate industry, and SEIU 32BJ. Based on decades of collective bargaining, the real estate industry has been able to ensure that unionized security guards receive family-sustaining pay and benefits, and can access the high-quality training that they need to perform their jobs and succeed in New York City. The relationship between real estate employers and SEIU 32BJ is truly a model of best practices in labor-management relations and is a major contributor to the success of New York City’s real estate sector.

Intro 1391 would, unfortunately, undermine the benefits that have been achieved through collective bargaining by mandating that all State-licensed security guards who are not already covered by an existing government labor standard must receive a minimum wage and benefit package. As proposed, the minimum wage and benefit rate would not be allowed to be less than the prevailing rate for security guards as established annually by the New York City Comptroller. Presently, that prevailing rate is the rate set in the collective bargaining agreement between the RABOLR and SEIU 32BJ. By making the minimum wage for the entire industry equivalent to the collectively-bargained wage rate, the legislation fundamentally undermines the value of collective bargaining and impermissibly intrudes on the collective-bargaining process.

In addition, a well-established body of law makes clear that municipalities in New York do not have the authority to set their own minimum wage rates. Under the long-standing precedent set in Wholesale Laundry Bd. of Trade, Inc. v. City of New York—which has been reaffirmed several times in recent years—the State has preempted the field of minimum wage regulation, and local governments cannot impose wage requirements that conflict with State law. As such, we respectfully submit that the City Council does not have the legal authority to enact such a requirement.

Thank you for your consideration of these points.