Tech:NYC Digest: October 4

Tech:NYC Digest: October 4

October 04, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Wishing a meaningful and easy fast to all those observing Yom Kippur. In today’s digest, travel advisories are the latest COVID policy to retire, New York kickstarts its quest as the nation’s next chips hub, and how your company is preparing to implement pay transparency rules.  

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  • The CDC announced it will no longer maintain a country-by-country list of travel advisories related to COVID-19. (CNN) Notices will only be posted for a country if there is a concerning COVID-19 variant or other situation that would change the CDC's travel recommendations.

  • Chip manufacturer Micron will commit $100 billion over the next 20 years to build a huge computer chip factory complex in upstate New York. The announcement follows the passage of New York’s Green CHIPS bill and the federal CHIPs and Science Act, with the goal of creating at least 50,000 new jobs. (New York Times)

  • The MTA has completed its “Third Track” project adding nearly 10 miles of additional rails to the Long Island Rail Road. The line will increase train capacity and express service in and out of the Jamaica terminal in advance of the opening of the new LIRR terminal below Grand Central at the end of the year. (New York Daily News)

  • Manhattan’s EV charging sites now outnumber its gas stations more than ten to one, according to state data. (Bloomberg) Citywide, however, gas stations still dominate, with 697 across all five boroughs, versus 520 charging sites.

In other reading:

  • Coyotes Came to New York City, but Not For Our Pizza (New York Times)

  • Spider-Man Swoops Onto New York Public Library Cards (New York Times)

  • Former Cooper Union Dean Nader Tehrani Recommends the Left Side of the Plane (When Flying into LaGuardia) and 21 Other Questions (Curbed)

New York City’s pay transparency law takes effect on Nov. 1, and for the rest of the month, your company’s HR and legal teams are no doubt preparing in two ways: to comply with the law and to respond to employee reactions when compliance begins.

To give a quick reminder of the some of the main requirements:

  • The employer must disclose the minimum and maximum annual salary or hourly wage it believes in good faith it would pay for the position.

  • Base pay must be disclosed, but other forms of compensation and benefits don’t have to be.

  • Employers are not required to disclose a salary for a position that they do not plan to “advertise,” but the law defines advertising broadly, so employers should be prepared to add pay ranges to any new and any active listings on the company’s website or third-party job-posting websites.

New York (and this week, California) joined other states adding pay transparency laws to the books amid growing pressure for employers to share how much a job pays before the candidate process begins. (USA Today) 

Some are beginning to do it voluntarily. Josh Steinfeld, lead product strategist for Carta Total Comp, Carta’s salary and equity data tool, told us:

  • "With two of the country's largest labor markets on the cusp of having pay transparency laws, all candidates, regardless of location, are going to start to expect to see pay ranges in job listings.” 

  • “Ahead of the November deadline for New York's pay transparency law, companies impacted should take another look at the pay ranges they will report and ask themselves — are their pay ranges competitive, aligned with their talent strategy, and do they track with how current employees are being compensated?” Steinfield said.

Unsurprisingly, job seekers and current employees alike favor pay transparency because they want to know if they are being given equal opportunities to advance within the company. In actuality, employees are looking for employers who are open about compensation.

  • 79% of full-time US employees surveyed by analytics company Visier said they preferred pay transparency. Even if the income was the same, nearly as many (68%) indicated they would change jobs to work for companies that had better pay transparency.

Go deeper: Carta’s data on average salary bands for engineering, product, and customer success roles in NYC can be found here.

In other reading:

  • Acelero, a NYC-based provider of early childhood education and family engagement services, raised an undisclosed amount of funding. BlackRock Impact Opportunities Fund and The Builders Fund co-led the round. (Businesswire)

  • Partake Foods, a NYC-based maker of allergy-free cookies and snacks, raised $11.5 million in Series B funding. Participating investors include Cleveland Avenue, Fearless Fund, Supply Change Capital and Kaya Ventures, as well as insiders Marcy Venture Partners, CircleUp Growth Partners, Black Star Fund, FF2032, and Black Capital. (TechCrunch)

  • Zenskar, a NYC and Bengaluru-based billing workflow automation solution for SaaS companies, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Shine Capital, Basecamp Fund, and Converge. (TechCrunch)

  • October 6: In-person: Propelify Innovation Festival, with Tech:NYC Jason Myles Clark, Primary Venture Partners co-founder Ben Sun, Morty co-founder and CEO Nora Apsel, Kyndryl global sustainability officer Faith Taylor, and others. Hosted by TechUnited:NJ. Register here.

  • October 7: In-person: Latinx in Tech: Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, with Tech:NYC, Mastercard, Google for Startups, and Inicio Ventures. Register here.

  • October 10 – 16: Virtual & in-person: New York Tech Week, featuring events across the city hosted by General Catalyst, EmpireDAO, Brex, Carta, Innovatemap, Techstars, and more. See the full agenda and register here.

  • October 11: Virtual: Building Information Security Teams and Practices for Growth-Stage Startups, with Two Sigma vice president of information security Grace Ward, DigitalOcean vice president of security Tyler Healy, and Honeycomb lead security engineer Jam Leomi. Hosted by Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. Register here.

  • October 13: In-person: How to Survive and Thrive as a Startup, with Techstars managing director Jordan Fliegel and others. Hosted by La French Tech New York. Register here.

  • October 24 – 25: In-person: SCNY Urban Tech Summit, with Tech:NYC executive director Jason Myles Clark, NYC Chief Climate Officer Louise Yeung, JustAir co-founder and CEO Darren Riley, and others. Hosted by Cornell Tech. Register here.

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