City officials present labor compliance budget, new BRJP dashboard showing 21% Boston resident hours, 7% women

At a May 12 Boston City Council Committee on Ways and Means hearing, officials from the Office of Labor Compliance and Worker Protections presented the office’s proposed FY26 operating budget and showed a new real-time dashboard for monitoring compliance with the Boston Resident Jobs Policy (BRJP).

The presentation matters because the office enforces local labor standards for city-linked construction and service contracts, and the new dashboard is intended to give procurement staff, contractors and the public a clearer, timely view of who is working on city projects.

Deputy Chief Jody Sugarman Brossian told the committee that the office’s proposed FY26 operating budget is roughly $1,000,911.71, “just $55,080 less than FY25,” a change the office attributed to one-time contracted resources that ended and general wage increases. She said about 62% of the office’s budget covers the BRJP office, which includes 10 of the office’s 13 staff.

Sugarman Brossian summarized BRJP’s hiring targets, as described in the office slides: projects must meet standards including that at least 51% of total journey‑worker and apprentice hours go to Boston residents, at least 40% go to people of color and 12% of journey‑worker and 12% of apprentice hours go to women. She cautioned the council that enforcement is carried out through seven compliance measures (for example, payroll reporting and corrective‑action meetings) rather than direct enforcement of those numerical hiring standards alone.

On compliance data, Sugarman Brossian said the office’s new dashboard draws from project payroll and monitoring work and — for the period July 1 through April 22 — shows that 21% of work hours across monitored BRJP projects went to Boston residents, 42% to people of color and 7% to women. “While 7% is low and we have a long way to go to ensuring that women are better represented on construction sites in Boston, it is still significant progress,” she said.

Monique Mitchell, senior program manager for living wage and wage‑theft work, described the living‑wage calculation and compliance work for service contracts. She said the office uses three possible methods to set a living wage and reported the current CPI‑based living wage is $18.20, rising to $18.78 in July. Mitchell said the office monitored roughly 800 contracts in FY25 (about 475 unduplicated vendors) covering more than 10,000 anticipated employees and is working to automate vendor reporting to free staff time for compliance work.

Mitchell also gave wage‑theft statistics: “This past year, we received 33 wage‑theft complaints. 31 of them we forwarded to [the Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division]. Five were favorably resolved, returning wages to workers; five are currently open investigations; and three are under review for whether to open an investigation or pursue a private right of action.” She highlighted a recent case referred by the Chinese Progressive Association that led to $36,000 recovered for workers.

The office described training and outreach work: a construction‑safety and demolition ordinance implementation partnership with the Inspectional Services Department that supplies free OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 classes in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Haitian Creole; a webinar series on worker rights in multiple languages; resource clinics where workers can file complaints with state and city partners; and two small‑business trainings planned in late May on wage/hour and immigrant‑worker issues.

Council members asked how the Employment Commission enforces BRJP noncompliance and how procurement staff can use the dashboard; Jody Sugarman Brossian and Monique Mitchell said the dashboard is intended both for internal procurement review and for contractors to vet subcontractors. The office said it is working to add trade‑level filters and to improve cross‑departmental feedback so that noncompliance can inform procurement decisions.

No formal action was taken at the hearing; staff said they will continue to refine the dashboard, expand reporting automation and offer planned trainings and clinics. The office also said it will provide additional data and follow up to council members who requested more detail on compliance and program outcomes.