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Many in Tompkins County Do Not Earn a Living Wage: ILR Researchers

Research

The 2025 living wage for a single adult living alone in Tompkins County is $24.82 per hour, but almost half of the county’s 48,894 wage earners earn less than that, according to ILR School researchers.

A calculator, cash and budget journal on a table.
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Student Project: Examining Unemployment Insurance Overpayments in New York State (Video)

This student-led video examines unemployment insurance overpayments in New York State. Through conversations with past unemployment benefits claimants, this video shows how strict policing of fault and fraud have worsened the financial hardships facing unemployed workers and their families.
Screenshot from video on unemployment insurance overpayments in New York State
Student Project: Examining Unemployment Insurance Overpayments in New York State (Video)

Student Project: Examining Worker Misclassification in New York State’s Unemployment Insurance System (Video)

This student-led video examines worker misclassification in New York State’s unemployment insurance (UI) system. Employees treated by their employers as independent contractors, often in violation of the law, struggle to receive benefits, enabling their employers to avoid paying UI taxes.
Screenshot from video on worker misclassification in New York State
Student Project: Examining Worker Misclassification in New York State’s Unemployment Insurance System (Video)

Many in Tompkins County Do Not Earn a Living Wage: ILR Researchers

The 2025 living wage for a single adult living alone in Tompkins County is $24.82 per hour, but almost half of the county’s 48,894 wage earners earn less than that, according to ILR School researchers.
A calculator, cash and budget journal on a table.
Many in Tompkins County Do Not Earn a Living Wage: ILR Researchers

Student Project: TCAT Workers Prepare to Negotiate a New Contract

TCAT workers discuss the importance of their role in people’s lives. Amidst contract negotiations, they highlight staff shortages, overtime and burnout. They also mention wages and cost of living in Ithaca. Riley Xian and Jenna Lea, students in the Ithaca Co-Lab at the Cornell ILR School, produced this video.
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Student Project: TCAT Workers Prepare to Negotiate a New Contract

Minimum Wage Increase Yields Positives: Report

Increasing the Tompkins County minimum wage of $16.61 to a living wage would increase earnings for thousands of workers and reduce racial and gender disparities, according to a new Ithaca Co-Lab report.
Money in the back pocket of a pair of jeans
Minimum Wage Increase Yields Positives: Report

Dashboard Details Surge in NYS Eviction Filings

Cornell Chronicle
As part of its on-going public impact mission and “data democratization” initiative, the Buffalo Co-Lab has launched the Cornell ILR Eviction Filings Dashboard for New York, a tool designed to help citizens, policymakers and nonprofits more easily visualize where eviction filings have occurred since 2018.
An eviction notice hangs on a door.
Dashboard Details Surge in NYS Eviction Filings