The city is awarding only a small share of government contracts to minority- and women-owned business enterprises, according to a new report.
New York City Comptroller Mark Levine’s annual report of City Minority and Women- owned Business Enterprise (M/WBEs) Procurement for Fiscal Year 2025 revealed that city agencies only awarded $2.4 billion, or 5%, of procurement contracts to M/WBEs.
“New York City’s greatest resource is its diversity,” Levine said in a statement. “When entrepreneurs of color and women are excluded from procurement, the city entrenches economic inequality, stifles innovation, and kneecaps economic growth. We must make our procurement system agile, transparent, and equitable for all New Yorkers and for the minority owned businesses that serve them.”
The city’s M/WBE program was designed to expand access to government contracts and in 2025, the City Council passed a law requiring the Comptorller's Office to publish an annual report.
The annual report’s key findings include:
- Only 5% ($2.4 billion out of $46 billion) of citywide procurement value is awarded to M/WBEs, and of the contracts subject to M/WBE participation goals ($17.5 billion), M/WBEs received only 8% ($1.5 billion).
- Only 22% of city-certified M/WBEs entered into a new contract, subcontract or purchase order under the city. At the end of the fiscal year, there were 11,382 certified M/WBEs. Just 2,478 entered into a new contract or purchase order in FY25.
- The average value of a M/WBE contract was five times less valuable than the average contract of a non-certified firm. For contracts subject to M/WBE participation goals, the average value of a contract registered to a non-certified firm was over $3.6 million, but the average M/WBE contract was just under $754,000.
- Only 65% of all M/WBE contracts were registered after the contract start date, while 35% of all M/WBE contracts were registered more than a month after the contract start date.
- Businesses owned by women of color and Black and Hispanic American men win far less in contract value. Asian American women-owned businesses, Black M/WBEs, Hispanic American M/WBEs and Native American M/WBEs each had just 1% of the city’s contract value subject to M/WBE participation goals.
- Prime vendors only reported subcontracts for 9% of contracts subject to participation goals registered since FY22, though the city knows there were many more subcontracts unreported. City systems only show subcontract records for 1,107 of the nearly 12,000 prime contracts subject to M/WBE participation goals. Failure to properly report on subcontractors hinders the ability to track success and areas of improvement, and offers little transparency into the vendors that receive public dollars.
Levine suggested that the city simplify the certification processes for M/WBEs by creating one repository of current and planned procurement opportunities, and standardizing commodity codes and other resources that connect M/WBEs to agencies; expand the pool of companies; build stronger oversight mechanisms in the digital procurement portal; proactively recertify companies; and streamline the entire procurement system.
