The 10-Business-Day AEDT Notice Nobody Sends on Time
The bias audit gets the attention and the budget. The notice is where employers actually fail, because a modern funnel scores a resume within seconds of submission and the law wanted the candidate told ten business days earlier.
Four contents, not one paragraph
Employers tend to compress the whole obligation into a single sentence at the bottom of a job posting: "we may use automated tools in our hiring process." That sentence satisfies none of the four things the notice has to convey.
That an AEDT will be used to assess this candidate
SPECIFIC, NOT HYPOTHETICALThe notice tells the candidate that an automated employment decision tool will be used in connection with the assessment or evaluation for the position they applied to. 'May use' language for a tool you always use reads as evasion.
If the tool only runs on some requisitions, the notice belongs on those requisitions, not as a blanket footer that makes the disclosure meaningless everywhere.
The job qualifications and characteristics the tool evaluates
PLAIN LANGUAGENot the feature list of the model — the qualifications and characteristics being assessed. 'Years of relevant experience, demonstrated proficiency in listed technical skills, and availability for the posted schedule' is the register the rule expects.
This is the disclosure vendors resist because it edges toward the scoring logic. Get it in writing from the vendor before you publish anything you cannot support.
How to request an alternative process or accommodation
A ROUTE, NOT A PROMISEThe notice must include instructions for requesting an alternative selection process or a reasonable accommodation. It must give a real, monitored channel — an address or form that reaches a human.
The law does not require you to grant the alternative. It requires you to say how to ask. Accommodation duties under disability law are separate and do bite, so route requests rather than reject them.
The data type, source, and retention policy
SEPARATE DISCLOSUREThe employer must disclose the type of data collected for the AEDT, the source of that data, and the employer's retention policy for it. This can be posted on the website or supplied within 30 days of a written request.
Posting is safer than answering requests. A request route needs an inbox somebody watches and a 30-day timer nobody is currently running.
Why the lead time forces the notice onto the posting
Ten business days is roughly two calendar weeks. Almost no applicant-tracking funnel waits two weeks before scoring anything. Resume parsing and ranking typically fire on submission; assessment invitations go out within a day or two. Once you accept that the clock starts before assessment, the delivery options collapse:
- Email after application — arrives after the tool has already scored the resume. Too late for the initial screen, though still useful for a later assessment stage.
- Notice inside the application flow — better, but it is given the same day the tool runs, not ten business days before.
- Notice in the job posting and on the careers page — the only delivery that reliably predates the assessment, because it is published before the candidate applies at all.
That is why the practical answer for high-volume hiring is a standing careers-page disclosure plus a per-requisition line in every posting where the tool is used, with the posting live for at least ten business days before scoring begins.
The surfaces employers forget
Internal promotion and mobility tools
Employees considered for promotion are covered. If a workforce-planning or internal-matching model ranks candidates for an internal req, those employees are owed the same notice on the same timeline.
Third-party job boards
A posting syndicated to an aggregator often loses the tail of the description. If your notice lives only in the last paragraph, verify it survived syndication before you rely on it.
Recruiter-sourced candidates
A candidate who never saw the posting never saw the notice. Outbound sourcing needs its own notice path, usually an email sent before any scoring tool touches the profile.
Employment agencies acting for you
Agencies are covered in their own right. Agree in the contract who gives notice, keep the evidence, and do not assume both sides did it.
Roles that are remote but based in NYC
Coverage follows the location of the job, and a remote role tied to a NYC office is in scope. Filtering on candidate address is the wrong test.
What "alternative selection process" actually means
Vendor marketing and a great deal of secondhand commentary describe Local Law 144 as giving candidates a right to opt out of AI screening. It does not. The obligation is informational: tell candidates how to request an alternative process or an accommodation. DCWP's guidance is explicit that the law does not require the employer to provide one.
The trap is that this is only true of Local Law 144. A candidate whose request is grounded in a disability triggers a reasonable-accommodation analysis under the ADA and the NYC Human Rights Law, and a blanket "we do not offer alternatives" reply is a poor exhibit in that proceeding. Build the intake so requests are read and categorized, even though the answer to a bare preference-based request can be no.
Your notice is only as good as the page it sits on
An AEDT notice buried in a collapsed accordion, rendered only in an image, or unreachable by keyboard is a disclosure the candidate never received. Scan your careers page free and see how the notice is actually delivered.
Scan Your Careers Page for Free →Frequently Asked Questions
Does Local Law 144 require us to offer an alternative to the AI screening?
No. This is the most widely repeated error about the law. The notice must tell candidates how to request an alternative selection process or an accommodation, but the law does not obligate the employer to grant one. Other laws may — a disability accommodation request under the ADA or NYC Human Rights Law is a separate duty with its own analysis — so a request should still be routed to whoever handles accommodations rather than auto-denied.
Can the notice live in the job posting instead of an email?
Yes. DCWP's rules permit notice on the careers or jobs section of the website, in the job posting itself, or by mail or email — as long as it lands at least 10 business days before the AEDT is used. A standing careers-page disclosure is the most durable option because it does not depend on anyone remembering to send anything.
Ten business days before what, exactly?
Before the tool is used to assess that candidate — not before the offer, not before the interview. If your funnel scores a resume the moment it is submitted, notice must already have been given, which in practice means it has to be in the posting or on the careers page, since there is no window to email anyone first.
Do current employees get a notice too?
Yes, if an AEDT is used for promotion or internal transfer decisions. The law covers employees being considered for promotion, not just external applicants, and the same 10-business-day lead time applies. Internal mobility tools are the most commonly missed surface.
What is the data-retention disclosure and where does it go?
Separate from the AEDT notice, the employer must disclose the type of data the tool collects, the source of that data, and the employer's data retention policy. It can be posted on the website, or provided within 30 days of a written request — but if you rely on the request route, you need a monitored intake and a 30-day clock somebody owns.
How do penalties work if we simply forget the notice?
Each failure to provide notice is a separate violation, and continued violations accrue per day. A missing notice on a high-volume requisition is therefore not one mistake; it is one per affected candidate, compounding for as long as the posting runs.