Last week, 11 ad agencies signed binding settlement agreements with New York City to increase the number of minorities in their management ranks, and to establish diversity hiring goals within the next three years. Failure to do so will result in fines for the agencies.

As a result of having signed the agreements, the agencies will not have to testify at hearings before the New York City Human Rights Commission during Advertising Week, Sept. 25-29, reports AdWeek (via MediaBuyerPlanner). The agencies agreed to report hiring, promotion and retention figures to the commission each year, and will hire an outside consultant to help them if they find they cannot reach their goals, according to the New York Times.

Four Omnicom shops - BBDO, DDB, Merkley + Partners and media shop PHD - did not sign settlement agreements, which means they must appear before a hearing with the Commission pursuant to a subpoena issued in June.

The subpoena was issued to 16 shops. The 11 that signed the agreement were Draft; Foote, Cone & Belding (now Draft FCB Group); Gotham and Avrett Free Ginsberg; Young & Rubicam, G2 Direct, G2 Interactive; Ogilvy & Mather; The Kaplan Thaler Group; Saatchi & Saatchi; and Euro RSCG. Havas's Arnold is also expected to sign.

The city's Human Rights Commission had determined that the hiring of African American employees had barely improved since a similar inquiry 40 years ago. Of 8,000 people employed at the agencies, about 22 percent make more than $100,000 a year. Only 2.5 percent of those are black, the Times writes.