A new set of New York State labor laws called Wage Theft Prevention Act has become effective on April 9, 2011. Below are some highlights of WTPA and other labor laws applicable to New York State employers. Since our services relate to tax reports and compliance matters and are not directly related to the labor laws, these are intended only as a common sense reminders of the labor law issues. For further details, please refer to New York State Labor Department web site at http://www.labor.ny.gov or an attorney specializing in labor laws.
Now an employer is required to provide a written notice of pay rates to the employees (1) at the time of hire, (2) when rate is changed and (3) at least once a year between January 1st and February 1st. The first annual written notice was required by February 1, 2012. The written notice needs to be signed and dated by employee to evidence receipt of such notice and be kept by employer for at least 6 years. When the required notice is not given, the employer is liable for penalty of $50 per week, per employee. Please refer to the LS54 and LS57 sample notice forms.
Although wage statements (also known as pay statement or pay stub) have already been required, the laws and penalties have been significantly strengthened. The pay statement must be accompanied by each pay and must contain following information: dates of work covered (period beginning and period ending), rate of pay for both regular hours (up to 40 hours per week) and overtime hours (over 40 hours per week), gross wages, deductions, any allowances taken, net wages, name of employee, and name, address and phone number of employer. Penalty for failure to provide the wage statement is $100 per week per employee.
Please note that minimum wage during year 2015 in New York State is $8.75 per hour. (Was $8.00 in 2014, $9.00 in 2015 and thereafter) When an employee works over 40 hours in a weekly pay cycle, the over time needs to be paid at least 1.5 times the regular pay rate. Tipped restaurant employee pay can be reduced by $3.75 per hour. ($3.00 in 2014 and $4.00 in 2016 and after) Pay rate for non-restaurant, service employees (e.g., food delivery employee) who receive tips can be reduced by $2.15 per hour. ($2.20 in 2016 and after) For employees who work on tipped and non-tipped tasks, if he or she works more than 2 hours per day or 20% on non-tipped tasks, full minimum wage rate must be paid and no tip credit is allowed. Up to 30 minutes of meal time for up to 2 meals per day can be excluded from payable hours. When an employer provides meal for its employees, maximum of $3.00 can be deducted from pay for each meal. Additionally, spread of hours rule dictates that on a given day, if the difference between the time an employee initially reports to work and the time that the employee leaves for the day, including any meal and break time, exceeds 10 hours, the employee needs to be paid one hour at basic minimum wage rate. |