In a move that appears to offer some relief to New York employers, Governor Kathy Hochul recently signed budget legislation that included amendments to New York Labor Law (NYLL) which will put limits on the damages available to manual workers who are paid less frequently than weekly — in violation of the NYLL’s pay frequency requirements. Here is what has happened and what employers need to know.
As we previously reported, employers with New York-based employees have been facing a dramatic increase of pay frequency claims, specifically under Section 191(1)(a) of the NYLL, which requires private employers to pay manual workers their wages no less frequently than weekly (in other words, every week, and not every two weeks or bimonthly).
Historically, this pay frequency requirement did not get much attention until 2019, when, in Vega v. CM & Associates Management LLC, a New York state appellate court determined that manual workers: (i) had a private right of action for any pay frequency violation (i.e., enforcement was not reserved solely to the Commissioner of Labor); and (ii) could recover liquidated damages equal to the amount of the untimely paid wages, plus interest, attorneys’ fees, and costs.
The decision set up for plaintiffs’ attorneys a veritable all-you-can-eat litigation buffet — and they have gorged. Easy pickings for them, with the recovery of attorneys’ fees serving as additional manna. Their clients — manual workers who actually have been paid...
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