Earlier this year, the Wage Theft Prevention Act (WTPA) was passed in New York State. It requires all employers (regardless of the number of employees and including not-for-profit corporations) to comply with the notice, wage statement and recordkeeping requirements of the law. The penalties for non-compliance are significant.

What’s Required and When?

All NYS employers are now required to provide the following.

• For New Hires

For each new hire at the time of employment – a written notice (on a separate form) that includes the following information:

• Pay rate(s), including overtime rate*, if applicable (Note: if an employee has multiple pay rates and is eligible for overtime, the Department of Labor’s (DOL)  notice provides alternate language.)
• Whether the employee is paid hourly, by shift, day, week, commission, etc.
• Regular paydays
• The employer’s official name and any other names used for doing business (DBA)
• The employer’s main office address and phone number
• Any allowances taken as part of the minimum wage (tip, meal and lodging deductions).

* You must do the math and provide the actual dollar amount of overtime, not just state that it is a certain percentage of the regular rate.

• Annual Notice

In addition, beginning in 2012, all employees must receive an annual notice on or before February 1^st.  The notice must be in English and in the employee’s primary language (if the DOL offers a translation in that language).  

The DOL has templates of the notices available in English and in several other languages. You can use the DOL template or your own form – as long as your own form includes all of the required information.

Each employee must sign, date and return the completed notice and must receive a signed copy for their files. If any employee refuses to sign, you should note that refusal on your copy of the notice.

Notices can be sent electronically if the employee has the ability to acknowledge receipt and can print a copy for their records.

• Ongoing Wage Statements

WPTA also stipulates that the following information must be included with every wage payment:

• Dates covered by that paycheck
• Employee name
• Employer name, address and telephone number
• Employee’s pay rate and how pay is determined (hourly, shift, weekly, salaried, commission, etc.)
• Gross and net amounts
• Deductions
• Allowances (if any) claimed as part of the minimum wage
• Regular and overtime hours worked (for non-exempt employees)
• Piece rates and number of pieces completed at each rate (for piece workers)

Employees in the hospitality industry must be notified each time their wage rate changes.

Recordkeeping

WPTA requires that the information included in the required wage statements be maintained for at least six years. Please note that although an exempt employee’s wage statement does not need to include the hours worked, recordkeeping requirements do apply to exempt employees. On that basis, you must track and keep records of the hours worked each week by exempt employees.

Non-compliance Penalties
If an employer fails to provide a newly hired employee with the required notice within ten business days of his/her first day of employment, the employee may recover $50 for each work week of violation up to a maximum of $2,500, together with attorneys’ fees and costs.

If an employer fails to provide employees with the require annual notice, each affected employee may recover $100 for each work week of non-compliance up to a maximum of $2,500, together with attorneys’ fees and costs.

For failure to provide wage statements, penalties may be up to $100 per week per employee.

Other, higher penalties may apply, depending on the circumstances.

In addition, if an employer has violated New York’s wage payment laws, the employer may be required to post a notice of the violation for up to one year in an area visible to employees. If the employer’s violation is deemed to have been willful, then the employer must also post the notice in an area that is visible to the general public for up to ninety days.

If you need assistance in preparing and distributing these mandatory employee notices, please contact us. We will be happy to assist you.