New York State Governor Hochul recently signed legislation (S2832-A/A154-A) to make wage theft a form of larceny and allow prosecutors to seek stronger criminal penalties against employers who steal wages from workers. 

Specifically, the new legislation amends Section 155.00 of the New York Penal Law to add “compensation for labor or services” to the definition of “property” and adds a subsection 10 for “workforce” which means “a group of one or more persons who work in exchange for wages.”

The law also adds a subsection (f) to Section 155.05 of the Penal Law to define larceny by wage theft to mean the following:

A person obtains property by wage theft when he or she hires a person to perform services and the person performs such services and the person does not pay wages, at the minimum wage rate and overtime, or promised wage, if greater than the minimum wage rate and overtime, to said person for work performed. In a prosecution for wage theft, for the purposes of venue, it is permissible to aggregate all nonpayments or underpayments to one person from one person, into one larceny count, even if the nonpayments or underpayments occurred in multiple counties. It is also permissible to aggregate nonpayments or underpayments from a workforce into one larceny count even if such nonpayments or underpayments occurred in multiple counties.

Employers should review their policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the wage and hour laws to avoid civil and criminal penalties. 

Should you have any questions or need assistance with submission process, please contact Ali Law Group.