New York moving and storage employers must meet the requirements of both New York Labor Law and the federal Fair Labor Standard Act. New York State is particularly onerous.
Not only can you face fines, violations can result in criminal charges.
The following violations are misdemeanors for the first offense, multiple offenses can result in felonies:
– Failure to pay wages
– Failure to pay manual workers weekly
– Illegal deductions
– Demanding or accepting gratuities
– Failing to keep and retain payroll records
What is the Minimum Wage New York State?
As of December 31, 2013 the minimum wage is $8.00 per hour.
As of December 31, 2014 the minimum wage will increase to $8.75
As of December 31, 2015 the minimum wage will increase to $9.00
What about overtime?
Under federal law, covered employees must be paid time and one half. This applies to all hours worked over 40 hours in a single week.
Other notes to be aware of – an employer does not need to pay an employee for lunch breaks. However, breaks less than 20 minutes are counted as work hours.
How to comply with the law?
Keep detailed records. If your employees are salaried or you pay him a weekly sum, then you must have an agreement with your employee stating the weekly salary includes specified regular and overtime rates. Otherwise, the State will not view a salary as including overtime. Overall, you must be able to compute the employee’s regular rate and compensate of overtime.
What payroll records do I need to keep?
For each employee break out the number regular hours and overtime hours he/she works each day. Also, keep the regular rates of pay and the overtime rates of pay. Employees need to be provided notices of their pay rates annually.
Wage Statements Need to include
– Rates paid
– Hours worked
– Gross wages
– Allowances
– Deductions
– Net Wages
As you can see labor law is extremely complicated. To further protect yourself please consider purchasing Employment Practices Liability Insurance.
The materials available at this web site are for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Use of and access to this Web site or any of the e-mail links contained within the site do not create an attorney-client relationship between Robert T. Kirkwood and the user or browser. The opinions expressed at or through this site are the opinions of the individual author and may not reflect the opinions of the firm or any individual attorney.
