The New York Wage Theft Prevention Act's Annual Pay Notice Deadline is Just Around the Corner
This alert serves as a reminder that the New York Wage Theft Prevention Act requires employers to provide annual pay notices to all of their employees (whether full-time or part-time, exempt or non-exempt) between January 1 and February 1, 2012. For seasonal employees who are not working during this period, employers must provide annual pay notices to these employees as soon as they return to work from their time away.
As explained in more detail in our previous alerts on the Wage Theft Prevention Act, which you can access here and here, the annual pay notice, which contains several items of information, must be (i) provided even if the information it contains will not change from previous notices provided; (ii) written in English and in the employee’s primary language, but only if the Department of Labor has released a notice template in that primary language; and (iii) maintained for six years. Further, employers must also obtain acknowledgements from employees affirming that they have received the pay notice.
Employers operating in California should also be aware that California recently passed its own Wage Theft Prevention Act, which goes into effect on January 1, 2012 and which is similar in many respects to New York’s Act. We will detail the California’s Act’s requirements in a separate alert.
As the compliance deadline nears, employers are well advised to seek the advice of employment counsel for assistance complying with both the New York and California Wage Theft Prevention Acts.
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