Legislative Updates

The Freelance Isn't Free Act, Effective May 15th 2017, offers protection to all New York City residents who identify as freelance workers against underpayment and undue manipulation on behalf of their employers. A Freelance Worker is defined as any person or organization of one person not otherwise incorporated or employing a trade name that is hired or retained as an independent contractor to provide services for a...

As 2016 comes to a close, we encourage you to remind your employees to review their W-4 information and submit a revise W-4 if they have any changes. Some reasons why employees should review their W-4 information include changes in withholding allowances, marital status, home address, name and to verify their Social Security number is correct. While employees may update their W-4 any time during the year, employees...

The Department of Labor's Overtime rule, which was set to go into effect December 1st has been blocked by a federal judge. This new rule would have raised the minimum salary for most exempt employees to $913 per week and would have automatically adjusted the threshold every three years beginning in 2020. For now, employers do not need to implement changes by December 1st. If you have not already made changes to...

NYC Pre-Tax Transit Benefits – January 2016 On October 20, 2014, the New York City Council signed the Affordable Transit Act, regulating the transit benefits for the New York City area. Effective January 1, 2016, the law requires private employers with 20 or more full time employees to provide a pretax payroll deduction for transit benefits to their employees. For purposes of this particular ordinance, “full...

New York State Minimum Wage Increase Effective December 31, 2015 Effective December 31, 2015 the basic minimum hourly wage will increase to $9.00 from $8.75. In the hospitality industry, the minimum wage for tipped employees increases to $7.50 with a tip allowance that meets or exceeds the basic minimum wage rate of $9.00/hour. All employees, including hospitality workers, should be given a “Notice &...

Mayor de Blasio Signs Legislation to “Ban the Box” in NYC Last week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed the “Fair Chance Act” into law. The ordinance restricts when employer inquiries about applicants’ criminal histories may be made during the application process and imposes significant obligations on employers who intend to take action based on such information. The ordinance will become...

NYS Annual Wage Rate Notice Eliminated! On December 29, 2014, Governor Cuomo signed a bill eliminating the Annual Pay Rate Notices! What does this mean? New York State employers are no longer required to issue the Annual Pay Rate Notices to employees on or before February 1 of each year. What else do I need to know? Employers are still required to provide written notice of Wage Rates to each new hire within 10...

Ten days prior to Election Day and until the close of polls on Election Day, employers in New York State must post conspicuously the statue N.Y. Election Law 3-110 where it can been seen by employees as they come and go from work. Additionally, the law requires employers to provide employees who are registered voters up to 2 hours paid leave to vote if an employee does not have sufficient time during non-working...