Last week, with his term nearing a close, Governor Patterson signed the New York Wage Theft Prevention Act into law. This law, which becomes effective on April 12, 2011, amends the New York Labor Law by increasing its employee notification and recordkeeping requirements and by strengthening sanctions against employers who fail to pay their employees properly. This alert summarizes the key amendments.

Enhanced Notice and Recordkeeping Requirements

Before the amendments, Section 195 of the Labor Law required employers to provide each new employee with a written notice of his or her rate of pay, regular pay day, and, if overtime-eligible, the regular hourly rate of pay and overtime rate of pay. As a result of the amendments, Section 195 now requires employers to provide written notices not only to employees upon hire, but also to all existing employees no later than February 1, 2012 and each subsequent year thereafter. Each notice must be written in English and in the language identified by the employee as his or her primary language. In addition, each notice now must list substantially more information, including...