Megan K. Mechak
Tue, 04/26/2022
Manual workers working in New York state must be paid weekly and if they are not, they are entitled to receive liquidated damages for the late payment. For example, biweekly payments to manual workers violate New York state law and such workers can bring suit to recover liquidated damages.
Nearly three years after the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court for the First Department ruled in Vega v. CM & Associates Construction Management, LLC, that “manual workers” who are paid in full, but are paid “late,” in violation of the frequency of payment provision of the New York State Labor Law, have a private cause of action and can recover liquidated damages, employees across various industries have sued.
Section 191 of the New York State Labor Law (“NYLL”) regulates the frequency with which employees must be paid – “manual workers” and “railroad workers” must be paid once per week, while “clerical and other workers” need only be paid semi-monthly, and “commission sales persons” only need to be paid monthly. Section 191 does not include an express private right of action, and Section 198 (the remedy section of the law) allows employees to sue for unpaid wages, but is silent on employees’ right to sue for late wages. For years, the generally accepted interpretation of Section 191 is that no private right of action existed for untimely payments.
In 2019, however, the First Department held that Section 198(1-a) provides a right of action for violation (either expressly or impliedly) of Section 191 for late-paid wages, and that liquidated damages are available.
Because the term “manual workers” is broader than it appears, since the Vega decision, workers in a variety of industries have sued to recover liquidated damages for late-paid wages. According to the New York Department of Labor, “[i]t has been the long-standing interpretation of this Department that individuals who spend more than 25% of working time engaged in ‘physical labor’ fit within the meaning of the term ‘manual worker.’ Furthermore, the term ‘physical labor’ has been interpreted broadly to include countless physical tasks performed by employees.”
Based on this definition, workers employers as diverse as the Cheesecake Factory and Apple have sued, alleging that because of the physical tasks of their jobs (such as cooking, cleaning, and moving kitchen equipment (in the case of the Cheesecake Factory workers) and working the sales floor, unboxing products, emptying cash registers, and assisting customers (in the case of the Apple employees)), they should have been paid at least weekly and are entitled to liquidated damages because they were not.
If you believe you have not been timely paid for your wages, contact MSE at info@mselaborlaw.com. For more information on employer obligations to pay employees on time, visit https://www.mselaborlaw.com/practice-areas/late-payment.
