Executive Summary
The New York Wage Theft Prevention Act (“NYWTPA”) requires employers to provide employees with an annual notice regarding their compensation and other terms of employment. The notice must be provided to all employees between January 1 and February 1 of each year, regardless if they previously received a notice. Although the state legislature has passed a bill repealing this requirement, as of the date of this publication, the bill has not been signed by the governor and therefore, the requirement remains in effect.
For more information on the NYWTPA and steps to meet your compliance obligations please review the details below.
Background
The Act amended New York Labor Law, modified existing and added new recordkeeping obligations for employers, and allows employees to recover significantly greater damages for violations of the law. The Act became effective on April 9, 2011.
Click here for additional information on the Act.
The requirements under the NYWTPA must also be reconciled with the requirements of other related laws, such as the Hospitality Wage Order and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA - which also has separate notice requirements for tipped employees). As an employer of NY employees you must provide a Pay Notice form to each employee working in New York (generally in the employee’s primary language):
- Upon hire;
- Before certain changes (e.g., – if an employee’s pay rate has decreased). Hospitality industry employers must provide notice in advance of any change in pay;
- Annually between January 1 and February 1
Next Steps
As you can see from the above dates, the NYWTPA Annual Notification period is approaching. ADP TotalSource designed a model pay notice which can be accessed on My TotalSource in the NY State Appendix section of FormSource. The model pay notice is an integrated form designed to comply with the NYWTPA, the Hospitality Wage Order, and the FLSA tip credit notice provisions.
To meet the annual NYWTPA requirement, the following actions must be performed for each employee working in NY. The form must be completed in its entirety and includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Check the “Annual – On or before February 1, beginning in 2012” option in the “Notice Given” box. Note – If an employee is newly hired during the Annual Notification period, you should check both the “At Hiring” and “Annual – On or before February 1, beginning in 2012” options and send a copy of the form to your Payroll Service Representative.
- Complete basic employer and employee contact information (e.g. – name, address, phone, etc.). Note – TotalSource provides capability to produce forms pre-populated with this data. Please see the Mass Producing Forms section below for details.
- Provide all applicable pay-related data – including, but not limited to Pay Frequency, Pay Date, Allowances, and Basis of Wage Payment.
- Identify and provide notation of the employee’s primary language. Note – The obligation to provide the notice in the employee’s primary language only applies to the extent that the New York Department of Labor (NYDOL) has developed an alternative language template form. The NYDOL currently has developed template forms in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Creole, Polish and Russian. Our model pay notice has been translated into these languages and these translated notices are available in FormSource.
- Ensure the form is signed and dated by the employee and that the employee receives a copy of the signed form.
- Additional guidance on how to complete the form is available on FormSource in the NY State Appendix section and titled New York Pay Notice Guide.
- Maintain the original form in your personnel records for a minimum of six years.
My TotalSource Users – Mass Producing Forms
My TotalSource now provides clients with the functionality to mass produce NYWTPA forms with basic client and employee data pre-populated in the form. To access this report navigate to the Reporting Tab and then select Standard Reports > HR Reports > NY Pay Notice – Annual Notifications.
Users can run multiple paygroups simultaneously using the paygroup field and filter options.
The report produces a summary list followed by the two-page form for each employee with the following data pre-populated:
- Notice Given identifier (Annual) and Change Effective Date
- Basic Client Data: Name, DBA, Address, Phone Number, Pay Frequency, and Pay Date
- Basic Employee Data: Name and Address
NOTE: You must complete all other sections of the form prior to having your employee sign the form.
The Change Effective Date is defaulted to the date the report is run. Therefore, be sure to run the report in the calendar year it is needed (e.g. – run report on any day between January 1, 2015 and February 1, 2015 for the 2015 Annual Notification period, etc.).
As always, please contact your ADP TotalSource Human Resource Business Partner or Payroll Service Representative if you have any questions or concerns.
This content provides practical information concerning the subject matter covered and is provided with the understanding that ADP is not rendering legal advice.