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NY S04473

Bill

Status

Engrossed

6/12/2025

Primary Sponsor

Jessica Ramos

Click for details

Origin

Senate

2025-2026 General Assembly

AI Summary

  • Clarifies that liquidated damages for labor law violations are compensatory in nature, not penalties, to ensure equal enforceability in both state and federal courts
  • Establishes that statutory damages for wage notice and wage statement violations under Labor Law § 195 compensate workers for harms including inability to discover wage theft, potential loss of claims due to statute of limitations, and stress from unclear pay details
  • Adds "statutory damages" to the types of compensation employees can recover during the six-year period prior to filing suit
  • Explicitly permits recovery of wages, benefits, wage supplements, statutory damages, and liquidated damages in class actions
  • Applies retroactively to all labor law violations that occurred within six years prior to the act's effective date

Legislative Description

Clarifies that the statutory damages available for certain wage violations are not punitive in nature and are designed to be liquidated damages rather than penalties or to compensate workers for the employer's failure to prevent wage theft and for the harm to employees that results from such failure.

Last Action

referred to codes

2/26/2026

Committee Referrals

Codes2/26/2026
Labor1/7/2026
Labor6/12/2025
Labor2/5/2025

Full Bill Text

No bill text available