In New York State's 2026 budget signed by Governor Kathy Hochul on May 9, 2025, the legislature has amended the New York Labor Law ("NYLL") to remove an employee's right to be paid liquidated damages for almost all types of first time "manual worker" pay frequency claims under NYLL § 191.
Employment lawyers will recall the decision in Vega v. CM & Associates Construction Management LLC, 175 A.D.3d 1144, 107 N.Y.S.3d 286 (2d Dep't 2019) where the First Department held that qualifying "manual workers" had a private right of action to sue their employers for violations of the weekly pay frequency requirement. There the court held that an employee could recover 100% of their untimely wages as liquidated damages due to the employer's failure to pay the employee in a timely fashion even if the employee had been paid in full on a different timetable, i.e., biweekly instead of a weekly schedule. Many employers found this decision provided an unfair...
