New York employers may face hefty consequences for failing to properly pay wages to their employees. Employers doing business in New York should be aware of recent efforts to prioritize enforcement of laws that protect against the theft of workers’ wages. In the last few years, New York has enacted legislation increasing the civil and criminal penalties for wage theft and law enforcement has targeted employers who fail to pay wages in violation of these laws.

Recent headlines demonstrate that New York is taking wage theft very seriously. In March 2024, the owner and a manager of Grimaldi’s Pizzeria were indicted for the crime of scheme to defraud in the first degree as well as several counts of failure to pay wages in violation of New York Labor Law, after workers lodged multiple complaints with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Worker Protection Unit about not receiving their full wages.