New York Labor Law amended to limit damages for violation of weekly pay requirement

On May 9, 2025, after extensive negotiations with New York’s Legislature, Governor Kathy Hochul approved amendments to the New York Labor Law (NYLL) that will limit most frequency-of-pay claims by manual workers in state and federal courts in New York.

Background

Section 191(1)(a) of the NYLL requires employers in the Empire State to pay “manual workers” on a weekly basis and not later than seven calendar days after the end of the week in which the wages were earned. Under current New York case law, if employees spend more than 25% of their working time performing physical labor (which is defined very broadly), they are considered to be manual workers.

In 2019, the First Department of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court (which covers New York and Bronx counties) ruled that manual workers could recover liquidated damages in court for the untimely payment of their wages. For example, a manual worker paid $1,600 biweekly, instead of $800 weekly, could garner liquidated damages of $800 for each week not paid weekly, even though they had received full pay biweekly.

This First Department decision resulted in a flood of frequency-of-pay claims by manual workers in federal courts in New York because, unlike in New York State courts, employees can recover liquidated damages in class actions in federal court.

What the amendments do