On September 6, 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill into law that amends the criminal larceny law to include wage theft. The amendment goes into effect immediately. This legislative action follows a February 16, 2023 announcement by the Manhattan District Attorney Office that it had partnered with the New York State Department of Labor to create the Office’s first-ever “Worker Protection Unit” to investigate and criminally prosecute wage theft charges against companies and executives that “steal” wages.
On September 6, 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed Senate Bill S2832A into law, which amends the New York criminal larceny statute to include wage theft. Under existing New York law, “A person . . . commits larceny when, with intent to deprive another of property or to appropriate the same to himself or to a third person, he wrongfully takes, obtains or withholds such property from an owner thereof.”
The new law adds a statutory description of larceny by wage theft: “A person obtains property by wage theft when he or she hires a person to perform services and the person performs such services and the person does not pay wages, at the minimum wage rate and overtime, Read more
