Joe Carello is an attorney whose practice is focused on representing and counseling employers in all aspects of labor and employment law, including wage-and-hour class action litigation, discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful discharge and ERISA litigation and other compliance matters.
Due to a recent change in NY law, even employers that are organized as a New York LLC can be liable for payroll violations! When you are running a business – large or small – one of the last things you may think you have time for is to ensure that your employees are properly recording their time. But as a wave of recent lawsuits and enforcement actions by the state and federal Departments of Labor indicates, timekeeping is important and a failure to focus on it could cause big liabilities to your business. Most employees should be paid on an hourly basis and accurately recording their time. The exemptions to state and federal minimum wage and overtime laws are narrowly construed, and those employees who are performing manual duties in your brewery are no exception. Once you decide that employees should be classified as non-exempt, you should take proactive steps to ensure that these employees accurately record their time and receive adequate, uninterrupted meal periods. Failure to ensure that such practices are in place can be costly, as the applicable statute of limitations for wage claims in New York is six years, and penalties for unpaid wages can double the amounts owed.