Why Do Many Employees in New York Have the Right to Weekly Paychecks (Not Every Other Week) Under the Updated Rules in 2023?

Many workers receive their pay only every other week. This causes problems for a lot of Americans, most of whom live paycheck to paycheck with few savings. They may give up on opportunities for themselves or their children, or take on expensive credit card or payday loan debt, while they are waiting for more pay they have already earned.

Under New York State law, workers who perform “manual labor” for more than 25% of their job have the right to get paid every single week. This can save a worker a ton of money in interest payments, late fees, and other costs, as well as being a huge relief in terms of fear and desperation.

But these days, how many workers really do ‘manual labor”? Not that many New Yorkers work on the farm or even in construction or landscaping anymore.

The New York law is very futuristic, however. It is focused on the “mechanic” and “workingman” as the worker who does manual labor. Therefore it can cover a lot of workers today who operate a machine, like a car or truck in the cases of drivers and chauffeurs, checkout registers or terminals in the case of cashiers or clerks, cleaning equipment in the case of cleaners, telephone or Internet equipment in the case of installation or switching workers, and various office or factory equipment in the case of workers supporting professionals or engineers.

Repairing or adding fuel or other materials to a machine on which one works can be important evidence of being a mechanic or manual laborer.

So, many employees in New York may have a claim for being paid even other week, rather than every single week like the New York Labor Law states. If they band together in class action lawsuits, it may be possible to cheaply and quickly resolve demands for back pay that would take hundreds or thousands of workers many years and a lot of money to handle individually.

Updates to the law in 2023 confirm the importance of the weekly paycheck to employees who deal with machines or work at least 25% of their time on manual tasks in New York. In cases where Leeds Brown Law P.C. filed class actions on behalf of workers who were paid biweekly, employer arguments that it does not matter when paychecks come out as long as they are eventually received were rejected.

Leeds Brown is pointing out that a dollar tomorrow is not always the same as a dollar today. Even the temporary loss of money can matter to people. The mere idea that some workers save more money than others does not mean that the law regarding weekly pay can be ignored.

If you have been denied a weekly paycheck, told to work off the clock, lost tips in a wrongful way at work, or have been misclassified as to your minimum wage, you may benefit from a free consultation to make sure you are being fully and correctly compensated for the hours you work.