New York Changes Overtime Exemption Laws in 2015

The state of New York has changed a long-standing loophole to the state’s employment laws as they relate to overtime wages eligibility. For a long time now, employers could classify someone as an administrative or executive employee with relatively little clarification of what that means to avoid paying them overtime wages. The state now has a more specific definition of what it means to be exempt from overtime to prevent employers from taking advantage of their employees.

There are two main changes to the New York exemption requirements: there are specific “executive” duties that the employees must do and there are salary requirements. The state now requires that exempt employees must earn at least $600 each week and that their salaries cannot be reduced for working less than 40 hours in a week. New York employee rights attorneys are excited about this change to the state’s overtime laws. They estimate that tens of thousands of employees throughout the state are going to benefit from these changes.

This clarification of the law is expected to be the impetus of several major lawsuits against New York businesses. The leading NYC class action attorneys expect that this change to the law is going to lead to millions of dollars getting paid out to employees that are deprived of their hard earned overtime wages. Countless misclassified employees are finally getting the protection from the law that they deserve.

Employee misclassification has been one of the biggest problems facing the worker’s rights movement throughout the country. With each new piece of legislation, employers try to find loopholes to exploit the people that work for them. New York continues to be one of the most progressive states in this area of law by giving employees the ability to take legal action to recover the compensation they deserve.

Schedule a free initial consultation with the NYC employee misclassification attorneys at Hepworth, Gershbaum & Roth, PLLC today if you think that this law change affects you. Call us at 212-545-1199 or you can contact us online to schedule an appointment.