STATE OF NEW YORK
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2832--A
Cal. No. 566
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 25, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sens. BRESLIN, CLEARE, HINCHEY, MATTERA, PALUMBO, PARKER,
SALAZAR, WEIK -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to
be committed to the Committee on Codes -- reported favorably from said
committee, ordered to first and second report, ordered to a third
reading, passed by Senate and delivered to the Assembly, recalled,
vote reconsidered, restored to third reading, amended and ordered
reprinted, retaining its place in the order of third reading
AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to wage theft
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 155.00 of the penal law, as
2 amended by chapter 514 of the laws of 1986, is amended and a new subdi-
3 vision 10 is added to read as follows:
4 1. "Property" means any money, compensation for labor or services,
5 personal property, real property, computer data, computer program, thing
6 in action, evidence of debt or contract, or any article, substance or
7 thing of value, including any gas, steam, water or electricity, which is
8 provided for a charge or compensation.
9 10. "Workforce" means a group of one or more persons who work in
10 exchange for wages.
11 § 2. Subdivision 2 of section 155.05 of the penal law is amended by
12 adding a new paragraph (f) to read as follows:
13 (f) By wage theft.
14 A person obtains property by wage theft when he or she hires a person
15 to perform services and the person performs such services and the person
16 does not pay wages, at the minimum wage rate and overtime, or promised
17 wage, if greater than the minimum wage rate and overtime, to said person
18 for work performed. In a prosecution for wage theft, for the purposes
19 of venue, it is permissible to aggregate all nonpayments or underpay-
20 ments to one person from one person, into one larceny count, even if the
21 nonpayments or underpayments occurred in multiple counties. It is also
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01997-03-3
S. 2832--A 2
1 permissible to aggregate nonpayments or underpayments from a workforce
2 into one larceny count even if such nonpayments or underpayments
3 occurred in multiple counties.
4 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.