STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
154--A
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 4, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. CRUZ, AUBRY, DeSTEFANO, DICKENS, COOK, FALL,
EPSTEIN, WILLIAMS, McMAHON, WEPRIN, VANEL, McDONOUGH, RAMOS, JACOBSON,
STECK, LUPARDO, BRABENEC, BURGOS, DINOWITZ, COLTON, ROZIC, REYES,
LUCAS, CARROLL, THIELE, GONZALEZ-ROJAS, BORES, HEVESI, WOERNER,
BURDICK, BUTTENSCHON -- read once and referred to the Committee on
Codes -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as
amended and recommitted to said committee
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
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01997-02-3
A. 154--A 2
1 nonpayments or underpayments occurred in multiple counties. It is also
2 permissible to aggregate nonpayments or underpayments from a workforce
3 into one larceny count even if such nonpayments or underpayments
4 occurred in multiple counties.
5 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
