Eliminates provisions exempting employees with disabilities from the minimum wage law; provides that laws or minimum wage orders that authorize an employer to pay a wage that is less than the minimum wage are valid provided that under such laws or orders an employee with a disability is paid the same wage as an employee in a comparable position that does not have a disability.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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4347
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 14, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. STECK, BURDICK, COLTON, CRUZ, COOK, DeSTEFANO,
DICKENS, HYNDMAN, JACOBSON, LUPARDO, PAULIN, RIVERA, SANTABARBARA,
SEAWRIGHT, SIMON, STERN, STIRPE, WEPRIN -- read once and referred to
the Committee on Labor
AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to the minimum wage for
employees with disabilities
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The opening paragraph of subdivision 5 of section 651 of
2 the labor law, as amended by chapter 105 of the laws of 2019, is amended
3 to read as follows:
4 "Employee" includes any individual employed or permitted to work by an
5 employer in any occupation, but shall not include any individual who is
6 employed or permitted to work: (a) on a casual basis in service as a
7 part time baby sitter in the home of the employer; (b) in a bona fide
8 executive, administrative, or professional capacity; (c) as an outside
9 salesman; (d) as a driver engaged in operating a taxicab; (e) as a
10 volunteer, learner or apprentice by a corporation, unincorporated asso-
11 ciation, community chest, fund or foundation organized and operated
12 exclusively for religious, charitable or educational purposes, no part
13 of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private share-
14 holder or individual; (f) as a member of a religious order, or as a duly
15 ordained, commissioned or licensed minister, priest or rabbi, or as a
16 sexton, or as a christian science reader; (g) in or for such a religious
17 or charitable institution, which work is incidental to or in return for
18 charitable aid conferred upon such individual and not under any express
19 contract of hire; (h) in or for such a religious, educational or chari-
20 table institution if such individual is a student; (i) [in or for such a
21 religious, educational or charitable institution if the earning capacity
22 of such individual is impaired by age or by physical or mental deficien-
23 cy or injury; (j)] in or for a summer camp or conference of such a reli-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05514-01-3
A. 4347 2
1 gious, educational or charitable institution for not more than three
2 months annually; [(k)] (j) as a staff counselor in a children's camp;
3 [(l)] (k) in or for a college or university fraternity, sorority,
4 student association or faculty association, no part of the net earnings
5 of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual,
6 and which is recognized by such college or university, if such individ-
7 ual is a student; [(m)] (l) by a federal, state or municipal government
8 or political subdivision thereof; [(n)] (m) as a volunteer at a recre-
9 ational or amusement event run by a business that operates such events,
10 provided that no single such event lasts longer than eight consecutive
11 days and no more than one such event concerning substantially the same
12 subject matter occurs in any calendar year, where (1) any such volunteer
13 shall be at least eighteen years of age, (2) a business seeking coverage
14 under this paragraph shall notify every volunteer in writing, in
15 language acceptable to the commissioner, that by volunteering his or her
16 services, such volunteer is waiving his or her right to receive the
17 minimum wage pursuant to this article, and (3) such notice shall be
18 signed and dated by a representative of the business and the volunteer
19 and kept on file by the business for thirty-six months; or [(o)] (n) in
20 the delivery of newspapers or shopping news to the consumer by a person
21 who is not performing commercial goods transportation services for a
22 commercial goods transportation contractor within the meaning of article
23 twenty-five-C of this chapter. The exclusions from the term "employee"
24 contained in this subdivision shall be as defined by regulations of the
25 commissioner.
26 § 2. Paragraph (c) of subdivision 5 of section 655 of the labor law,
27 as amended by chapter 747 of the laws of 1978, is amended to read as
28 follows:
29 (c) The wage board may also recommend, to the extent necessary in
30 order to prevent curtailment of opportunities for employment, regu-
31 lations for (1) the employment of learners and apprentices, under
32 special certificates issued by the commissioner, at such wages lower
33 than the minimum wage established by this article and subject to such
34 limitations as to time, number, proportion and length of service as
35 shall be prescribed in such regulation, (2) [the employment of individ-
36 uals whose earning capacity is affected or impaired by youth or age or
37 by physical or mental deficiency or injury, under special certificates
38 issued by the commissioner, at such wages lower than the minimum wage
39 established by this article and for such period as shall be prescribed
40 in such regulation, (3)] the establishment of a period not extending
41 beyond seventeen consecutive weeks during which a resort hotel or camp
42 may employ students under special certificates issued by the commission-
43 er, at such wages lower than the minimum wage established by this arti-
44 cle as shall be prescribed in such regulation, and [(4)] (3) the employ-
45 ment of residential employees in a non-profit making religious,
46 charitable or educational organization or in a non-profit making college
47 or university sorority or fraternity under special certificates issued
48 by the commissioner at such weekly wage as shall be prescribed in such
49 regulation.
50 § 3. This act shall take effect on the thirty-first of December next
51 succeeding the date upon which it shall have become a law. Effective
52 immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regu-
53 lation by the department of labor necessary for the implementation of
54 this act on its effective date are authorized to be made on or before
55 such effective date.
