As we have previously written on this blog, New York’s Wage Theft Prevention Act (“WTPA”) requires employers to provide annual pay notices to employees between January 1 and February 1. Accordingly, all New York employers must provide the required notices starting January 1, 2012.

As previously noted, the notices must be provided to employees in English, as well as in their primary language. Currently, the New York State Department of Labor (“NYSDOL”) has published model pay notices in English, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Korean, Polish, Russian, and Spanish.

Employers who fail to provide the required pay notices to employees may be liable for damages of up to $50 per week, per employee.

For further information on the notice requirements of the WTPA, please see our previous blog entry which contains links to guidelines, instructions, FAQs and model notices issued by the NYSDOL. Additionally, our blog entry titled “New York Enacts the Wage Theft Prevention Act” discusses the most significant provisions of the WTPA.