BILL NUMBER: S4009

SPONSOR: BRESLIN
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the penal law, in relation to wage theft

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:  Amend the Penal Law to include wages in the
definition of "property."  Subsection one of section 155.00 of the Penal
Law is amended to read as follows:

Penal Law § 155.00 Larceny; definitions of terms. "Property" means any
money, wages, personal property, real property, computer data, computer
program, thing in action, evidence of debt or contract, or any article,
substance or thing of value, including any gas, steam, water or elec-
tricity, which is provided for a charge or compensation.  Add a new
subsection to the Penal Law's larceny statute to define the term "work-
force."

Section 155.00 of the Penal Law is amended by adding subsection 10 to
read as follows:  Penal Law § 155.00 Larceny; definitions of terms.  10.
"Workforce" means a group of one or more people providing services in
              

exchange for wages for one person or entity. Expand the definition of
larceny to allow aggregation of victims into a workforce in larceny
cases where the property stolen is wages.

Subsection two of section 155.05 of the Penal Law is amended by adding

subdivision f to read as follows:  Penal Law § 155.05 Larceny; defined.

2. Larceny includes a wrongful taking, obtaining or withholding of
another's property, with the intent prescribed in subdivision one of
this section, committed in any of the following ways:

(f) By wage theft. A person obtains property by wage theft when he
agrees to hire a person to perform services and the person performs such
services and the defendant withholds such wages from said person. In a
prosecution for wage theft, for the purposes of venue, it is permissible
to aggregate all takings from one person from one defendant, into one
larceny count, even if the takings occurred in multiple counties. It is
also permissible to aggregate takings from a workforce into one larceny
count.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Wage theft is a form of worker exploitation, akin to labor trafficking
and other violations of employees' rights. Its perpetrators take advan-
tage of some of our communities' most vulnerable populations, including
undocumented immigrants and low-income workers, who often are not
empowered to stand up for themselves. According to Cornell University's
Worker Institute, wage theft in New York accounts for nearly $1 billion
in lost wages each year and affects tens of thousands of workers -
that's close to $20 million per week.  Conventional wisdom suggests that
wage theft solely affects low income workers who are cheated through
subminimum wage or unpaid overtime schemes.

However, the reality is that the problem is much larger in scope and
much more pervasive, especially within the construction industry in New
York. By committing wage theft and associated frauds, these companies
unfairly lower their costs, making it nearly impossible for law-abiding
businesses to compete. And every taxpayer shoulders the effects of wage
theft because when the workers are underinsured, it forces government to
step in and incur costs that should have been borne by their employer.

The "Wage Theft Initiative," a collaboration between seven local
District Attorney's Offices (which includes all five New York City DA's,
plus Westchester and Nassau Counties), the Department of Investigation,
the New York City Comptroller's Office, the New York State Department of
Labor, and the New York State Attorney General's Office, has resulted in
ten criminal cases and accounted for more than $2.5 million in stolen
wages affecting over 400 construction workers, since just December 2017.

But much more must be done to protect hardworking New Yorkers from
unscrupulous employers. When a defendant steals wages from various
employees on an ongoing basis, his intent is not to steal individually
from one worker, but to steal from his workforce. In People v. Cox, 286
N.Y. 137, (1941), the court held that "the People may prosecute for a
single crime a defendant who, pursuant to a single intent and one gener-
al fraudulent plan, steals in the aggregate as a felon and not as a
petty thief."

Therefore, the Penal Law's section on larceny should be amended to allow
aggregation of victims into a workforce in larceny cases where the prop-
erty stolen is wages. This would allow prosecutors to seek stronger
penalties against employers who steal wages from workers.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2019/2020: S.4405 Referred to Codes

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This bill shall take effect immediately.