A 992: Includes bonus in the definition of wages for purposes of the labor law when the formula under which a bonus is determined is available to the employer or when the amount of a bonus has been declared; relates to the forfeit of wages.
The proposed legislation aims to redefine wages under the Labor Law to include bonus compensation, ensuring that employees receive fair compensation for their work. The definition of wages now includes earnings determined on a time, piece, commission, bonus, or other basis, including benefits or wage supplements. The legislation also establishes that bonus compensation constitutes wages, regardless of the source of revenue, when the formula is certain or when the employer declares the amount. Furthermore, the bill introduces a new provision stating that all wages covered under the Labor Law are non-forfeitable once the amount is known or can be reasonably determined. This means that employers cannot forfeit wages that are already known or reasonably calculable.
| Jan. 07, 2026 | referred to labor |
| Jan. 08, 2025 | referred to labor |
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 992 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY (Prefiled) January 8, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. STECK, CRUZ, DeSTEFANO, EPSTEIN, REYES, SIMON -- read once and referred to the Committee on Labor AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to including bonus compen- sation in the definition of wages and forfeit of wages 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 190 of the labor law, as amended 2 by chapter 328 of the laws of 1972, is amended and a new subdivision 10 3 is added to read as follows: 4 1. "Wages" means the earnings of an employee for labor or services 5 rendered, regardless of whether the amount of earnings is determined on 6 a time, piece, commission, bonus, or other basis. The term "wages" also 7 includes benefits or wage supplements as defined in section one hundred 8 ninety-eight-c of this article, except for the purposes of sections one 9 hundred ninety-one and one hundred ninety-two of this article. 10 10. "Bonus" constitutes wages as defined in subdivision one of this 11 section, regardless of the source of revenue, when (a) the formula under 12 which a bonus is determined is certain and all the data utilized in 13 calculating the amount of a bonus under the formula is available to the 14 employer or (b) when the amount of a bonus has been declared by the 15 employer. 16 § 2. The labor law is amended by adding a new section 193-a to read as 17 follows: 18 § 193-a. Wages non-forfeitable. All wages covered under this article 19 shall be non-forfeitable once the amount of the wage is known or can 20 with reasonable certainty be known. 21 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD02379-01-5