Beginning December 2016, new rules will raise the salary threshold that employers must meet before they can deny overtime pay to certain workers from $23,660 to $47,476. Additionally, the new rules update the salary threshold every three years, based on wage growth over time, increasing predictability. As the department explained:
Each year that the salary level is not updated, its utility as a distinguishing mechanism between exempt and nonexempt workers declines. The Department has revised the levels just once in the 41 years since 1975. In contrast, in the 37 years between 1938 and 1975, salary test levels were increased approximately every five to nine years. See: Final Rule, pp. 214.
So what does this mean?
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People seeking employment in New York City have one less hurdle to overcome. With the recent amendment to the New York City Human Rights Law, the Stop Credit Discrimination in Employment Act (“SCDEA” or the "Act"), the vast majority of employers (with 4 or more employees) will no longer be allowed to make hiring decisions based on job seekers' consumer credit history. The City recognizes that using "credit history when making employment decisions is a practice that has a disproportionately negative effect on unemployed people, low income communities, communities of color, women, domestic violence survivors, families with children, divorced individuals, and those with student loans and/or medical bills." Additionally, the City noted that "multiple studies have failed to demonstrate any correlation between individuals’ credit history and their job performance."
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Immigration status is irrelevant for the purposes of backpay, and has generally been protected from discovery in FLSA and NYLL cases. Undocumented workers are often taken advantage of by unscrupulous employers who deny minimum wage and overtime benefits to such employees. Often, employers understand that undocumented workers will not bring a claim against the employer for money earned and not paid, for fear of implicating their immigration status in any court proceeding and thereby adversely affecting any attempts to procure an immigration benefit, or worse.
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