Gov ready to ‘wage’ battle for lost pay

ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo is set to propose legislation that will allow the state to aggressively go after wage theft in New York, the Daily News has learned.

The bill, to be announced as part of the governor's State of the State agenda he'll be releasing this week, would hold the top 10 officials from out-of-state limited liability companies, or LLCs, personally financially liable for unsatisfied judgments for unpaid wages.The legislation will empower the state Labor Department commissioner to enforce such liabilities.

The idea, Cuomo said, is to recover more money employees were cheated out of when businesses went bankrupt — and went on to create spinoff limited liability companies registered in other states or hid their assets in other ways.

“New York is committed to ensuring a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work and has zero tolerance for those who seek to exploit their workers,” Cuomo said.

“With this proposal we will help ensure that no matter where bad actors try to hide, they will not be able to skirt their obligations to hardworking New Yorkers.”

The state in 2015 recovered a record $31.5 million in unpaid wages that went to 28,000 workers. That included $4 million repaid by 1,547 businesses to more than 7,500 workers.

Under current law, the state can hold officials from in-state LLCs and those from corporations within and outside New York personally liable for unpaid wage judgments, a Cuomo aide said. But a new law is needed to go after officials from out-of-state LLCs.

Michael Durant of the National Federation of Independent businesses was skeptical of the plan.

“Will this add to Albany’s antibusiness reputation?” he asked. “It took the business community years to modify our current wage theft law because it was hastily written and implemented.”