Wage Reporting Adds To Overregulation

Malliotakis, Chamber of Commerce fight unnecessary business mandate

April 17, 2012

Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R,C-Brooklyn, Staten Island) recently joined Staten Island Chamber of Commerce CEO Linda Baran to call for the repeal of the newest state regulation needlessly placed on small-business owners – the pay notice requirement in the Wage Theft Prevention Act. Signed into law in 2011, this mandate forces business owners to issue a written notice of pay to employees annually, which already is required by law to be printed on every paycheck. These notices are even required for employees whose pay level hasn’t changed in years. Beyond the added workload and manpower needed to complete this unnecessary task, the cost can reach into the thousands of dollars depending on the size of a business. The state Senate has repealed the measure, and Malliotakis is urging a vote in the Assembly.

“With roughly 49,000 pages of job-killing regulations written into New York state law, our small-business owners can’t afford another mandate like the pay notice requirement,” said Malliotakis. “This is the kind of illogical, unnecessary policy that has earned New York the second-worst business climate in the nation. If New York is truly going to get serious about re-opening for business, repealing the pay notice requirement is the kind of measure we need to show the business community that we support them.”

“The pay notice requirement is redundant and it’s costing businesses time and money,” said Baran. “It burdens employers with a superfluous amount of paperwork to distribute information which already is provided to employees. It adds costs that businesses cannot afford to undertake in this struggling economy and offers little benefit. We commend Assemblywoman Malliotakis for supporting the repeal of this onerous requirement to amend the Wage Theft Prevention Act.”

Malliotakis is the co-sponsor of Assembly bill 8856 to repeal the Wage Theft Prevention Act. In addition, the Assembly Minority Conference offered an amendment to this year’s budget to immediately repeal the mandate, which Malliotakis supported.