New-Hire Wage Notice Requirements in New York

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Governing law and coverage

Labor Law § 195(1)(a) requires the hire notice without excluding overtime- exempt employees; the Department publishes a separate exempt-employee form.

The Commissioner may waive or alter the paragraph (a) requirements for a temporary-help firm under § 195(1)(e). That discretion is not a blanket exemption for every staffing arrangement.

Delivery timing and form

The notice is due “at the time of hiring” and must be individual and written. The Department of Labor publishes different forms for hourly, multiple-rate, weekly/fixed-hour salary, varying-hour or piece-rate, prevailing-rate, temporary-help, exempt, and farm employees. An employer may use its own form only if it contains every required item.

Pay rate, basis, and overtime

Section 195(1)(a) requires “the rate or rates of pay and basis thereof,” naming hour, shift, day, week, salary, piece, commission, and other methods. For an employee not exempt from overtime, the notice must state the regular hourly rate and overtime rate.

Multiple rates belong in the same notice framework. A general salary label is not enough when the employee's pay uses a different statutory category or more than one rate.

Hours, payday, allowances, and deductions

The notice states the regular payday and every allowance claimed as part of minimum wage, including tip, meal, or lodging allowances. It does not create a general planned-deduction field.

When the employer claims a prevailing-wage supplement or provides covered home-care-aide benefits, the notice adds the hourly amount, type of benefit or supplement, provider name and address, and information for obtaining the underlying agreement or a summary.

Employer identity, insurance, and other contents

New York requires the employer's legal name, every doing-business-as name, the physical address of the main office or principal place of business, a different mailing address, and the employer's telephone number.

Section 195(1)(a) does not list the workers' compensation carrier as a general new-hire wage-notice field. Other insurance or benefit notices remain separate.

Language, template, and acknowledgment

The employer gives the notice in English and the language the employee identifies as primary. Each time notice is given, the employer must obtain a signed and dated acknowledgment in both languages. The acknowledgment affirms that the employee accurately identified the primary language and received the notice in that language or under the statutory fallback.

The Commissioner's templates pair English with another language. If no template exists for the identified language, § 195(1)(c) permits an English- language notice or acknowledgment.

Change notice and record retention

The timing rule is prospective:

notify his or her employees in writing of any changes to the information set forth in subdivision one of this section, at least seven calendar days prior to the time of such changes, unless such changes are reflected on the wage statement furnished in accordance with subdivision three of this section.

The employer preserves the signed acknowledgment for six years. Section 195(4) also requires six years of payroll records and copies of subdivision 1 and 2 notices when prevailing-wage supplements or covered home-care benefits are involved. The current statute contains no general annual re-notice cycle.

Enforcement, remedies, and local overlays

Section 198(1-b) authorizes $50 for each workday the violation occurs or continues, capped at $5,000, plus costs and reasonable attorney fees. The court may also grant injunctive or declaratory relief, and the Commissioner may assess the same daily damages and cap.

The statute supplies defenses when the employer completely and timely paid all wages due or reasonably believed in good faith that notice was not required. Local wage, scheduling, or industry rules may add obligations, but this table covers state law.

What trips people up

The ten-business-day damages language is not the notice deadline. Section 195 requires notice at hiring. Section 198(1-b) describes when the employee may recover statutory damages; it should not be treated as permission to delay the notice for ten business days.

Older annual-notice instructions are stale. The current § 195 text requires notice at hiring and advance notice of changes, but it does not contain the old general annual wage-notice cycle.

A wage statement can replace a change notice, not the initial hire notice. The § 195(2) exception applies to changes reflected on the subdivision 3 wage statement. The initial subdivision 1 notice and acknowledgment remain separate.

Common questions

What if the Department has no form in the employee's primary language?

An English notice or acknowledgment satisfies the statutory fallback. When a Department template is available, the normal rule is English plus the employee's identified primary language.

Must an overtime-exempt employee receive a notice?

The current general statute does not exempt overtime-exempt employees from the hire notice. Instead, it limits the regular-and-overtime-rate field to employees who are not exempt, and the Department publishes an exempt-employee form.

Does signing an offer letter satisfy the acknowledgment rule?

Only if the document actually supplies the complete statutory notice and the signed, dated English-and-primary-language acknowledgment with the required language affirmation. A generic acceptance signature is not enough.

Statutes and sources

• N.Y. Lab. Law § 195(1)(a) — hire timing, contents, language, acknowledgment, retention, and overtime rates.

  provide his or her employees, in writing in English and in the language identified by each employee as the primary language of such employee, at the time of hiring, a notice containing the following information: the rate or rates of pay and basis thereof.

Official source: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/LAB/195 (accessed 2026-07-22) - N.Y. Lab. Law § 195(1)(b)-(d) — dual-language templates and the no- template fallback.

When an employee identifies as his or her primary language a language for which a template is not available from the commissioner, the employer shall comply with this subdivision by providing that employee an English-language notice or acknowledgment.

Official source: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/LAB/195 (accessed 2026-07-22) - N.Y. Lab. Law § 195(1)(e) — temporary-help-firm discretion.

The commissioner shall have discretion to waive or alter requirements of paragraph (a) of this subdivision for temporary help firms.

Official source: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/LAB/195 (accessed 2026-07-22) - N.Y. Lab. Law § 195(2) — advance change notice and wage-statement exception.

notify his or her employees in writing of any changes to the information set forth in subdivision one of this section, at least seven calendar days prior to the time of such changes.

Official source: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/LAB/195 (accessed 2026-07-22) - N.Y. Lab. Law § 195(4) — six-year payroll records and notice copies for special supplements and benefits.

establish, maintain and preserve for not less than six years contemporaneous, true, and accurate payroll records.

Official source: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/LAB/195 (accessed 2026-07-22) - N.Y. Lab. Law § 198(1-b) — damages, costs, fees, relief, and defenses.

he or she may recover in a civil action damages of fifty dollars for each work day that the violations occurred or continue to occur, but not to exceed a total of five thousand dollars, together with costs and reasonable attorney's fees.

Official source: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/LAB/198 (accessed 2026-07-22) - New York State Department of Labor, Notice of Pay Rate — current form families and agency summary.

The law requires employers to give written notice of wage rates to each new hire.

Official source: https://dol.ny.gov/notice-pay-rate (accessed 2026-07-22)