Assemblyman Phil Palmesano (R,C,I – Corning) has signed on to support legislation that will eliminate the requirement for private sector businesses to produce an annual notice requirement to every employee.

The so-called Wage Theft Prevention Act of 2010, which was signed into law by Governor Paterson, sought to “expand the rights of employees to seek civil and criminal avenues of remedy for their employers failing to follow labor law appropriately and the specifications therein.” This law created a costly and repetitious annual written pay notice that is mandated to be provided by all private sector employers to all employees. Nearly all of the information required in this annual notice already can be found on employees’ paycheck stubs.

“This job-killing mandate – another of the many costly and burdensome mandates that state government places on businesses and localities – imposes a substantial and unnecessary cost on private sector employers,” said Palmesano. “These are the very employers that we should be supporting, helping to foster economic growth and job creation. New York already places far too many onerous requirements on businesses; in a time of economic stagnation, we should be working to remove burdensome costs to businesses that create barriers to private sector investment and job creation.”

“The Wage Theft Prevention Act is another example of further burdening our New York State businesses. Mandating additional payroll requirements imposes substantial administrative and manpower costs, particularly burdensome in an economic time when our businesses are already operating with lean budgets and resources. We should be finding ways to support our upstanding, responsible businesses in New York State and reserve this type of compliance mandate for those businesses that do not play fairly. I applaud Assemblyman Palmesano’s efforts to help “lighten the load” for our business community,” said Denise Ackley, President of the Corning Area Chamber of Commerce.

The bill supported by Palmesano, Assembly Bill 8856, which also is backed by the Business Council of New York State, the Manufacturers Association of Central New York, Unshackle Upstate, National Federation of Independent Business, Empire State Chapter Associated Builders & Contractors and the New York Farm Bureau, has significant bipartisan support in the Assembly,and, so far, has seen movement in the Senate. It would eliminate the annual requirement of a written pay notice by all private employers for every employee as well as the requirement that each year the employer must obtain written acknowledgements of the notice from every employee, to be retained for six years. It is estimated that these mandates can cost thousands of dollars for employers.