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As the Authoritative Force in employment and labor law, we endeavor to continue educating, informing, and enlightening you through the trustworthy, competent, and distinctive content we create. In pursuit of this goal and affirm that we are a gang of our word, here is Part II of our new series on New York laws that are applicable to workplace harassment, discrimination, & retaliation in the state and city. In Part I, we covered some of these laws that include the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL) (NYC Administrative Code 8-101 et seq.), the New York Equal Pay Act (N.Y. Lab. Law § 194), the New York State Human Rights Law (NYSHRL) (N.Y. Exec. Law § 290 et seq.), and the Reproductive Health Discrimination Protection (N.Y. Lab. Law § 203-e).

As we promised, we are going to hammer on the coverage (employee coverage, employer coverage, and/or individual liability standards) of each of these four laws. Again, for the purposes of record, any information concerning the applicable laws, as discussed in this blog, were current as of May 15, 2021.

Employee Coverage, Employer Coverage, and/or Individual Liability Standards

In order to understand what we mean by coverage, we will attempt to answer the question whether any of these New York laws that prohibit harassment, discrimination, & retaliation have employee coverage, employer coverage, and/or individual liability standards in the jurisdiction. Apparently, it turns out that each of the four laws outlined above contain employee coverage, employer coverage, and/or individual liability standards, which means that each requires every covered party to comply in a manner of some sort.

NYCHRL Coverage

The discrimination prohibitions under the NYCHRL are generally applicable to employer who have four or more employees. Under the law, the definition of “employer” does not incorporate any employing individual/entity with less than four employees throughout during the period starting 12 months prior to the beginning of and continuing through the end of a particular unlawful discriminatory conduct.

However, for the purposes of satisfying the requirement for four or more employees, employees include persons employed as independent contractors to undertake a given activity in furtherance of their employer’s business. Further, as per the NYC Administrative Code 8-102 that took effect on January 11, 2020, a child, domestic partner, spouse, and/or parent employed and works for the employer is also counted as an employee in order to satisfy the same requirement. Nonetheless, regardless of the size of employees they have, all employers are covered when it comes to a variety of the laws’ provisions, such as provided for under NYC Administrative Code 8-102, including prohibitions against salary history enquiries and gender-based harassment.

NYSHRL Coverage

Under N.Y. Exec. Law § 292(5), all employers, including both the state and its political subcategories, are covered by the NYSHRL, which took effect on February 8, 2020.

New York Equal Pay Act Coverage

The definition of an “employer,” as provided for under the New York Equal Pay Act, includes any individual, association, limited liability company, or corporation. However, as provided for under N.Y. Lab. Law § 190(3), a governmental agency is not included as an “employer.”

Reproductive Health Discrimination Protection Coverage

Under the New York State Labor Law, the definition of “employer” is not provided for the purposes of reproductive health discrimination. The law covers employers and prohibits the discrimination of an employee based on their decisions towards reproductive health, or that of their dependents.

Individual Liability Standards under the Four Laws

1. Under both the NYCHRL and NYSHRL, a person may be held personally liable if they:

  • Exercise control over personnel decisions;
  • Abetted and/or aided a discriminatory practice; or
  • Have ownership interest in the employer.

2. The New York Equal Pay Act does not have any provision for which an individual can be held personally liable.

3. Under the New York State Labor Law’s provision on reproductive health discrimination, there is no provision for holding persons liable.

Stay tuned for Part III of this series and, as always, strive to be #UnusuallyMotivated! In the interim, reach us with questions or comments at the Contact Us page!

Always rising above the bar,

Isaac T.,

Legal Writer & Author.