You left the job. They kept your last paycheck.

LABOR LAW § 191(3) · § 198 · § 198-c

The deadline: your regular payday.

New York Labor Law § 191(3) sets the rule for final wages. When employment ends, for any reason, the employer must pay the wages owed no later than the regular payday for the pay period in which the termination occurred. If you are paid every other Friday and your last day was a Tuesday, your final check is due on the Friday that would have covered that pay period. Not thirty days later, not after your exit interview, not when HR gets around to it. The statute also requires the employer, on request, to mail the final wages to you, so 'you have to come pick it up' is not a lawful condition either.

The rule applies whether you quit or were fired. New York does not distinguish. An employer that tells you that walking out without notice means you forfeit your last two weeks is describing a policy that does not exist in this state.

What counts as wages owed.

Your final paycheck must include all hours worked through your last day, including overtime at time and a half for hours over 40 in the final week if you are non-exempt. It must include earned commissions that have become due under your commission agreement; New York requires commission agreements to be in writing and treats earned commissions as wages, a subject we cover in depth in our guide to unpaid commissions. It must include any earned bonus that was non-discretionary, meaning one you had a contractual right to once you hit the target.

Deductions are tightly restricted. New York permits an employer to deduct from wages only what the law authorizes or what you have authorized in writing for your own benefit, such as insurance premiums or retirement contributions. An employer cannot deduct the cost of an unreturned laptop, a uniform, a cash register shortage, a customer's unpaid bill, or 'training costs' from your final check. An employer that wants its equipment back has other remedies; withholding your wages is not one of them.

Accrued vacation and PTO.

This is the most common final-pay fight in New York, and the answer depends on your employer's written policy. New York does not require employers to offer paid vacation at all, and it does not automatically require payout of unused vacation at separation. What it does require is that employers honor their own policies and agreements. Under Labor Law § 198-c, an employer that has agreed to provide benefits or wage supplements, including vacation pay, and fails to pay them within thirty days of when they are due, commits a violation; the section is enforced by the Department of Labor and also supports civil claims in most cases, though it excludes certain highly paid executive and administrative employees.

The practical rule from the case law: if the employer's written policy says unused vacation is forfeited at separation, or is forfeited if you quit without notice, New York courts generally enforce that. If the policy is silent, or says accrued vacation will be paid out, or the employer has a practice of paying it out, you are owed it. Get a copy of the handbook now, before your access is cut off, and check what it actually says. An employer that never told you, in writing, that vacation would be forfeited has a hard time forfeiting it.

Liquidated damages: the penalty is the same amount again.

New York's enforcement section, Labor Law § 198, is what makes a final paycheck demand letter effective. An employee who prevails on a wage claim is entitled to the unpaid wages, plus prejudgment interest, plus reasonable attorney's fees, plus liquidated damages equal to 100 percent of the unpaid wages unless the employer proves it had a good-faith basis to believe it was complying with the law. In plain terms, an employer that wrongfully withholds a $3,200 final check is looking at roughly $6,400 plus interest plus your lawyer's fees, and if it fails to pay a judgment within ninety days the amount can increase further. The statute of limitations for these claims is six years.

That arithmetic is the whole reason a one-page letter works. An employer that thought it was saving $3,200 by stalling learns that the stall is doubling its exposure and adding a fee claim on top.

Two paths: DOL wage claim or attorney demand letter.

You have two realistic routes, and they are not mutually exclusive in sequence.

• New York State Department of Labor wage claim. Free. You file a claim form, DOL investigates, and if it finds wages owed it can order payment with liquidated damages and civil penalties. The drawback is time: DOL claims routinely take many months to over a year to resolve, and the agency controls the pace and the outcome. DOL is the right choice if you cannot afford any fee, if the employer is small and unlikely to respond to a lawyer, or if you are one of many employees with the same problem.
• Attorney demand letter. Flat fee, sent within days, and addressed to the employer with a specific calculation, the statutory deadline it missed, the liquidated-damages exposure, and a payment date. Most employers with a functioning payroll department pay within the deadline, because their own counsel will tell them the same arithmetic. The letter also preserves your right to file with DOL or in court if it is ignored.

A third path, a lawsuit under § 198 with a fee claim, is available for larger amounts or when the employer refuses; many employment lawyers, including our firm's unpaid wages practice, handle those on contingency when the numbers justify it.

What a demand letter does here.

A final paycheck demand letter from a New York attorney states your last day and the payday on which wages were due under § 191(3), itemizes what is owed, including hours, overtime, commissions, and vacation where the policy supports it, identifies any unlawful deductions, states the liquidated damages and fee exposure under § 198, and demands payment by a date certain. It is short, because the law is clear, and it is signed by a lawyer, because that is what causes an employer to stop treating the matter as a disgruntled ex-employee and start treating it as a liability. Our final paycheck letters are flat fee and handled online through DemandLetterNY; read about how our flat-fee letters work.

When a letter is not the right tool: if the amount is a few hundred dollars, a DOL claim costs nothing and will get there eventually. If the employer has closed and its owner is unreachable, DOL may still pursue the individuals responsible, since New York holds certain owners and officers personally liable for unpaid wages, but a letter has nowhere to land. If you are still employed and the problem is ongoing wage theft rather than a final check, that is a different and larger claim.

Do these things this week.

• Write down your last day, your regular payday, your rate, and your hours for the final pay period, with any screenshots of schedules or timekeeping.
• Save or request the employee handbook, your offer letter, and any commission or bonus agreement.
• Send a short written request for your final wages, dated, by email, stating the amount you believe is owed and asking that the check be mailed. That request starts the record and triggers the mailing obligation.
• Do not sign a release or separation agreement in exchange for wages you are already owed; final wages are not consideration for anything.
• If the employer is also refusing to pay unemployment-related documents or retaliating against you for asking, note it; New York prohibits retaliation against employees for complaining about wages.

Small claims court is also available for final wage claims within its limits, though it will not always award the liquidated damages a § 198 action can; our small claims guide explains the mechanics, and our comparison of a demand letter versus small claims can help you choose. For the broader picture of wage claims in New York, see our unpaid wages page; if the business that owes you is holding a deposit rather than a paycheck, start with our guide to deposit disputes.