Employment Law Insights
Most people do not go looking for an employment lawyer until something has already gone wrong: a paycheck that is short, a promotion that went to someone less qualified, a firing that landed a week after a complaint. By then the questions are urgent and the filing deadlines are already running.
These articles answer those questions directly. Each one is written by an attorney at this firm, dated, and updated when the law changes. We cover what New York law actually requires on overtime and unpaid wages, what makes a firing illegal in an at-will state under our wrongful termination practice, how discrimination and harassment claims are actually proved, and why retaliation claims are often stronger than the complaint that triggered them.
Nothing here is legal advice, and reading it does not make you a client. Employment law turns on specific facts: your job duties, what your employer knew, and when. Two situations that sound identical from the outside can have different answers.
If you want a rough sense of what unpaid overtime might be worth, start with the overtime back-pay calculator. If you want someone to look at your actual documents, contact us. The case evaluation is free.
Latest Articles
Know Your Rights
Fired After Complaining to HR: Is That Legal in New York?
It depends entirely on what you complained about. New York is an at-will state, so an employer can generally fire you without a reason, but firing you *because* you complained about discrimination, harassment, unpaid wages, or another unlawful practice is illegal retaliation under federal, New York State, and New York City law, and it is a separate claim from whatever you originally reported.
Read the article Fired After Complaining to HR: Is That Legal in New York?
Legal Updates
How Long Do You Have to File an Employment Claim in New York?
It depends on the claim, and the range is wide. A federal discrimination charge must reach the EEOC within 300 days in New York; claims under the New York State and New York City Human Rights Laws generally allow three years to file in court; unpaid wage claims under the New York Labor Law reach back six years. When more than one deadline applies to the same set of facts, the shortest one controls whether that claim survives.
Read the article How Long Do You Have to File an Employment Claim in New York?Discrimination
Why the NYC Human Rights Law Protects You More Than Federal Law
The New York City Human Rights Law is written to be interpreted more broadly than its federal counterparts, and the City Council said so explicitly. In practice that means a lower bar for proving harassment, no cap on damages, protected categories federal law does not recognize, personal liability for the supervisor who did it, and a three-year window to sue without first filing an EEOC charge.
Read the article Why the NYC Human Rights Law Protects You More Than Federal Law
Wage & Hour
Seven Signs You Are Misclassified as Exempt and Owed Overtime
Being paid a salary does not make you exempt from overtime. You are likely misclassified if you spend most of your week doing the same work as the hourly staff, if you cannot hire, fire, or exercise real independent judgment, or if your salary gets docked. And if you are misclassified, you are owed time-and-a-half for every hour past 40, reaching back as far as six years under New York law.
Read the article Seven Signs You Are Misclassified as Exempt and Owed Overtime
Know Your Rights
What to Do Before You Sign a Severance Agreement
Do not sign on the day you receive it. A severance agreement is a permanent trade (money now for every legal claim you had as of the date you sign, including claims you do not yet know about), so the work that matters happens in the review window: getting more time, finding out what the release covers, confirming the money is more than wages you were already owed, and deciding whether the number reflects what you are giving up.
Read the article What to Do Before You Sign a Severance Agreement
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