Ramirez v. Issa

What the court decided

The court restated that under the 2021 amendment "[t]here is no exception to liability under this section for the unauthorized failure to pay wages." But the employees still had to prove the wage was owed. For the period before the chef was let go, they submitted no "pay stubs or any salary agreement" showing that wages were withheld; for the period after, there were questions of fact about whether salary was owed once the restaurant closed.

Who won

The employer won this round. The denial of the employees' motion for summary judgment on the §§ 193 and 195 claims was affirmed, with costs; the claims remain for trial.

Why it matters for salespeople

The amendment removes the employer's "that was not a deduction" defense, not the employee's burden of proof. Keep the pay records and the written pay terms. An earlier decision in the same case (245 A.D.3d 844) held that the § 193 claim was properly pleaded.

Key passage: 2026 N.Y. Slip Op. 05123 at *1-*2.

We do not host a copy of this decision. The full text is available free from New York State Law Reporting Bureau (official slip opinion).

This page summarizes the decision in plain language.