In almost every case, no — unpaid training is not legal in New York. State labor law treats any time your employer requires you to be somewhere as compensable work, and that includes orientation, onboarding, safety courses, software walk-throughs, and mandatory meetings. There is a narrow federal exception for training that is voluntary, off-hours, unrelated to your current job, and involves no productive work, but it rarely applies to anything an employer actually schedules. When training is unpaid in violation of the law, you can recover the missing wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages.
Employer-Required Training Counts as Hours Worked
New York Labor Law Article 19 requires every employer to pay at least the minimum wage for each hour worked.1New York State Senate. New York Laws LAB – Article 19 – 652 – Minimum Wage As of January 1, 2026, the minimum wage is $17.00 per hour in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County, and $16.00 per hour in the rest of the state.2NY.Gov. New York States Minimum Wage State regulations define “hours worked” as any time you are required to be on your employer’s premises or at a location your employer designates.
The format doesn’t matter. A two-hour session in a conference room, a warehouse, or on a video call from your kitchen table is compensable if your employer scheduled it and expects you to attend. What matters is employer control: if skipping the session would cost you a job, a shift, or a performance rating, you are working, and you must be paid at your regular hourly rate.
This rule also applies to new-hire orientation. Some employers frame the first day or first week as unpaid “pre-employment” activity. Once a company tells you where to be and when to be there, the employment relationship has started for pay purposes.
The Narrow Exception for Truly Voluntary Training
Federal regulations recognize one situation where training time does not have to be paid. Under 29 CFR § 785.27, a lecture, meeting, or training program is unpaid only when all four of the following are true:3eCFR. 29 CFR 785.27 – General
- It happens entirely outside your regular working hours.
- Attendance is genuinely voluntary, with no pressure and no penalty for skipping.
- The content is not directly related to your current job.
- You do no productive work during the session.
Miss any one of these and the whole session becomes paid time. Attendance isn’t voluntary if your supervisor implies your review will suffer for skipping. A session on the store’s new point-of-sale system is job-related for a cashier, even if the sign-up sheet says “optional.” And if you take real customer calls or process real orders while “training,” you are working.
Overtime Applies to Training Hours
Training hours count toward the 40-hour weekly threshold for overtime. New York requires overtime at one and a half times your regular rate for every hour beyond 40 in a workweek.4New York Department of Labor. Overtime Frequently Asked Questions If you worked 38 hours on your normal duties and then attended a required four-hour training, two of those training hours must be paid at time and a half.
Employers sometimes post a policy that unauthorized overtime will not be paid. That policy does not override the law. If you actually worked the hours, the overtime is owed whether or not it was pre-approved.
Travel to Off-Site Training
A normal commute is not paid, but travel to a special training location often is. Federal rules treat a one-day trip to a training site in another city as hours worked, minus what you would normally spend commuting.5U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 22 – Hours Worked Under the Fair Labor Standards Act If your usual commute is 30 minutes and you drive two hours each way to the training site, your employer owes you an hour and a half in each direction.
Overnight training trips work differently. Travel that falls within your normal working hours counts as paid time, even on days you wouldn’t ordinarily work.
A Note on Internships
Internships are analyzed under a separate framework called the primary beneficiary test, which weighs seven factors including academic credit, educational value, and whether the intern displaces regular staff.6U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 71 – Internship Programs Under the Fair Labor Standards Act If you are working under an intern title but doing the same work as paid staff, you are likely an employee entitled to at least minimum wage. The label on the position does not control the analysis.
Training Repayment Agreements Are Unenforceable
New York now prohibits Training Repayment Agreement Provisions, sometimes called TRAPs. These are contract clauses that require you to repay the “cost” of employer-provided training if you leave within a set period. As of 2026, state law bars these provisions and bars their enforcement in New York courts.7New York State Assembly. Assemblymember Phil Stecks TRAPS Bill Becomes Law
If you already signed one, or your employer is still handing them out with offer letters, the clause cannot be enforced against you. You cannot be billed for learning the job your employer hired you to do.
Your Employer Cannot Retaliate for Complaining
New York Labor Law § 215 makes it illegal for an employer to fire, threaten, discipline, or discriminate against you for complaining about unpaid wages, whether the complaint goes to your boss, the Department of Labor, the Attorney General, or anyone else.8New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 215 – Penalties and Civil Action The complaint doesn’t have to cite a statute, and verbal complaints count.
Retaliation is broader than a firing. Cutting your hours, assigning you worse shifts, passing you over for a promotion, or docking attendance points can all qualify if they’re motivated by your complaint. A threat to report your immigration status in response to a wage complaint is a separate § 215 violation. Federal law adds a parallel layer under the FLSA, which lets retaliated-against workers sue for reinstatement, lost wages, and an equal amount in liquidated damages.9U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 77A – Prohibiting Retaliation Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
How Long You Have to File
The New York Department of Labor will not accept a claim for wages earned more than three years before the filing date.10New York Department of Labor. Unpaid/Withheld Wages and Wage Supplements Federal FLSA claims run two years from the violation, or three years if the employer’s failure to pay was willful.
Because unpaid training violations often repeat across weeks or months, each missed paycheck can start its own clock. Filing sooner protects more of what you’re owed.
What You Can Recover
In a civil action for minimum wage violations, you can recover the unpaid wages plus 100% in liquidated damages, effectively doubling the amount, unless the employer proves it had a good-faith belief it was following the law.11New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 663 – Civil Action You are also entitled to reasonable attorney’s fees and prejudgment interest.
When the Department of Labor investigates, the numbers can go higher. For willful or repeat violations, the commissioner can impose civil penalties up to double the total wages owed, on top of the back pay and liquidated damages.12New York State Senate. New York Code Labor Law 218 – Violations of Certain Provisions Civil Penalties
How to File a Wage Claim
The New York Department of Labor uses a form called the Labor Standards Complaint Form, or LS223, available on the DOL website.13Department of Labor. Labor Standards Complaint Form for Individuals It asks for your employer’s legal name and address, your pay rate, the dates of the unpaid training, and the total you believe you’re owed.
Before you file, pull together whatever documentation you have:
- A log of each training session, with dates, start and end times, and location.
- Emails, texts, or posted schedules showing that attendance was required.
- Pay stubs showing the training hours weren’t paid.
- Names of the supervisors or managers who ran or required the training.
You can submit the form and evidence by mail to the Division of Labor Standards in Albany or through the DOL’s online option.14NY.Gov. Labor Standards Complaint Form LS223 Keep copies of everything you send. An investigator will review the claim and may contact you for more detail; the process can take several months. If a violation is found, the department can order back wages, liquidated damages, interest, and civil penalties. You do not need a lawyer to file with the DOL, which makes this route workable even if you can’t pay legal fees upfront.