Reporting Time Pay in New York: Four-Hour Rule and Calculation

If you report to a scheduled shift in New York and your employer sends you home early or gives you no work, you’re still owed pay. Reporting time pay in New York — called “call-in pay” in the state’s wage regulations — guarantees most workers at least four hours at the basic minimum wage, or the length of the scheduled shift if it was shorter. Hospitality workers follow a different structure tied to how many shifts they work in a day.

The Four-Hour Rule for Most Workers

The general rule sits in the Minimum Wage Order for Miscellaneous Industries and Occupations at 12 NYCRR 142-2.3, which covers most New York employees who aren’t under a separate industry wage order.¹ Any employee who reports for work at the employer’s request or permission must be paid for at least four hours, or the number of hours in the regularly scheduled shift, whichever is less.²

The “whichever is less” part is doing real work. If you were scheduled for a three-hour shift and got sent home after one hour, you’re owed three hours of pay, not four. The four-hour floor only applies when the scheduled shift was four hours or longer. And it doesn’t matter whether you did any actual work before being dismissed. Showing up on the employer’s schedule is what triggers the obligation.

Hospitality Workers: A Different Structure

Restaurants, hotels, and other hospitality businesses fall under 12 NYCRR 146-1.5, which sets tiered guarantees based on the number of shifts worked in a single day rather than the length of any one shift.

One shift: at least three hours of pay, or the scheduled shift length, whichever is less.
Two shifts totaling six hours or less: at least six hours of pay, or the total scheduled hours, whichever is less.
Three shifts totaling eight hours or less: at least eight hours of pay, or the total scheduled hours, whichever is less.³

A server who works a lunch shift and comes back for dinner is working two shifts. If both get cut short, the employer still owes at least six hours for the day. Under this regulation, a “regularly scheduled shift” means a fixed, repeating shift the employee normally works on the same day each week. If your hours fluctuate week to week, no regularly scheduled shift exists, and the full minimum guarantees apply.³

Unlike the general wage order, the hospitality call-in pay guarantee applies to all covered employees regardless of their regular rate of pay, and meal or lodging credits cannot offset the amount owed.

How the Payment Is Calculated

Both regulations split the payment in two. Time you actually spent at work is paid at your regular rate, or overtime rate if applicable. The remaining guaranteed hours are paid at the basic minimum hourly wage, with no tip credits or other allowances taken out.¹

An example. You earn $22 an hour, report for a scheduled eight-hour shift, and get sent home after 30 minutes. The employer pays $11 for the half hour worked. The remaining three and a half hours are paid at the applicable minimum wage. In New York City, that’s 3.5 × $17.00, or $59.50. Your day pays $70.50 rather than the $11 you’d get for the half hour alone.

As of January 1, 2026, the basic minimum wage is $17.00 per hour in New York City, on Long Island, and in Westchester, and $16.00 per hour in the rest of the state.⁴ For a general employee in Buffalo who reports and is sent home immediately, the four-hour guarantee comes to $64.00. The same scenario in Manhattan comes to $68.00.

p>One thing the guaranteed hours don’t do: they don’t count as “hours worked” for overtime purposes. If call-in pay pushes your weekly total past 40 hours on paper, the non-worked portion doesn’t generate an overtime obligation.³

When Call-In Pay Is Not Owed

The regulations carve out several situations where the employer doesn’t owe reporting time pay. Under the general wage order, the most common exceptions are:

A valid collective bargaining agreement that specifically addresses call-in pay, in which case the contract controls.
Higher-paid workers whose weekly wages exceed 40 times the applicable minimum wage rate, who are exempt from several call-in pay provisions.
Cancellations caused by an act of God or another cause outside the employer’s control, including government-declared states of emergency.
Voluntary schedule changes offered to employees during weather or travel advisories.
Shifts cancelled at the employee’s own request for time off.

The act of God exception is narrower than employers sometimes claim. A slow Tuesday night doesn’t qualify. The regulation contemplates events genuinely beyond the employer’s control: a burst water main, a hurricane, a government-ordered closure. A manager surveying an empty dining room and cutting staff to save labor costs still owes call-in pay.

If You Weren’t Paid What You’re Owed

Start with documentation. Save your schedules, pay stubs, and any texts or emails showing when you were told to report and when you were sent home. Keep a personal log of each date, the scheduled shift length, your arrival time, and your dismissal time.

The formal complaint goes to the New York Department of Labor’s Division of Labor Standards on the Labor Standards Complaint Form (LS 223). The form asks for your employer’s name and address, the dates you reported for work, the hours you were paid, and the hours you believe should have been paid.⁵ You can file by mail to the Division of Labor Standards in Albany or online through the Department of Labor’s website.⁶

New York gives you up to six years to recover unpaid wages, through either a Department of Labor complaint or a private lawsuit. Every dollar owed inside that six-year window is recoverable.⁷

The recovery isn’t limited to the missing wages. The Department of Labor can assess liquidated damages of up to 100% of the unpaid amount on top of the wages themselves. The same 100% liquidated damages apply in court unless the employer proves a good-faith basis for believing its pay practices were legal. Employees who win in court also recover attorney’s fees and prejudgment interest.⁷ An employer who shorts a worker $500 in call-in pay can end up owing $1,000 or more once damages are added.

Retaliation Is Separately Illegal

New York Labor Law Section 215 makes it illegal for an employer to fire, threaten, penalize, or otherwise retaliate against a worker who files a wage complaint, gives information to investigators, or testifies in a proceeding. The protection covers internal complaints to the employer, not just filings with a government agency.⁸

If the Department of Labor finds retaliation, it can order reinstatement, back pay, front pay, and liquidated damages of up to $20,000 per affected employee.⁸ The retaliation exposure often runs larger than the underlying unpaid wages.

A Note on Federal Law

Reporting time pay is a state protection. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act doesn’t require it. Federal law does address whether waiting time is compensable — an employee “engaged to wait” must be paid, while one “waiting to be engaged” need not be — but that’s a different question from being sent home after showing up.⁹ For call-in pay disputes in New York, state law is the relevant source and gives you a longer window to file than the FLSA’s two-year (or three-year, if willful) deadline.¹⁰

1
New York State Department of Labor. 12 NYCRR 142 – Miscellaneous Industries and Occupations
2
Legal Information Institute. 12 NYCRR 142-2.3 – Call-in Pay
3
Legal Information Institute. 12 NYCRR 146-1.5 – Call-in Pay
4
New York State Department of Labor. New York State Minimum Wage
5
New York State Department of Labor. Labor Standards Complaint Form
6
New York State Department of Labor. The Labor Standards Complaint Process
7
New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 198 – Costs, Remedies
8
New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 215 – Penalties and Civil Action; Prohibited Retaliation
9
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA Hours Worked Advisor
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Back Pay