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As the end of the year approaches, it is important to remind New York State employers and employees of the increased minimum wages that affect both hourly and salaried employees.

For hourly, non-exempt workers, please see the chart below for basic hourly minimum wage increases that go into effect as of December 31, 2022:

Minimum Wage Increase

To the extent your business pays basic minimum wage, it is important to make sure that the increased wages are reflected as of December 31, 2022.

Tip Credit

New York State also allows employers in certain industries to satisfy the minimum wage by combining a cash wage paid by the employer plus a credit for tips the employee receives from customers. The minimum hourly rates New York employers must pay most tipped employees go into effect as of December 31, 2022:

Service Employees

Food Service Employees

The “tip credit” rules can be difficult to follow, so it is important to track this information to ensure that tipped employees are receiving at least basic minimum wage, inclusive of tips, when calculating wages.

Increased Salary Threshold for Overtime Exemption

Finally, there are increases in the minimum salary threshold that must be met for exempt employees. As of December 31, 2022, the following minimum salaries must be paid for exempt administrative and executive employees:

With the upcoming changes, it is important to update policies and pay practices to stay in compliance.  If you have a question about minimum wage, overtime, or wage and hour exemptions, please contact us or call (631) 738-9100.

Campolo, Middleton & McCormick, LLP, a premier law firm with offices across Long Island, is thrilled to announce that that Senior Partner Christine Malafi has been recognized by her peers for the sixth year in a row to be featured in The Best Lawyers in America® in the category of Employment Law – Management (2023 edition). With this distinction, Malafi ranks among the top five percent of private practice attorneys nationwide as determined by a rigorous peer-review process.

For over three decades, the legal profession and the public have turned to Best Lawyers® as one of the most credible measures of legal integrity and distinction in the nation. Inclusion in Best Lawyers is based on over a million confidential evaluations by top attorneys. The Best Lawyers’ founding principle forms the basis of this transparent methodology: the best lawyers know who the best lawyers are. No fee to participate is permitted.

Malafi chairs the Corporate Department at CMM, which was recognized by Forbes as a Top Corporate Law Firm in America. Her practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, corporate transactions, drafting and negotiating a wide range of agreements, and helping businesses navigate all types of human resources matters. She routinely represents buyers and sellers in multimillion-dollar transactions and serves in a general counsel role for many of the firm’s corporate clients. In addition to her legal work, Malafi serves on the Executive Board of Directors of Family Service League, among others.

2021 was a record-breaking year for M&A deals. Global deal value rose to an unprecedented $5 trillion, smashing the previous record of $4 trillion set in 2007. In the United States alone, deal value records rose to $2.6 trillion, doubling the deal value of 2020.

Given that new records were set in the United States and all over the world in 2021, demand for M&A deals is clearly on the rise and many business owners and private equity firms are racing to find undervalued targets in 2022.

You may have already heard about Microsoft’s recent plans to acquire Activision Blizzard, one of the largest video game companies in the United States, for $68.7 billion, and that’s not all that’s swirling in the M&A-sphere in the first half of 2022. Some potential M&A targets for 2022 include well-known companies such as the fitness giant, Peloton, Kohl’s, and a leader in clean technology, Petroteq Energy (with offers already presented to Kohl’s and Petroteq).

Let’s take a look at the some of the heavy hitters that are already making headlines in the following key sectors, as well some deals that are on deck:

Technology

Technology was a coveted industry for US and global M&A deals in 2021. According to the PwC Global M&A 2022 outlook, new market opportunities, tech convergence, and an abundance of capital are paving the way for deal-making opportunities across the technology sector in 2022.

Tech advancements led to significant industry growth in 2021, which means more M&A deals in 2022. PwC predicts hotspots in the areas of crypto and NFTs as emerging markets are established. Moreover, with the pandemic coming to an end, business owners will begin to seek opportunities for consolidation, which will lead to an insurgence of M&A deals in 2022.

CMM attorneys were at the forefront of the tech M&A wave in 2021, representing an artificial intelligence tech leader in a complex recapitalization and M&A transaction in which CMM helped negotiate the terms of a multimillion-dollar loan agreement.

As for how tech deals are already playing out, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard could be the biggest tech/entertainment M&A deal in 2022. Another hot M&A deal announced in Q1 is Sony’s plan to buy Bungie, a gaming company, for $3.6 billion. Citrix, the cloud computing and virtualization company, has reported that they are being acquired by private equity firms Vista Equity Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital for $16.5 billion.

Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals

Deals in this sector rose to $288.9 billion in the US with SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) mergers playing a strong role in driving activity. In their 2022 M&A outlook, PwC predicts healthcare services consolidation and re-sale to lead M&A deals within this sector. We will also likely see more cross-border expansion and consolidation of private clinic and specialist care providers.

Proving the trend predictions correct, CMM already successfully represented a New York vet practice in the multimillion-dollar sale of its business to a larger partnership focused on acquiring vet practices around the tri-state area.

According to Digital Health Business & Technology’s data, there have already been 65 M&A deals in the digital health sphere in the first quarter of 2022. Additionally, several healthcare companies have been named targets for 2022 such as Health Gorilla and Summus Global. 

Manufacturing & Aerospace

Within the manufacturing industry, PwC also predicts strong M&A activity in 2022 as companies target vertical integration and operational consolidations. Likewise, as air passenger numbers increase in 2022, M&A activity in the aerospace and defense industry will also increase.

CMM attorneys recently represented a leading manufacturer in the sale of its business, assets, and property, resulting in a multimillion-dollar transaction. The team also negotiated and closed a complex transaction in the aerospace field, selling a family-owned aerospace supplier’s business to a Connecticut-based private equity firm.

As for deals already happening in the first quarter of 2022, Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines, the two largest discount carriers in the United States, have announced a merger in a deal valued at $6.6 billion. Private flying is also growing more common, a trend already reflected in aerospace M&A with Vista Global Holding announcing their acquisition of the U.S. charter operator Jet Edge for an undisclosed amount.

CMM’s Most Recent M&A Deals

With the second quarter of 2022 underway, we already see 2022 M&A heating up. Curious to see what CMM has been up to recently in the M&A space?

View the firm’s recent M&A highlights here. 

Update: As of February 15, 2022, the Commissioner of Health has continued to designate COVID-19 as a highly contagious communicable disease that presents a serious risk of harm to the public health in New York State. This designation was extended to March 17, 2022.

by Jamie Herzlich, Newsday

Almost two years since the COVID shutdown, employers now have guidance on a key component of New York’s HERO Act, which among other things required employers to allow for the establishment of workplace safety committees.

The state Department of Labor recently released a proposed rule providing details on the composition and operation of these committees, which would allow workers at firms with 10 or more employees to raise workplace health and safety issues and review health and safety policies.

While the workplace safety committee provision technically took effect Nov. 1, legal and safety experts say employers were fuzzy on their obligations until the DOL released the proposed rule on Dec. 22.

“Until the proposed rule came out, employers didn’t really know what they needed to do to be in compliance,” says Christine Malafi, a senior partner and chair of the corporate department at Campolo, Middleton & McCormick LLP in Ronkonkoma.

The employers had the potential setup of committees on their radar, but without further detailed guidance were more immediately focused on creating airborne infectious disease exposure prevention plans, another component of the HERO Act, she said.

Employers must keep in effect those prevention plans until Feb. 15 — or later if New York’s Health Commissioner Mary Bassett extends the designation of COVID-19 as a highly contagious communicable disease that presents a serious risk of harm beyond that date, Malafi says. Experts expect an extension.

Not just about COVID

But consider that the HERO Act’s safety committee provision isn’t just about coronavirus prevention — it also deals with overall workplace safety.

Also, keep in mind, employers are under no obligation to create these committees on their own, but must allow for them to be formed upon a written request by employees, Malafi says.

Specifically, the guidance dictates, among other things, that, “committees may be established for each worksite following a written request for recognition by at least two non-supervisory employees who work at the worksite,” says Malafi. “Multiple requests for committee recognition shall be combined and treated as a single request to form a committee,” the rule says.

Asking for it

The committee must be comprised of at least two non-supervisory employees and at least one employer representative. Upon the receipt of a request for recognition, employers shall respond to such request with “reasonable promptness.”

Among their obligations, after the establishment of a workplace safety committee, employers must respond, in writing, within a reasonable time period, to each safety and health concern, hazard, complaint and other violations raised by the workplace safety committee or one of its members, Malafi says.

Read the full article on Newsday‘s website.

Learn more about employee safety committees by joining us on February 18th: Event Details