Nearly one hundred and thirty years ago in 1894 New York State Attorney General Theodore E. Hancock issued a formal opinion interpreting New York State’s wage law for manual laborers to allow bi-weekly wage payments.

A court in 2019, apparently unaware of Attorney General Hancock’s opinion, unexpectedly held that manual laborers had to be paid weekly. That decision overnight turned thousands of honest employers into wage violators subject to mandatory liquidated damages of double wages and attorney’s fees.