NY Work Comp L § 131 (2021)
2021 New York Laws WKC - Workers' Compensation Article 7 - Miscellaneous Provisions. 131 - Payroll Records.

§  131.  Payroll records. (1) Every employer subject to the provisions of this chapter shall keep a true and accurate record of the  number  of his  or  her  employees,  the  classification  of employees, information regarding employee accidents and the wages paid by  him  or  her  for  a period  of  four  years after each entry therein, which records shall be open to inspection at any time, and as often  as  may  be  necessary  to verify  the  same  by  investigators  of  the  board,  by the authorized auditors, accountants  or  inspectors  of  the  carrier  with  whom  the employer  is  insured,  or  by  the  authorized auditors, accountants or inspectors of any workers' compensation insurance rating board or bureau operating under the authority of the insurance law and of which board or bureau such carrier is a member or the group trust of which the employer is a member. Any and all records required by law  to  be  kept  by  such employer  upon  which  the  employer  makes or files a return concerning wages paid to employees shall form part of the records described in this section and shall be open to inspection in the same manner  as  provided in  this  section. Any employer who shall fail to keep such records, who shall willfully fail to furnish such record as required in this  section or  who shall falsify any such records, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a fine of not less than five nor more than  ten  thousand dollars  in  addition  to any other penalties otherwise provided by law, except that any such  employer  that  has  previously  been  subject  to criminal  penalties  under this section within the prior ten years shall be guilty of a class E felony, and subject to a fine of  not  less  than ten  nor  more  than  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  in addition to any penalties otherwise provided by law.  (2) Employers subject to subsection (e) of section two thousand  three hundred  four  of  the  insurance  law  and  subdivision  two of section eighty-nine of this chapter shall keep a true  and  accurate  record  of hours  worked for all construction classification employees. The willful failure to keep such record, or the knowing falsification  of  any  such record,  may  be  prosecuted  as  insurance fraud in accordance with the provisions of section 176.05 of the penal law.  (3) The chair, upon finding that an employer has failed to  keep  true and  accurate  records as required by this section, may impose upon such employer, in addition to  all  other  penalties,  fines  or  assessments provided  for  in  this  chapter,  one thousand dollars for each ten day period of non-compliance or a sum not in excess of two times the cost of compensation for its payroll for the period of such violation, which sum shall be paid into the uninsured employers' fund created  under  section twenty-six-a of this chapter. When an employer fails to provide business records  sufficient  to  enable  the  chair  to determine the employer's payroll for the period requested for  the  calculation  of  the  penalty provided  in this section, the imputed weekly payroll for each employee, corporate officer, sole proprietor, or partner shall  be  the  New  York state  average  weekly  wage, multiplied by 1.5. Where the employer is a corporation, the corporation and any of the following  shall  be  liable for  the  penalty provided in this subdivision: the president, secretary and treasurer. If the employer shall within thirty days after notice  of the  imposition  of  a penalty by the chair pursuant to this subdivision make an application in affidavit form for a  redetermination  review  of such  penalty,  the chair shall make a decision in writing on the issues raised on such application.