Help Wanted: Promised bonus must be paid

On a different note, my son incurs travel expenses for site visits. The company pays him back for these expenses, but delays paying for as long as four months or more. The average monthly payment is about $100. Would state labor law require the expenses to be paid earlier, for example within 30 days of submission? -- Concerned Dad

"While bonuses are generally discretionary, in this case the bonus was actually earned by each employee pursuant to the letter from the employer," said Michael J. Borrelli, of Borrelli & Associates in Great Neck. "The employer should make the bonus payment on the next regularly scheduled payday after the bonus became an earned wage."

And for those employers who fail to make timely payments, Section 198-C of state labor law sets a statutory deadline that employers must meet or find themselves in violation of the law.

Employers who fail "to pay the amount or amounts necessary to provide such benefits or furnish such supplements within 30 days after such payments are required to be made, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor," the statute says.

Since that deadline is probably long gone, your son may have to enlist the help of the Labor Department to get his money.

The travel expenses are covered by the same statutory deadline. Again, the employers don't have to reimburse employees for such expenses, unless they promise to do so, which your son's employer did.

"Although there is no law in New York that requires employers to pay or reimburse employees for business-related expenses, the long-standing interpretation of Labor Law 198-C is that such statute imposes on an employer the requirement to abide by the terms of his agreement to provide benefits," Borrelli said.

To contact the Labor Department, your son should call 516- 794-8195 or 212-775-3880.

The actions of your son's employer defeat the whole point of bonuses. Employers generally pay them to thank workers for exceptional work and to encourage them to go beyond what is expected of them. But the companies won't get that exceptional work anymore if they don't pay the promised money.