Occasionally, I receive a call from someone who wants to take action to enforce their employment rights, but they have waited too long! Not everyone realizes that employee rights, like food products, have expiration dates. This post will explore these expiration dates (called statutes of limitations by attorneys). We will explore why statutes of limitations exist, and what they are for different common employment law claims.

What is a Statute of Limitations?

Definition: “Time frame set by legislation where affected parties need to take action to enforce rights or seek redress after injury or damage.” ~ Black’s Law Dictionary

Why do Statutes of Limitations Exist?

Almost all legal claims have time limits because of the difficulty of presenting reliable evidence many years after events occur. For example, many years later, witnesses may be unreachable or not remember the events with sufficient clarity. In addition, as time passes, the likelihood that critical documents are unavailable grows.

Employment Law Statutes of Limitations

Federal Discrimination Laws Enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

Including: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

For employees who want to enforce their rights to work free from discrimination in federal court:

• Employees who work in states with discrimination law agencies, such as New York and New Jersey, have 300 days to file charges alleging discrimination with the EEOC.
• Employees have 180 days to file a charge with the EEOC if they work in a state that does not have a state discrimination law agency.
• Federal employees must notify their agency’s EEO office within 45 days of the last act of discrimination. You can learn more details of this unique process on the EEOC website.

Federal Employment Laws Enforced by the Department of Labor (DOL)

Including Family Medical Leave Act, Fair Labor Standards Act, and Equal Pay Act

These federal laws all have 2 year statutes of limitations but if a Court determines that a Company willfully violated the laws then the Statute of Limitations is 3 years.

Section 1981

42 U.S.C. § 1981 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race and has a 3 year statute of limitations.

New York City and New York State Human Rights Laws

Both the New York City and New York State Human Rights Laws have 3 year statutes of limitations. This means that you can bring claims under these laws to New York state court for three years following the last act of discrimination. However, if you would like the government agency associated with either law to investigate and or mediate the claims, you have one year to file complaints with those agencies.

New Jersey Law Against Discrimination

Employees have 2 years to file discrimination claims under the NJLAD.

New York Labor Law

This law requires employers to pay their employees appropriately including paying them minimum wage, overtime, and commissions. It has a 6 year statute of limitations.

New Jersey Wage Payment Act

This law has a 2 year statute of limitations for wage payment and overtime specific claims but a 6 year statute of limitations for nonpayment of commissions or other rights for which the law does not specify a time period.

Common Law Claims

The rights discussed earlier in this post come from statutes – i.e. legislative bodies passed laws that give employees rights and those laws include expiration dates. However, courts also recognize other employee rights called common law claims, these include:

• Contract Claims (New York and New Jersey): 6 years
• Assault and Battery (New York): 1 year
• Assault and Battery (New Jersey) : 2 years
• Defamation (New York and New Jersey) : 1 year
• Negligence (New York) : 3 years

When does the time period begin?

For some claims like assault and battery that come from one clear act of harm, the beginning of the time period can be relatively simple to determine.

However, some of the statutory employment law rights have less obvious time period start points. For example, the clock starts ticking on an employee’s equal pay claim after she receives her last unequal pay check.  This means that if the employee is still employed and being paid a lower rate than her male coworkers, the clock starts anew every time she receives a paycheck.

For other discrimination and retaliation claims, the beginning of the time period can be difficult to determine because courts will include acts that fall within a pattern of discrimination and retaliation even if some individual acts fall outside the statute of limitations time period.

If you believe you have an employment law claim, consult with an attorney as as soon as possible to determine how long you have to decide whether or not you want to pursue your claim.

Thanks for reading.

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