Effective December 8, 2026, covered New York construction employers generally must provide up to four hours of reporting pay when an employee reports for a scheduled shift but receives no work, and two hours of pay when a scheduled shift is canceled with less than 12 hours’ notice. Separate requirements apply to certain prevailing-wage construction projects. Before the law takes effect, contractors should identify which projects and employees are covered and make sure their scheduling, payroll, labor, and contract practices are ready.
What the New Law Requires
New York’s Construction Reporting Pay Act introduces two principal compensation requirements for covered construction employees:
- Reporting pay: An employee who reports for a scheduled shift but is not provided work generally must receive up to four hours of pay.
- Shift-cancellation pay: An employee generally must receive two hours of pay when a scheduled shift is canceled with less than 12 hours’ notice.
Any revisions to employer practices must account for the law’s coverage, exceptions, calculation rules, and prevailing-wage provisions. Employers also need clear payroll rules for reporting and cancellation pay, including treatment for overtime, benefits, wage statements, and recordkeeping.
Why the Law Matters on Construction Projects
Construction schedules are especially vulnerable to late changes. Severe weather, failed inspections, safety concerns, unavailable equipment, delayed materials, restricted site access, or incomplete predecessor work may require a superintendent to cancel or reduce a crew. Under the new law, those routine field decisions may create compensation obligations even when the disruption is outside the employer’s immediate control.
For contractors, the practical effects will be felt across project operations, payroll and labor compliance, and contract administration, including:
- Project planning and field operations. Contractors may need earlier confirmation of site and weather conditions, clearer go/no-go protocols, and faster notice when inspections, access, deliveries, or predecessor work may prevent a crew from working.
- Payroll, labor, and compliance. Employers must determine how reporting and cancellation pay applies on prevailing-wage projects, appears in payroll records, and interacts with collective bargaining provisions governing show-up pay, call-in pay, minimum shifts, or cancellations.
- Contract administration and project costs. Project teams should anticipate disputes over costs caused by owner directives, site shutdowns, schedule changes, or other trades, and account for potential reporting-pay expenses in bids, change orders, contingencies, and subcontract negotiations.
Six Steps to Prepare Before December 8, 2026
1. Determine coverage
The law applies to employers in the construction industry that employ workers performing construction, reconstruction, excavation, rehabilitation, repair, renovation, alteration, or improvement work in New York. Contractors, subcontractors, construction managers, staffing companies, and other entities employing construction workers should evaluate whether their operations fall within the statute’s scope, particularly on projects subject to prevailing-wage requirements.
2. Establish scheduling and cancellation procedures
Start by deciding who can make or change the call on a shift—who schedules the crew, moves the start time, reduces the crew, or cancels work. The procedure should cover:
- Who is watching the weather and site conditions;
- How early the go/no-go call must be made;
- Who tells employees about the change;
- Which communication methods may be used;
- How the company records when notice was sent and received; and
- What happens if a message fails or an employee disputes receiving it.
The 12-hour cutoff makes timing important. Text messages, scheduling apps, timekeeping systems, and dispatch records should show when a cancellation notice went out and, where possible, when it was received. Managers also should document the circumstances as they occurred, rather than recasting a canceled shift after the fact.
3. Coordinate project communications
On a construction project, the subcontractor often depends on information from the owner, construction manager, superintendent, project manager, safety team, and other trades. Contractors should make sure that information reaches the people scheduling the work quickly enough to act on it.
If that call comes too late, a subcontractor may be stuck with reporting or cancellation pay because it did not have enough time to cancel the crew, and may attempt to seek reimbursement from upstream parties. Project teams should have a clear way to flag likely shutdowns, access problems, failed inspections, delayed predecessor work, and other conditions that may affect the next shift.
4. Review contracts and subcontracts
When reporting or cancellation pay is triggered by a project-level decision, the next question will be who pays for it. It is likely that most existing contracts do not address this, but parties entering new contracts and subcontracts should consider provisions addressing:
- Notice of shutdowns and schedule changes;
- Responsibility for costs resulting from untimely notice;
- Compensation for owner- or contractor-directed standby and demobilization;
- Delays caused by other trades;
- Weather-related cancellations;
- Documentation required to support additional compensation;
- Change-order procedures; and
- Compliance with applicable wage-and-hour and prevailing-wage laws.
These provisions should be coordinated with existing no-damages-for-delay clauses, force-majeure language, notice requirements, and provisions allocating responsibility for labor inefficiency or disruption. Whether a contractor may recover these costs will depend on the governing contract language and the circumstances producing the schedule change.
5. Update payroll and timekeeping systems
Payroll should establish a separate code for reporting pay and cancellation pay, along with clear rules for the rate and number of hours owed in each situation. Those codes should carry through to the employee’s wage statement and payroll records so the company can identify and support the payment later.
Field teams should report the event as reporting pay or cancellation pay—not simply as “show-up time” or “weather pay.” Using the right description gives payroll the information it needs to apply the correct rule and creates a cleaner record if the payment is questioned later.
6. Train field leadership
Superintendents, forepersons, and project managers often make or communicate the scheduling decisions that will trigger the new requirements. Training should address likely scenarios, including:
- A crew arriving before a weather shutdown;
- A shift canceled because materials were not delivered;
- A reduced crew caused by incomplete predecessor work;
- A failed inspection that prevents scheduled work;
- A late owner-directed shutdown; and
- A shift canceled through a group text less than 12 hours before its scheduled start.
Key Takeaways for Next Steps
Before December 8, 2026, affected employers should:
- Confirm covered entities, projects, and employees.
- Identify applicable prevailing-wage requirements.
- Assign scheduling and cancellation authority.
- Implement timestamped notice and record-retention procedures.
- Configure payroll and timekeeping systems.
- Review collective bargaining agreements.
- Revise relevant contract and subcontract provisions.
- Train field, payroll, and project-management personnel.
- Establish a compliance audit process.
The new law adds another cost consideration to routine scheduling decisions on construction projects. Reporting and cancellation pay will often arise from the same conditions that already impact and disrupt construction work. Before December 8, 2026, contractors should make sure the people making those decisions understand the requirements, communicate changes promptly, and create the records needed to support how resulting payments and costs are handled.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
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