A 4278 New York Assembly · 2025 Regular Session

Enacts the Empowering People in Rights Enforcement (EMPIRE) Worker Protection Act

Summary

Enacts the "Empowering People in Rights Enforcement (EMPIRE) Worker Protection Act"; relates to the delegation of state enforcement authority to private actors; authorizes an affected employee, whistleblower, representative organization or an organizational deputy to initiate a public enforcement action on behalf of the commissioner for certain provisions of the labor law, or any regulation promulgated thereunder.

Issues: ✓ Labor & Employment

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 3, 2025 Last action Jan 7, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

A4278A → A4278B · 4 edits

MODERATE

The bill was renumbered from A4278-A to A4278-B after being amended and reprinted. The most significant substantive change is the expansion of the 'affected employee' definition to include models (fashion models) and their management companies, broadening the scope of workers protected under this new enforcement act. Additionally, the bill's sponsor list was updated to include new legislators, and the article number for the new law was changed from 37 to 38.

Scope change

The bill now explicitly includes fashion models and their management companies as eligible parties for public enforcement actions, expanding the scope of protected workers beyond traditional employees.

SCOPE

Added 'models' and 'model management groups' to the definition of 'affected employee,' allowing them to bring public enforcement actions for labor law violations.

Added new co-sponsors to the bill, including STIRPE, WRIGHT, SEAWRIGHT, and others, indicating broader legislative support.

TECHNICAL

Changed the bill number from A4278-A to A4278-B and updated the legislative document identifier.

Updated the bill's internal reference from 'Article 37' to 'Article 38' to reflect the amendment.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Jan 7, 2026

Committee

REFERRED TO LABOR

lower

Dec 31, 2025

Lower · Passed

PRINT NUMBER 4278B

lower

Dec 31, 2025

Lower · Passed

AMEND AND RECOMMIT TO LABOR

lower

Mar 19, 2025

Lower · Passed

PRINT NUMBER 4278A

lower

Mar 19, 2025

Lower · Passed

AMEND AND RECOMMIT TO LABOR

lower

Feb 3, 2025

Committee

REFERRED TO LABOR

lower

1 primary · 70 co-sponsors