My company works on Trimester payouts for incentives. I am not sure if it is a bonus or commission, incentive seems kind of vague. The trimester is from April through August and our payout won't be until the end of November. What are the New York Laws on entitlememts on money earned if I were to leave the company before the payout? I will be giving the company 2 months of generated business that I am willing to give up but it seems only fair to be paid what I earned during the last trimester. Our company has it's own policy, but many of my collegues have consulted with a labor attorney and informed HR of such and received their bonuses. I think it might depend on which state you reside in and thier individual labor laws. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated

As such incentives are in additional to wages for work, it is unlikely the state DOL would pursue nonpayment. Generally speaking, under such plans, the employer can require the employee to be in employment status at the time the payment is made. I could not find a NY law requiring the payment at termination.

It is possible that your colleagues were paid as a result of threatening a lawsuit, just to save the money of defending it, not because the payment was necessarily required by law. That is not uncommon.

You can contact the state Dept. of Labor to inquire further, however.