Top Chef Tom Colicchio Gives National Attention to New York Spread of Hours Law

Tom Colicchio, owner of several top rated New York restaurants and star of the culinary series Top Chef, advised restaurant owners in a Newsweek article that they should not leave human resources laws and regulations to someone else.  Among the advice by Colicchio was to understand specific local laws such as the New York State spread of hours requirement. Under New York law, an employee whose workday is longer than ten hours must receive an extra hour of pay at the basic minimum hourly rate (i.e. $7.25) in addition to pay for the actual hours worked. For example, let’s say a waiter works a double shift, the first shift running from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and the second shift running from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.  That waiter is entitled to eight hours of pay for the shifts he worked plus one extra hour of pay at minimum wage because his start to finish time (the “spread of hours”) of his workday exceeded ten hours.