DCWP does not have a price list. It has about seventy-five of them, one per subject, running from 6 RCNY § 6-10 to § 6-89.
There is no single table to look your number up in. That is where most of the bad advice in this area comes from. Nothing of DCWP’s is left in 48 RCNY.
Working without a licence is charged per day
The general rule is $100 a day, and every day counts as its own violation. It also stacks on top of the licensing chapter fines.
But the real number depends entirely on which licence you needed.
| Business | Rule | First violation |
|---|---|---|
| Tobacco retail | AC § 20-202(a)(1) | $2,000 plus $100 a day |
| Tobacco wholesale | AC § 17-703 | $5,000. Second is $10,000 and they take your licence |
| Home improvement contractor | AC § 20-387 | $1,000 plus $100 a day |
| Debt collection | AC § 20-490 | $750 plus $100 a day, plus $100 per contact |
| General vendor | AC § 20-453 | $250 plus $250 a day. Second onward, $1,000 plus $250 a day |
| Process server, second-hand dealer, industrial laundry | AC §§ 20-403, 20-265, 20-297.2 | $100 a day |
| Any other DCWP licence | AC § 20-105 | $100 a day |
Here is what decides the size of your bill. Rule 6 RCNY § 1-19 assumes you kept operating without a licence right up to your hearing date, unless you prove otherwise.
On a per-day charge, that assumption is the whole case. Proving when you actually stopped, or when you got licensed, is usually worth far more than arguing about the daily rate.
General vendors sit outside the $100 a day rule completely. Their list is the only one built on four tiers instead of three.
Tobacco is the busiest, and it has three clocks
| Charge | Rule | First | Second | Third |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Selling flavoured tobacco | AC § 17-715 | $1,000 | $2,000 | $5,000 and 1 to 90 days closed |
| Selling to under-21 | AC § 17-706(a) | $1,000 | $2,000 and they take your licence | |
| Discounted or below-floor tobacco | AC § 17-176.1 | $1,000 | $2,000 | $5,000 |
| Licence not on display | AC § 20-202(d)(2) | $1,500 | $1,800 | $2,000 |
| Records and inspection | AC § 20-203 | $1,500 | $1,800 | $2,000 |
| Banned sales or purchases | AC § 20-205 | $1,500 | $1,800 | $2,000 |
| Selling while your state registration is suspended | PHL § 1399-ee(2) | $2,500 | $2,500 | $2,500 |
Three different look-back periods live inside that one list. Title 20 charges count repeats over three years. The price-floor rules count over five. Flavoured tobacco counts over three. Get the window wrong and you get the tier wrong, and then the price.
It gets worse for a shop with a mixed record. The starred tobacco rules count against each other. A repeat means breaking any combination of six listed rules at the same address within three years. Different offences, same ladder.
One real break is written into the list itself. At a hearing, points on your New York State tobacco registration can be reduced. That is in the rules, not a favour.
Remember too that § 17-715 is enforced by three agencies. DCWP, Health, and the Sheriff. Each sends it to its own tribunal.
Fixing it: 30 days, fixed list, and it counts as admitting
A first-time violation of a listed rule carries no fine if you prove you fixed it within 30 days of getting the summons and before the hearing starts.
Four things to understand before you use it:
- Proving you fixed it counts as admitting the violation, for every purpose.
- The list is closed. Fifty-two rules, named in the rule itself. If your charge is not on it, there is no fix.
- If they reject your proof, they have to tell you in writing within five days. You then have 15 days to take it to OATH.
- There is a real hole in the published rule. The Administrative Code fix-it list is not in the rule at all. The rule says it lives on DCWP’s website. So reading the rule alone will not tell you whether an Admin Code charge can be fixed.
Something we would rather say than hide. The stars marking amounts as fixable inside the individual price lists do not perfectly match the closed list. Where they disagree, we check both.
There is also an Offer of Settlement. You can plead and pay before your hearing date by mail, online or in person.
What not showing up actually costs
DCWP’s no-show rule is unusual. It gives you the highest fine allowed for that charge. And on many of these lists, the no-show column is the same number as the ordinary first violation.
So on those charges, skipping the hearing does not raise the dollar figure.
What it costs you is the chance to fix it, the chance to settle, the chance to knock down that “you kept going until the hearing” assumption. Plus a judgment on your record. That is a worse trade than it looks.
Worker cases go to a different tribunal
This surprises employers, and it changes how the case should be handled.
DCWP files worker cases in OATH’s Trials Division, not the Hearings Division. Paid Safe and Sick Leave, Fair Workweek, transit benefits, displaced grocery workers, prevailing wage and living wage are all named.
The same goes for any case where they want to revoke or suspend a licence, any case over $100,000, any case with four or more consumers, and any case with four or more witnesses and more than $50,000 at stake.
The outcome works differently too. OATH writes a recommended decision. The DCWP Commissioner can accept it, reverse it, or change it. You get 30 days to write to the Commissioner, and the Commissioner’s decision comes at least 75 days after the recommendation. That is the final word.
For delivery worker pay, the fine is $500 first, up to $750 for a second within two years, and up to $1,000 after that. And a bad written policy counts as a violation against every covered employee. Per employee, per instance, is how these numbers get big.
Freelance Isn’t Free: DCWP will not fine your client
This is the biggest misunderstanding in the whole area, and the honest answer is a no.
There is no DCWP fine, no OATH summons and no price list for an ordinary Freelance Isn’t Free complaint.
What the Commissioner does is pass the complaint along. You file within two years. DCWP sends the client a certified letter within 20 days. That letter warns them that not answering will be held against them in a court case. The client has 20 days to show they paid or explain why not. If nobody answers, DCWP tells both sides and can close the file.
You get your money in court, not at OATH. Double damages for unlawful payment practices. In some cases, damages equal to the value of the contract. Legal fees if you win.
Only the city’s own lawyers can sue over a pattern of this, capped at $25,000, and that is also in court.
New York State has its own Freelance Isn’t Free law, enforced by the Attorney General. It is a different law with a different enforcer. Do not mix the two up.
One thing that moved
Sidewalk and roadway cafés left DCWP on 3 March 2024. The old café rules were thrown out and the program sits with Transportation now. The café charges are on the DOT page.