Outten & Golden Awards 7th Annual Public Interest Award

NEW YORK, April 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 24, 2016, Outten & Golden LLP held its Seventh Annual Public Interest Award Ceremony in honor of the New York Communities for Change Worker's Rights program. New York Communities for Change ("NYCC") received the award in honor of its grassroots advocacy for living wages for workers in New York and beyond. "New York Communities for Change joins our growing list of honorees who fight for workplace fairness and justice for vulnerable employees," said Kathleen  Peratis, co-chair of the firm's public interest practice group. Past recipients of the Public Interest Award have been A Better Balance, Make the Road New York, Domestic Workers United, the New Immigrant Community Empowerment, Brandworkers, and Adhikaar for Human Rights and Social Justice. In addition to an award and celebratory event, Outten & Golden contributes to the non-profit being honored. This year the award totals $25,000.

Founded in 2010, in 2012, NYCC helped launch the Fight for $15 movement, which spawned minimum wage increases across the country, including an historic $15 per hour minimum wage increase for fast food workers in New York. NYCC also campaigns for supermarket workers, carwasheros, bank workers, and day care providers. NYCC is committed to continue fighting for all workers to earn living wages. To learn more, please visit http://nycommunities.org/.

Outten & Golden LLP focuses on advising and representing individuals in employment, partnership, and related workplace matters both domestically and internationally. The firm counsels individuals on employment and severance agreements; handles complex compensation and benefits issues (including bonuses, commissions, and stock/ option agreements); and advises professionals (including doctors and lawyers) on contractual issues. It also represents employees with a wide variety of claims, including discrimination and harassment based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, race, disability, national origin, religion, and age, as well as retaliation, whistleblower, and contract claims. The firm handles class actions involving a wide range of employment issues, including economic exploitation, gender- and race-based discrimination, wage-and-hour violations, violations of the WARN Act, and other systemic workers' rights issues.

Outten & Golden has nine practice groups: Executives & Professionals, Financial Services, Sexual Harassment & Sex Discrimination, Family Responsibilities & Disabilities Discrimination, Lesbian Gay Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Workplace Rights, Discrimination & Retaliation, Whistleblower Retaliation, Class & Collective Actions, and WARN Act.

Outten & Golden has offices in New York, New York, Chicago, Illinois, and San Francisco, California.