(a) Wages mean the money rate at which employment with a covered employer is recompensed under the contract of hiring and includes every form of remuneration for employment paid by the employer to his employee, whether paid directly or indirectly, including salaries, commissions, bonuses and the reasonable money value of board, rent, housing, lodging or similar advantage received.

1. (1) Where board or lodging is part of the employee's wages under a contract of hiring, the reasonable money value thereof shall be included as part of wages. Where such value has been arrived at through agreement between an employer and his employees or their respective representatives under the contract of hiring, such value shall be used for purposes of this law. If the money value has not been so established, the value fixed as a basis of compliance with any applicable law governing minimum wage shall be used. If the money value has not been fixed by any of the foregoing methods, the value reported under the New York Unemployment Insurance Law shall be used.

2. (2) Where an apartment or house is furnished to an employee as part of the contract of hiring, the reasonable value of such accommodation shall be included as part of wages.

   (c) Tips and gratuities as wages.

   Tips or gratuities received by an employee in the course of his employment from a person other than his employer shall be included as wages if the employee is engaged in an employment in which tips and gratuities customarily constitute part of his remuneration. If the value has been arrived at through agreement between an employer and his employees or their respective representatives under a contract of hiring, such value shall be used for the purposes of this law. If such value has not been so established the value shall be the amount reported by the employee to the employer, in writing or otherwise, in accordance with the employer's usual practice.

   (d) Items excluded from wages.

   Wages do not include:

3. (1) severance payments which the employer is not legally required to make by statute; and
4. (2) the amount of any payment made to, or on behalf of, any employee under a plan or system established by an employer which makes provision for his employees generally or for a class or classes of his employees, including any amount paid by an employer for insurance or annuities, or into a fund to provide for any such payment, on account of retirement, or sickness or accident disability, or medical and hospitalization expenses in connection with sickness or accident disability, or death.

(b) Board and lodging as wages.