what is ny minimum wage?

The Minimum Wage rate varies depending on your region, and is increasing every year until it reaches $15.00. To find out what wage you should be earning, use our Minimum Wage Lookup Tool, or refer to the following Minimum Wage Rate Schedule:

*Annual increases for the rest of the state will continue until the rate reaches $15 minimum wage (and $10 tipped wage). Starting 2021, the annual increases will be published by the Commissioner of Labor on or before October 1. They will be based on percentage increases determined by the Director of the Division of Budget, based on economic indices, including the Consumer Price Index.

**Only hospitality employers are allowed to take credit from minimum wage.

***Effective 10/1/2022, the minimum wage for home care aides as defined in Public Health Law § 3614-c increased by $2 per hour above the basic minimum hourly rate.

On September 22, 2022, the NYS Division of the Budget issued its report on minimum wage rates scheduled to take effect on December 31, 2022. Read the NYS Division of the Budget Report, the Order of the Commissioner of Labor, and the Proposed Regulatory Text.

See the History of the Minimum Wage in New York State web page for minimum wage rates in previous years.

The state’s minimum wage will increase to $17 per hour in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County over the next three years and $16 farther north as part of New York's final budget deal.

For left-leaning downstate lawmakers eager to boost the pay of low-wage workers struggling with inflation, the bump comes up $4 short of what they wanted.

And for upstate farmers dealing with surging labor costs due to lower overtime thresholds, it’s too high. They wanted the minimum wage kept at the $15 per hour rate planned for next year.

In the end, few were happy with the minimum wage compromise the Hochul administration fashioned during budget negotiations that came to end with the passage of the budget late Tuesday, a month after the April 1 deadline.

Downstate lawmakers, labor groups and a coalition of small business owners were pressing Hochul for an increase to $21.25, what they view as a barely livable wage in one of the nation’s costliest regions.

“We have to take the war on poverty more seriously,” said state Sen. Jessica Ramos, a Queens Democrat. “The true cost of living in New York — and particularly within the five boroughs— simply cannot be sustained at $17 per hour. This agreement has effectively codified a wage that keeps working families poor.”

Upstate farmers, meanwhile, say the prices they’re paying for a bushel of apples and other farm goods haven’t kept pace with the rate of inflation, even as the state’s minimum wage keeps climbing.

After the last minimum wage increase in 2016, when the first of several wage bumps in the march toward $15 per hour went into effect, New York lost some 1,100 dairy farms, according to the Grow NY Farms Coalition.

Farming costs will be shifted to consumers in the form of higher prices, they note.

“Mandating wage increases for entry-level workers will force all wages up, exacerbating the already tight margins businesses across the state are working within,” the coalition wrote in a letter to Hochul. “This will only exacerbate the rate of inflation and New York families and small businesses will bear the burden of these decisions.”

Hochul cast the increases as a “lifeline” for the state’s 900,000 minimum wage earners – many of them women and people of color − who’ve seen the average cost of day-to-day needs and energy increase 13% over the last two years.

“That's a huge increase for people,” Hochul said. “It's clear that high inflation is pushing the most vulnerable New Yorkers to the breaking point.”

Farmers:Why Hochul's minimum wage plan has farmers, business owners fearing for their future

Crisis:Solar developers approached two NY farmers. Their choices reveal an industry in crisis

Downstate, the hourly rate will increase to $16 next year from its current $15. Upstate, the rate will increase from $14.20 (up from $13.20 last year) to $15 next year.

Those will be followed by 50-cent increases in 2025 and 2026 for both regions.

Beginning in 2027, wage increases will be linked to the Consumer Price Index. “In other words, if costs go up - so will your wages,” Hochul said.

Seventeen other states link their minimum wage to inflation or are preparing to do so.

Some New York workers have already improved their minimum wages.

Home care aides pushed their minimum to $16.20 an hour in October. And fast-food workers already make a minimum of $15 an hour.

Hikes:Upstate NY's minimum wage to hit $14.20 by year's end. Why lawmakers want more.

Low-wage workers picked up some unlikely allies during the monthslong battle.

A coalition of 300 businesses calling themselves New York Business for a Fair Minimum Wage pushed the administration for a $21.25 minimum by 2026.

The group cited statistics from the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare wages in New York to Nebraska, which plans to raise its minimum to $15 per hour by 2026. It takes $15.73 an hour for an adult working full time in Nebraska to cover basic life expenses while the same worker in New York would need $21.46.

“Why should New York lag behind the Nebraska minimum wage, adjusted for cost of living?” the coalition asked in one of its mailings.

Among the coalition members is Jessica Galen, the owner of Bloomy Cheese & Provisions in the Westchester County village of Dobbs Ferry.

Cheese mongers require special on-the-job skills – cutting cheese with a sharp knife while greeting customers as they walk in, Galen says.

It’s a skill that times time to develop, helped along by the hours Galen spends training each new employee.

“If I lose an employee and then I have to bring someone else on, it’s not just my time in the training of that person, it’s all the lost opportunities of not doing the other things I need to be doing to build my small business,” she said.

*  *  *

New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced an agreement with legislative leaders for the FY2024 New York State Budget on April 27, 2023.  Notably, the deal includes legislation that would increase the state minimum wage rate for the next three years, and index the minimum wage to the consumer price index thereafter.

Minimum Wage Increases

Once adopted, the FY2024 Budget would establish a new statutory minimum wage rate schedule in Section 652 of the Labor Law as follows:

Downstate and Upstate Minimum Wage Increases

The minimum wage in New York is currently split into two state regions:

The legislation maintains these regional distinctions and sets different schedules of increases for both regions.  This legislation, unlike prior New York minimum wage increases, does not distinguish rates based upon employer size or downstate county.

Indexing the Minimum Wage

Starting January 1, 2027, additional annual minimum wage increases would be implemented each year based on the Northeast region measure of consumer price increases for urban wage earners and clerical workers (CPI-W). There would be no increases to the minimum wage if over a period of the prior year, the calculations published by the United States Department of Labor show that:

Adjusted minimum wages are required to be published by the State Department of Labor no later than October 1st of each year.

Adjustments to Salary Thresholds, Allowances, and Gratuities

It is worth noting that minimum wage orders in effect would remain in effect, including wage orders that address minimum salary levels for executive and administrative exemptions, gratuities, and allowances for meals, apparel, etc. As these minimum wage increases take effect, the State Department of Labor would amend the wage orders to increase all monetary amounts (i.e., salary levels and allowances) in the same proportion as the increase in the hourly minimum wage.  The state is expected publish the official amounts of these adjustments.  We calculate the salary threshold in 2024 for downstate would rise to $1,200 weekly, and the upstate salary basis threshold would rise to $1,125 weekly.

The wage for food service workers who receive tips would remain lower than the regular minimum wage by one-third and rounded to the nearest five cents. While the state has not issued its official calculations, our unofficial calculations for tipped food service workers in the Hospitality Industry would be as follows:

Minimum wage rates differ based on industry and region. Rates will increase each year until they reach $15.00 per hour.

These rates are in effect from December 31, 2022 through December 30, 2023. View minimum wage rates through 2022.

Enforcement of Minimum Wage Laws

New York State Department of Labor helps collect underpayments for workers who have not received the minimum wage. Often, funds are collected without resorting to court action.

However, an employer that violates the Minimum Wage Law is subject to criminal prosecution and penalties. Action may also be taken in civil court.

The Commissioner of Labor may require an employer to pay:

Educational Seminars

The Division of Labor Standards offers free educational seminars to employers doing business in New York State.

New York's state minimum wage rate is $14.20 per hour. This is greater than the Federal Minimum Wage of $7.25. You are entitled to be paid the higher state minimum wage. The minimum wage applies to most employees in New York, with limited exceptions including tipped employees, some student workers, and other exempt occupations.†

The New York minimum wage was last changed in 2008, when it was raised $7.05 from $7.15 to $14.20.

The current minimum wage rate as of December 31, 2022 in New York state is $14.20 per hour. The minimum wage in New York City is $15.00 per hour for large employers (11 or more employees) and for small employers (10 or less employees). The minimum wage for Long Island and Westchester Counties is $15.00.

The tipped wage In New York state is $13.20 per hour. New York cities tipped rate is $15.00 for businesses with (11 or more employees) and for(10 or less employees). Long Island and Westchester's tipped rate is $15.00 per hour. As of December 31, 2020, your employer must pay the full applicable minimum wage rate, and cannot take any tip credit. The minimum wage for all food services workers in New York City and Long Island and Westchester county is $15.00 per hour, and $13.20 for the rest of the state. Current minimum wage rates for Fast Food workers in the state is $15.00 per hour throughout the state.

New York employers may not pay you under $14.20 per hour unless you or your occupation are specifically exempt from the minimum wage under state or federal law.

If you have questions about the New York minimum wage, please ask us and someone will respond to you as soon as possible. Looking for a new job? Use the free New York job search utility to find local job openings hiring now.

All New York employers must display an approved New York minimum wage poster in a prominent place to inform employees about the minimum wage and their worker's rights under New York labor law.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and New York labor law requires all employers in New York to visibly display an approved New York minimum wage poster, and other New York and federal labor law posters, to ensure that all employees are aware of federal and New York labor law and overtime regulations. Failure to display a New York labor law poster in the workplace can result in severe fines.

The New York minimum wage poster, and additional required New York labor law posters, are also available on the New York labor law posters download page.

All workers who put in over 40 weekly hours are entitled to a minimum wage of at least 1.5 times the regular applicable minimum wage (learn more about New York overtime pay). Some states require workers who work over a certain number of daily hours to be eligible for this overtime rate as well (New York law does not specify a daily overtime limit).

The FLSA guarantees all NY employees adequate overtime compensation for all qualifying overtime hours worked. If your employer does not pay adequate overtime wages, you can file an unpaid overtime claim with the New York Department of Labor.

In addition to any New York-specific minimum wage exemptions described above, the Federal Fair Labor Standards act defines special minimum wage rates applicable to certain types of workers. You may be paid under the New York minimum wage if you fit into one of the following categories:

While New York's state minimum wage is $14.20 per hour, there are localities that have set their own, higher minimum wages that apply to some or all employees within their jurisdictions. The following is a table of all New York localities with established minimum wage laws.

1 These earnings estimates do not account for the New York income tax , federal income tax, or local/municipal income taxes. 2 Poverty line for a family of two in the lower 48 published 2016 by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services