How to Hire Employees in New York: The Complete Compliance Sequence
Step-by-step New York hiring guide for small business: employer registration, workers comp, the wage notice, the 20-day new hire report, and onboarding.
The first New York hire I helped a founder through went wrong in a way I did not see coming. Everything obvious was handled. Offer letter signed, desk ready, first day on the calendar. What nobody had done was bind the workers compensation policy, because the broker was waiting on a payroll estimate and the founder assumed a single employee sat under some threshold. New York has no such threshold. The employee worked eleven days uninsured, and the only reason it cost nothing was luck.
That is the pattern with New York. The rules are not hidden and they are not ambiguous. They are simply numerous, they sit at a handful of different agencies, and several of them attach before the employee ever shows up. A guide that lists them alphabetically is useless. What you need is the order.
This is that order, written for the owner or operations lead doing it personally, without a dedicated HR person and without an employment lawyer on retainer. Nine steps, each with the agency that enforces it and the exposure if you skip it. I built FirstHR because this sequence should live in a system that holds every task and its deadline, not in a founder head that is already carrying twenty other things.
- Sign the offer letter
- Sign the employee handbook
- Workplace Safety course
The New York Hiring Sequence at a Glance
Hiring in New York follows nine steps, and the order matters because several of them depend on the ones before. You cannot register with New York without an EIN, you cannot run payroll without the registration, and you cannot legally let anyone start work without coverage already in force. Every obligation below is enforceable.
| When | Deadline | Exposure | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Get your federal EIN | Before anything else | Before any New York registration | No state account can be opened without it | Internal Revenue Service |
| File Form NYS-100 to register as an employer | Before day one | As soon as you become a liable employer | Interest and penalties on contributions and withholding filed late | NYS Department of Labor and NYS Department of Taxation and Finance |
| Put workers compensation coverage in force | Before day one | Active before anyone performs a minute of work | Up to $2,000 for each 10-day period without coverage, plus criminal exposure | NYS Workers Compensation Board |
| Add disability benefits and Paid Family Leave coverage | Before day one | Mandatory four weeks after the 30th day you have an employee, so bind it with the comp policy | Separate penalty track under the Disability Benefits Law | NYS Workers Compensation Board |
| Build the job ad around the pay range and the salary history ban | Before you post the job | Every posting, promotion and transfer notice | Civil penalties and a Department of Labor complaint from any applicant | NYS Department of Labor |
| Prepare the wage notice on the LS form that matches the pay arrangement | At the offer | At the time of hiring, with a signed acknowledgment, in English and the primary language | Statutory damages per employee per work day, capped by statute | NYS Department of Labor |
| Complete Form I-9 | Day 1 to day 3 | Section 1 by the first day, Section 2 within three business days | Federal civil money penalties assessed per form, per employee | USCIS and DHS |
| Collect Form W-4 and Form IT-2104 | Before the first paycheck | Before any wages are paid | Default withholding that can take the wrong amount of state, New York City, and Yonkers tax | IRS and NYS Department of Taxation and Finance |
| File the new hire report | Within 20 days | 20 calendar days from the hiring date | $20 per employee not reported, and the same for a false or incomplete report | NYS Department of Taxation and Finance |
| Hand over the sick leave, harassment and coverage notices | Day 1 | At hire, with the posters up before the first shift | Citation on inspection and a weak record in any later dispute | NYS DOL and Workers Compensation Board |
| Run a structured onboarding plan | Day 1 to day 90 | Ongoing through the first 90 days | No fine, but early turnover erases the entire cost of the hire | Internal |
Read that sequence as a build order rather than a checklist. Six of its eleven items land before the new hire works a single hour, which is the part most first-time employers discover late.
The wage notice is one of those six. It is due at hiring, so it travels with the offer even though its step comes after the forms. The rest of this guide walks each step with the agency, the form number and the number that actually applies.
Step 1: Get Your Federal Employer Identification Number
Start with the EIN because nothing in New York opens without it. The Internal Revenue Service issues the number online at no cost and the application returns it immediately, in the same session. It becomes your identifier on the state registration, on every quarterly return, on the new hire report and on the W-2 at the end of the year.
If you formed an LLC or a corporation you probably already have one. If you have been operating as a sole proprietor and filing under your own Social Security number, you need an EIN now, because employment tax reporting cannot run off a personal number. Get it before you do anything else in this sequence.
One caution that costs people a day. The IRS limits how many online applications a single responsible party can submit within a day, and the application session expires if you leave it open.
Before you start the application, have the legal entity name, the formation state, the responsible party details and the expected first wage date in front of you. Then save the confirmation notice somewhere you will find it again, because the state registration in the next step asks for the number and the exact legal name that goes with it.
Step 2: Register as a New York Employer With Form NYS-100
New York uses one registration for three obligations. Form NYS-100, the New York State Employer Registration for Unemployment Insurance, Withholding, and Wage Reporting, is filed online through New York Business Express, and the information is shared with both the Unemployment Insurance Division of the Department of Labor and the Department of Taxation and Finance. The Department of Taxation and Finance lays out the tax side of hiring on its hiring employees page.
Liability is what triggers the filing. A general business employer becomes liable on the first day of the calendar quarter in which it pays remuneration of $300 or more, or on the day it acquires the business of an employer that was already liable.
The $300 threshold is low enough that a single part-time hire clears it inside the first month, so treat registration as a pre-hire task rather than something to handle once payroll is running.
Registration returns an employer registration number. That number goes on every NYS-45, the combined quarterly withholding, wage reporting and unemployment insurance return. It also anchors your unemployment insurance account, which is where the contribution rate lives.
What the Registration Does Not Cover
One filing, three obligations, and a fourth that is nowhere in it. Form NYS-100 sets up unemployment insurance, state withholding and wage reporting. It does not buy you a single line of insurance. Workers compensation, disability benefits and Paid Family Leave are placed through a carrier or the state insurance fund, on a separate timeline, and the state does not tell you that the registration left them out.
The reason the gap goes unnoticed is that the registration feels like completion. You get a number, the payroll system accepts it, the first check clears. Nothing in that sequence surfaces the missing policy until an injury does. Treat the registration confirmation as the trigger to call your broker, not as the end of the setup.
One more registration decision belongs here rather than later. New York Secure Choice requires a covered employer with no qualified retirement plan of its own to run payroll deductions into state-facilitated Roth IRAs.
General Business Law section 1300 applies three conditions at once: a minimum number of New York employees throughout the previous calendar year, at least two years in business, and no qualified plan in the preceding two years. A first hire sits outside that test, and the staged registration deadlines have already passed, so read the New York retirement mandate rules before you grow into it.
Step 3: Put Insurance Coverage in Force Before Anyone Works
This is the step that catches out-of-state employers, so it comes early. Virtually all employers in New York State must provide workers compensation coverage under Workers Compensation Law sections 2 and 3, and the Workers Compensation Board publishes the full coverage requirements. On that line there is no payroll floor, no waiting period and no elective opt out: the policy has to be in force before anyone performs work.
Disability benefits and Paid Family Leave sit under section 202 on a slightly later clock. You become a covered employer for those two once you have had one or more employees on each of at least 30 days in a calendar year, and coverage becomes mandatory four weeks after that 30th day.
The 30 days do not have to be consecutive. Buy all three lines at the same time anyway, because the 30th day arrives while you are busy running the business.
The exposure for a gap is calculated by period, not by incident. Under the Workers Compensation Board penalty rules, an employer without coverage can be assessed up to $2,000 for each 10-day period of non-compliance, or no more than twice the cost of compensation for its payroll during the failure.
Failure to secure coverage within a 12-month window is also charged criminally, as a misdemeanor for five or fewer employees and as a class E felony above that.
| Coverage | Statute | Who pays | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workers compensation | WCL sections 2 and 3 | Employer, entirely | Medical care and lost wages for a work-related injury or illness |
| Disability benefits (DBL) | WCL section 202 | Employer, with an optional employee contribution of one-half of one percent of wages capped at 60 cents per week | Off-the-job injury or illness, short term |
| Paid Family Leave | WCL section 202 | Employee payroll deduction of 0.452 percent of gross wages from January 1, 2027, capped at $451.81 for the year | Up to 12 weeks at 67 percent of average weekly wage, capped at 67 percent of the state average weekly wage |
Paid Family Leave is usually written as a rider on the disability policy, which is exactly why a business that buys workers compensation alone ends up uninsured on two lines it did not know it had. Ask your broker to confirm all three in writing, and set the employee deduction from the state Paid Family Leave rates for 2027 rather than from an earlier rate sheet.
Steps 1 through 3 produce a handful of numbers and dates that you will be asked for again on every quarterly return, every new hire report and any inspection, and they arrive weeks apart from several different places. Write them down once, in one record, as each one comes back.
Step 4: Write the Job Ad and the Offer Under New York Rules
New York regulates the hiring conversation itself, not just the employment that follows it. Two rules shape the job ad and the screen. The first is the statewide pay transparency requirement in Labor Law section 194-b, which obliges covered employers to include a good faith range of compensation and a job description in advertisements for jobs, promotions and transfer opportunities.
The rule reaches roles performed at least partly in New York, and remote roles that report to a supervisor or office in the state. The statute exempts the very smallest employers, so a business making a genuine first hire should check the threshold on the Department of Labor pay transparency page before assuming the rule applies.
Posting the range anyway is the better play. It filters out candidates you cannot afford and it removes any reason to ask what they earned before, which the second rule bars.
The second rule is the salary history ban in Labor Law section 194-a, which applies to every public and private employer in the state with no size exemption at all.
The ban means you cannot seek, request or require the wage or salary history of an applicant as a condition of being interviewed, of staying in the running for an offer, or of employment or promotion, and you cannot ask a former employer for it either. The candidate may volunteer it. You may not prompt.
Nick Anisimov, FirstHR founderThe offer is the next point where New York rules attach. Prepare the wage notice alongside the offer letter, because the letter does not replace the notice.
Step 5: Verify Work Authorization Before the Third Business Day
Form I-9 is federal and the deadlines are firm. The employee completes Section 1 on or before the first day of work. You complete Section 2 by the end of the third business day after work begins, after physically or remotely examining original documents that establish identity and employment authorization. New York adds no state layer here: there is no state E-Verify mandate for private employers, so participation is voluntary.
You cannot tell the employee which documents to present. Presenting more documents than the list requires is not a reason to reject them, and demanding a specific document is itself a violation.
Remote and Hybrid Hires Still Have a New York Employer
The three-day clock does not pause because the new hire never comes to an office. If the person will perform work in New York, the state obligations in this guide attach whether they sit in your space or at a kitchen table upstate.
Those obligations include the wage notice, the coverage lines and the new hire report, plus the pay transparency rule for a remote role that reports to a supervisor or an office in the state.
For the I-9 itself, the document examination has to happen on schedule, either in the physical presence of the employee or under the alternative remote examination procedure, which is open only to employers enrolled in E-Verify and in good standing. Decide which route you are using before the start date rather than on day three, because enrolling in E-Verify is not something you do on the morning of the deadline.
Retention runs on the longer of two clocks. Keep the I-9 for three years from the date of hire or one year after employment ends, whichever date is later. The rest of the employee record retention schedule runs on different clocks entirely, so do not merge them.
Step 6: Collect Both Withholding Forms Before the First Paycheck
New York needs two withholding certificates, not one. Federal Form W-4 sets federal income tax withholding. New York Form IT-2104, the Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate, sets New York State withholding and is also what identifies a New York City or Yonkers resident so the correct city tax comes out of the check.
That second form is the one out-of-state employers skip, and the failure is invisible until the employee files a return and discovers the shortfall. New York City resident tax is meaningful money. If the employee lives in one of the city tax jurisdictions, that is a payroll configuration, not a note in a file.
| Form | Who completes it | When it is due | What breaks if it is missing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Form I-9 | Employee, then employer | Section 1 by day one, Section 2 by the third business day | Federal civil money penalties assessed per form |
| Form W-4 | Employee | Before the first wage payment | Withholding defaults to single with no adjustments |
| Form IT-2104 | Employee | Before the first wage payment | State, New York City, and Yonkers withholding can come out wrong |
| Wage notice (LS 54 series) | Employer, signed by employee | At the time of hiring | Statutory damages per employee for each work day the notice was missing |
| Sexual harassment prevention policy | Employer provides | At hire, then annually with training | Non-compliance with a rule that has no size exemption |
| Direct deposit authorization | Employee | Before the first payroll run | A paper check and an annoyed new hire |
Everything in that table can be collected before the start date. The new hire paperwork packet is the single highest-return thing to automate at a small business, because it is the same packet every time and the deadlines are unforgiving.
Step 7: Deliver the Wage Notice Before the First Hour of Work
Labor Law section 195.1 requires every private employer to give each new hire written notice of pay at the time of hiring, so the notice belongs in the packet before any work is performed. This is the New York rule with no equivalent in most states, and it is the one that produces stacked claims in wage litigation.
The Department of Labor publishes a separate form for each pay arrangement, LS 54 for an hourly hire and LS 59 for an exempt salaried one, and the requirements sit on its notice of pay rate page.
The notice has to carry the rate or rates of pay, the overtime rate where it applies, how the employee is paid, the regular payday, the official name of the employer and any business names it uses, and the address and phone number of the main office. Any allowance taken as part of the minimum wage, such as tips, meals or lodging, has to be stated as well.
Language is part of the requirement. The notice goes to the employee in English and in their primary language when the Department of Labor publishes a translation, and the department currently offers translations in Spanish, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Korean, Polish, and Russian. Have the employee sign it, and keep the signed copy. An offer letter does not substitute for it.
Step 8: File the New Hire Report Within Twenty Days
New York gives you 20 calendar days from the hiring date to report every new hire and rehire who will work in the state. The report goes to the Department of Taxation and Finance through the New York New Hire Online Reporting Center. Late reporting costs $20 per employee not reported, and a false or incomplete report carries the same $20.
The data set is close to the federal standard with one addition that surprises employers arriving from other states. Along with the employee name, address, Social Security number and hire date, and your business name, address and federal employer identification number, New York asks whether dependent health insurance benefits are available to the employee and, if so, the date the employee qualifies for them. Answer it accurately, because it feeds child support enforcement rather than a statistical file.
Independent contractors are in scope too. Since the start of 2022, employers have been required to report individuals working under an independent contractor arrangement with contracts in excess of $2,500, through the same online reporting center.
Step 9: Post the Notices, Then Onboard Through Day 90
Two things happen on day one. The compliance layer closes, and the actual job starts. The compliance layer means the posters go up where employees can see them, and the policies go into each employee's hands.
New York requires a written sexual harassment prevention policy from every employer regardless of size, provided to each employee at hire and annually thereafter, along with annual interactive harassment prevention training.
Statewide paid sick leave applies as well, accruing at not less than one hour for every 30 hours worked, with the entitlement scaled by employer size and, for the smallest businesses, by net income.
A separate bank of paid prenatal leave has applied to all private-sector employers since the start of 2025, giving employees 20 hours in any 52-week period for prenatal appointments with no minimum period of employment required. The two banks do not substitute for each other.
| Employer profile | Statewide sick leave entitlement |
|---|---|
| 100 or more employees | Up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per calendar year |
| 5 to 99 employees | Up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per calendar year |
| 4 or fewer employees, net income over $1 million | Up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per calendar year |
| 4 or fewer employees, net income of $1 million or less | Up to 40 hours of unpaid sick leave per calendar year |
| Every employer, separately | 20 hours of paid prenatal leave in any 52-week period |
Then the real work starts. Compliance gets someone legally onto your payroll. Onboarding decides whether the hire was worth making. The first 90 days are where the recruiting spend either compounds or evaporates, and nothing in the compliance sequence protects you from a new hire who quits in week three.
| Timeline | What happens | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Before day one | Offer letter signed, W-4, IT-2104, wage notice and direct deposit collected, I-9 Section 1 completed by the employee | Owner or manager |
| Day 1 | Welcome, introductions, workspace and tool access, role expectations, I-9 Section 2 completed | Owner or manager |
| Day 1 to 3 | Posters verified, policies acknowledged, coverage notices delivered, new hire report queued | Owner or manager |
| Week 1 | Role-specific training, a named buddy, first manager check-in | Manager and buddy |
| Day 30 | First formal check-in against the 30-day goals, gaps identified early | Manager |
| Day 60 | Second check-in, the employee should be contributing without close supervision | Manager |
| Day 90 | Formal review, transition from onboarding into ongoing performance | Manager |
This is the part I automated first in FirstHR. The offer letter and policy acknowledgments go out with e-signature before day one, Form I-9 and the 20-day report become tasks with owners (the I-9 itself is completed outside the platform), and the AI onboarding wizard turns the job description into a 30-60-90 day plan so the manager is not writing one from a blank page at 9pm the night before. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider, so the withholding filings still run through your payroll system.
New York Rules That Change How You Employ People
Six state rules reshape the employment relationship itself rather than the paperwork around it. Read them before you write a handbook, because a template imported from another state will get several of them wrong.
The wage floor is the rule that can move on its own. The minimum wage is $17.00 per hour in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County and $16.00 per hour in the rest of the state, and both rates stay the same on January 1, 2027, with regional tipped rates published alongside them on the Department of Labor minimum wage page.
From 2027, Labor Law section 652 ties increases to a three-year average of the CPI-W for the Northeast region, with the commissioner publishing the next year's figures no later than October 1. The law includes off-ramps that pause an increase under set economic conditions. For 2027 the department found that one of those conditions was met, so no inflation increase applies, but later increases need no new legislation.
New York also sets its own salary threshold for the executive and administrative overtime exemptions, above the federal floor and split by region. Classify a salaried manager against the state threshold as well as the federal one, because the state number is the binding constraint in New York and it moves with the minimum wage schedule.
Record keeping is a rule in its own right here rather than a filing habit. New York requires payroll records to be kept for six years. The pay statement handed to the employee each period has to carry the dates covered, the rate and basis of pay, gross and net wages, every deduction and allowance, and, for an employee who is not exempt from overtime, the regular and overtime hours worked and both rates.
A payroll system that prints a bare net figure is not compliant, and the missing statement is the second claim stacked on top of the missing wage notice in many New York wage cases.
New York remains an at-will employment state, but with more statutory carve-outs than most. Off-duty lawful conduct is protected under Labor Law section 201-d, which is why adverse action based on legal cannabis use away from the workplace and outside work hours is generally prohibited and pre-employment testing for cannabis is restricted except where another law requires it. Build the drug testing policy around that before the first hire, not after the first positive result.
Nick Anisimov, FirstHR founderCity and County Requirements Layered on Top of State Law
New York is one of the states where the local layer genuinely matters. New York City in particular runs a full parallel employment code administered by the Commission on Human Rights and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and Westchester and Suffolk counties each adopted rules of their own before the state caught up.
| Jurisdiction | Requirement | What it changes for a first hire |
|---|---|---|
| New York City | Fair Chance Act | No criminal history question until after a conditional offer, followed by a documented individualized assessment |
| New York City | Protected time off under the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act | Paid safe and sick leave scaled by employer size, plus 32 hours of unpaid protected time off available from the beginning of employment |
| New York City | Local Law 144 on automated employment decision tools | An AI screening tool needs an independent bias audit within the prior year, a public summary, and candidate notice before you use it |
| New York City | Salary transparency under the city human rights law | A pay range in the posting, on the same footing as the state rule |
| Westchester County | Safe Time Leave Law | Paid safe time leave for employees who are victims of domestic violence or human trafficking, separate from sick leave |
| Suffolk County | County salary history ban | A county ban in force before the statewide rule took effect, so the prohibition applied here first |
| Rest of New York State | Check the county before you assume | Counties and cities can add rules of their own on top of state law, so confirm what applies where the work is performed |
The city rule that most often surprises a small employer is Local Law 144. Any automated tool that substantially assists a hiring or promotion decision, including a resume screener sold as a convenience feature, pulls the bias audit obligation with it. If you hire in the five boroughs and you are evaluating screening software, confirm the audit exists before you turn the feature on.
The Fair Chance Act belongs to the statewide fair chance trend covered in our piece on ban the box: the criminal history conversation moves to the end of the process and has to be documented. Sequencing the background check after the conditional offer is the practical fix, and it is good practice statewide even where it is not mandatory.
Employee or Independent Contractor: New York Looks Past the Contract
Calling someone a contractor does not make them one, and in New York the misclassification finding usually arrives from the unemployment insurance side rather than the tax side. A worker who files for benefits triggers a determination, the Department of Labor applies a common law control test, and a finding of employment reaches backward across the quarters the person was paid.
The question the state asks is about control over the manner and means of the work, not about the paperwork. A signed contractor agreement is evidence, and it loses to the facts every time.
| Factor | Points to employee | Points to contractor |
|---|---|---|
| Who sets the hours | You do | The worker does |
| Who supplies tools and equipment | You do | The worker does |
| Can the worker profit or lose on the engagement | No, the pay is fixed | Yes, the worker carries the financial risk |
| Is the relationship open ended | Yes, continuous | No, it ends with the project |
| Can the worker serve other clients | Restricted or prohibited | Freely, and usually does |
| Who decides the method of the work | You direct the process | The worker chooses the method |
| Is the work core to your business | Yes, it is what you sell | No, it is a specialized input |
The reclassification bill has three parts: unpaid unemployment insurance contributions with interest, unpaid withholding, and coverage exposure. That third part is the one that hurts in New York, because a reclassified worker who was injured on the job was uninsured for workers compensation the whole time, which opens the door to the penalty of up to $2,000 for each 10-day period on top of the claim itself.
When the facts are close, classify as W-2. The cost of employing someone properly is always lower than the cost of a finding that you should have.
The Mistakes That Cost New York Small Businesses the Most
The six mistakes below cost New York small businesses the most, and most of them are not knowledge failures. The employer usually knew the rule existed and ran out of time before the start date arrived.
The common thread is sequencing. Each of these is a task that had to happen before a specific moment, and the moment passed while the founder was doing something more urgent. That is an argument for putting the sequence into a system with owners and dates rather than for learning the rules more thoroughly. By the time you have read this far, you know the rules. What fails is the calendar.
Two more items belong on the pre-hire list. The first is working papers. Youth aged 14 to 17 need an employment certificate before the minor starts. From May 9, 2027, Labor Law section 135 moves working papers to a Department of Labor database that issues the certificates electronically, replacing the paper certificate from the school.
The second is what happens when employment ends. Labor Law section 191 makes the final paycheck due no later than the regular payday for the pay period in which the termination occurred, and section 195.6 requires written notice to the employee within five working days of the exact termination date and the date benefits are cancelled. Build both into the employee handbook while you are writing it, not while you are using it.
So set the start date last. Choose it only once the EIN, the registration and the three coverage lines are in place and the wage notice is ready, and give every remaining step in the sequence an owner and a deadline.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to register with the state before hiring my first employee in New York?
Yes, and a single filing handles three obligations: unemployment insurance, withholding and wage reporting. You file Form NYS-100, the New York State Employer Registration for Unemployment Insurance, Withholding, and Wage Reporting, through New York Business Express, and the state routes it to both the Unemployment Insurance Division of the Department of Labor and the Department of Taxation and Finance. Liability starts on the first day of the calendar quarter in which a general business employer pays $300 or more in remuneration, so one part-time hire almost always triggers it in the quarter they start. The registration returns an employer registration number, and that number identifies you on each quarterly NYS-45 return. File it before you set a start date, because payroll cannot run without it.
What is the deadline to report a new hire in New York?
Twenty calendar days, counted from the hiring date. You file the report with the Department of Taxation and Finance on the New York New Hire Online Reporting Center, and it applies to rehires as well as new hires, as long as the person will work in New York State. The form asks for the employee’s name, address, Social Security number and hire date, plus your business name, address and federal employer identification number. It also asks whether dependent health insurance is available and when the employee becomes eligible for it, which is the question employers from other states tend to miss. Independent contractors working under a contract above $2,500 have been reportable since the start of 2022, through the same online system. A late report costs $20 for each employee left off, and a false or incomplete report carries the same $20.
Is workers compensation insurance required in New York for one employee?
Yes. With very few exceptions, every New York employer needs workers compensation coverage under Workers Compensation Law sections 2 and 3, and the first employee counts. No small payroll is exempt and no waiting period lets you hold off: the policy must be active before anyone does any work. Disability benefits and Paid Family Leave come from a different provision, section 202, so a workers compensation policy does not cover them. That obligation begins once you have employed at least one person on 30 or more days in a calendar year, and coverage must be in place four weeks after the 30th day. A gap is expensive. The Workers Compensation Board can assess up to $2,000 for each 10-day period without coverage, or no more than twice the cost of compensation for the payroll during the gap, and a failure inside a 12-month period is also charged criminally under section 52.
What is the minimum wage in New York and does it change every year?
New York has two minimum wage rates: $17.00 per hour in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County, and $16.00 per hour everywhere else in the state. Neither rate changes on January 1, 2027. Tipped rates vary by region and by job category, with separate cash wage and tip credit figures for service employees and food service workers. The increases written into the law ran through 2026, and from 2027 Labor Law section 652 pegs the state minimum to the CPI-W for the Northeast region, averaged over three years, with the commissioner announcing each following year’s rates by October 1. The law also contains off-ramps that pause an increase under set economic conditions, and the Department of Labor reports that one of them was met for 2027. So the rate does not climb automatically every year, but a later increase needs no new legislation, so a wage floor you set once can drift out of compliance on its own.
What forms does a new hire in New York have to complete?
Six items make up the legal minimum. First is Form I-9, which proves employment eligibility: the employee fills in Section 1 by the first day, and Section 2 is yours to finish by the close of the third business day. Second is the federal Form W-4, which sets federal withholding. Third is New York Form IT-2104 for state withholding, which also tells payroll whether New York City or Yonkers resident tax applies. Fourth is the written notice of pay rate under Labor Law section 195.1. LS 54 covers an hourly hire and LS 59 an exempt salaried one, and the notice goes out at hiring with a signed acknowledgment, in the employee’s primary language where the state publishes a translation. Fifth is the sexual harassment prevention policy, which every employer must provide at hire regardless of size. Sixth come the sick leave and coverage notices. A signed handbook acknowledgment is not required by statute, but it is worth adding to the same packet.
Does New York require employers to use E-Verify?
No. New York has no state E-Verify mandate for private employers, so participation is voluntary unless a federal contract or a specific federal rule requires it. That does not reduce the federal obligation. Every employer in the United States must complete Form I-9 for every new hire, examine original documents that establish identity and work authorization, and complete Section 2 by the end of the third business day after the employee starts. You cannot tell the employee which documents to present from the list of acceptable documents, and you cannot reverify a document that does not expire. Keep completed I-9 forms in their own file, separate from personnel records, because they are subject to inspection and the inspector should not be looking at anything else.
How often do I have to pay employees in New York?
It depends on the job, not on your payroll calendar. Under Labor Law section 191, a manual worker must be paid weekly, with payday falling within seven calendar days of the end of the week the wages were earned. Clerical and other workers must be paid on the schedule their terms of employment set, as long as it is at least twice a month on regular paydays designated in advance. You cannot make a less frequent schedule a condition of employment. Final pay follows its own rule: wages are due by the regular payday for the pay period in which the employment ended, and section 195.6 also requires you to tell the terminated employee in writing, within five working days, the exact termination date and the exact date benefits are cancelled.
Can I ask a New York candidate about their salary history?
No. Labor Law section 194-a prohibits every public and private employer in New York State from seeking, requesting or requiring the wage or salary history of an applicant or current employee, whether orally or in writing, as a condition of an interview, of continued consideration for an offer, or of employment or promotion. The same section bars relying on that history to decide whether to hire someone or what to pay them. You also cannot request it from a current or former employer, and you cannot refuse to interview or hire someone because they declined to provide it. An applicant may still volunteer the number without any prompting, for example to negotiate, and you may confirm it only when the candidate cites prior pay to push back on an offer you have already made. New York City and Suffolk County adopted their own salary history bans before the statewide rule, so the practical answer is the same everywhere in the state: take the field off the application form.
Make HR the easy part of running your business
Onboarding, e-signatures, training and core HR in one place. Up and running in 5 minutes.
- 7-day free trial
- No credit card required
- Cancel anytime