New York Minimum Wage: Rates by Region and Industry

The first New York payroll question I got badly wrong involved a company with an office in White Plains and a small warehouse in Newburgh. Same employer, same job title, two legal minimums about forty miles apart. The founder had raised everyone to one number and assumed she was being generous.

She was, in one building. In the other she was paying above the floor by more than she needed to, and her budget for the next two hires was built on a figure that did not apply there. Nobody was underpaid that time. The reverse mistake, run in the other direction, is the one that produces a wage claim.

New York does not have a minimum wage. It has two, split by county line, plus a separate cash wage for tipped hospitality staff and a higher floor for home care aides. This page covers only what an hour of work has to be paid for. Overtime, leave, termination, and the rest of the picture sit in the New York HR compliance guide.

The Current New York Rates

New York’s minimum wage is $17.00 per hour downstate and $16.00 per hour in the rest of the state, both effective January 1, 2026. The downstate region is New York City plus Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties. Every other county is on the $16.00 figure that the New York State Department of Labor calls the remainder of New York State.

There is no employer size tier anymore. New York City ran a large employer and small employer split through 2019, and it is gone: one rate now applies to every employer in the city regardless of headcount. There is also no small business exception, no seasonal rate, and no separate figure for part time staff.

What decides which rate you owe is where the work is physically performed. A delivery driver, a mobile technician, a home health visit, and a job site crew can all move between regions inside a single week. Payroll registration and office address do not matter here; the county the hours happen in does.

The ladder above comes from the Department of Labor history of the minimum wage in New York State and from the schedule written into Labor Law section 652. Two details are worth noticing. Downstate stood still through 2022 and 2023 after hitting $15.00, and the recent steps have been a flat fifty cents a year rather than a percentage.

The counties in the lower Hudson Valley catch people out. Rockland, Putnam, Orange, and Dutchess are all on the $16.00 rate despite sitting inside the New York metro commute. The statute draws the line at Westchester, not at the edge of the commuter belt.

When the Rate Changes Next

The next increase takes effect January 1, 2027, and the amount has not been published yet. That one matters more than the increases before it, because it is the first that comes from a formula rather than from a number written into the statute. The fixed schedule in Labor Law section 652 ends with the January 1, 2026 step.

From there the rate is indexed. The statute ties the annual adjustment to the non seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index for Northeast Region urban wage earners and clerical workers, measured as the average of the three most recent consecutive twelve month periods. The Commissioner of Labor must publish the adjusted rates no later than the first of October each year, to take effect the following January 1.

The statute also builds in an off ramp. An increase can be suspended if the index reading is negative, if the state unemployment rate rises by half a percentage point or more, or if New York non farm employment declines over the measured months. A suspension cannot run more than two consecutive years.

Practically, that gives a small business a three month planning window every autumn. The figure is public by October 1 and applies to the first pay period covering January 1. Budget in the fall from the published number, not before it.

Tipped Workers and the Tip Credit

New York allows a tip credit, but only in the hospitality industry. A restaurant or hotel may satisfy the minimum wage by combining a cash wage with a credit for tips the employee actually receives. The Department of Labor tipped worker rates set both halves of that arithmetic, and they run from January 1 through December 31 each year.

Two categories carry different numbers. A food service worker is a front of house employee who regularly receives tips, such as a server or a bartender. A service employee is a tipped worker who is not a food service worker, such as a hotel bellhop or a coat check attendant.

The credit is conditional, and this is where employers lose money after the fact. A hospitality employer may not take any tip credit on a day when a tipped worker spends more than two hours, or more than twenty percent of a shift, on non tipped duties. Prep shifts, deep cleans, and stock deliveries all count against that limit.

The credit also fails in any week when tips average less per hour than a set threshold. For 2026 that threshold is $9.55 in resort hotels downstate and $9.00 upstate, and $3.65 in restaurants and all year hotels downstate and $3.40 upstate. A slow week can therefore convert a tipped employee into a full minimum wage employee retroactively, which is why the tip records have to be kept weekly rather than reconciled at year end.

Outside hospitality the answer is simple: no tip credit at all. The building service industry has never been allowed one, and as of December 31, 2020, tip allowances are not permitted in miscellaneous industries either, which covers everything except hospitality, farm work, and building service. Our guide to minimum wage for tipped employees walks through how the federal version of the credit compares.

One more piece of arithmetic that trips up new operators. Overtime for a tipped worker is paid at time and one half of the full minimum wage rate, less the applicable tip credit. It is not one and one half times the reduced cash wage.

City and County Rates in New York

No city or county in New York sets its own minimum wage. There is no New York City ordinance, no Buffalo ordinance, and no county law that raises the floor above the state figure. The geography is built into the state statute instead, which is exactly why New York publishes two rates rather than one.

That makes New York simpler to run than a state with a patchwork of municipal ordinances. It also makes the county line the single thing you have to get right. Below is how the state divides.

There is one genuine location specific exception, and it is not municipal. Under the Healthy Terminals Act, covered airport workers at John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport, and at sites that prepare or deliver food for flights leaving either airport, are entitled to a higher floor than the general state minimum.

Industry Rates and Carve Outs

New York runs its wage rules through industry wage orders, so the general rate is the default and a handful of sectors sit outside it. Only one of those sectors has a higher hourly minimum today: home care.

Fast food no longer has a separate number. The Department of Labor fast food FAQ states that as of January 1, 2025, fast food worker rates are the same as the rates for other non tipped employees covered by the Hospitality Industry Wage Order. Coverage still matters for other rules, and it reaches further than owners expect: an establishment counts if it primarily serves food or drink, offers limited service where customers order and pay before eating, and belongs to a chain of thirty or more locations nationally, franchises included.

Home care is the real carve out. Home care aides have a minimum wage of $19.65 per hour for work performed in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County, and $18.65 in the remainder of the state, effective January 1, 2026. That is $2.65 above the general rate in both regions.

Nail salons deserve a specific mention because the industry used to run on tip allowances. Since December 31, 2020, a nail salon employer must pay the full applicable minimum wage and cannot take any tip credit, per the Department of Labor nail salon industry page. Tips are on top of the hourly rate, and the employer may not keep or retain any part of them.

Agriculture is fully covered at the general rate under the Farm Workers wage order, CR 190, which permits meal and lodging allowances against the minimum wage but contains no tip allowance at all. Building service sits under CR 141, miscellaneous industries under CR 142, and non profit institutions under either CR 142-3 or CR 143 depending on whether the organization elected out of a wage order. If you are comparing New York against states that do run a sector minimum, our overview of the fast food minimum wage covers how those laws are structured elsewhere.

Youth, Student, and Training Wages

There is no youth wage and no training wage in New York. The Department of Labor answers it in a single line in its minimum wage FAQ: there is no lower wage rate established for trainees or youth. A sixteen year old on a first shift is owed the same hourly floor as a twenty year veteran, from hour one.

That is a meaningful difference from states that permit a ninety day training rate or a percentage rate for minors. In New York, a probationary period can shape review timing and benefits eligibility, but it cannot shape the hourly rate.

The exemptions that do exist sit outside the wage scale rather than below it, and they are narrow.

The camp counselor exemption is the one most likely to apply to a small business, and it is narrower than it sounds. It covers staff whose duties primarily relate to guidance, instruction, supervision, and care of campers, at an establishment open no more than seventeen consecutive weeks a year. A year round after school program is not a children’s camp.

Hiring a minor in New York brings obligations well beyond the hourly rate: working papers, restricted hours during the school year, and prohibited occupations. The state compliance guide covers that paperwork.

Posting and Notice Requirements

New York requires a minimum wage poster, and which one you post depends on your wage order rather than on your address. The Department of Labor publishes a separate poster per industry, each carrying the current rates and allowances, and each replaced when the rates change.

Hospitality employers post a second document alongside the poster: the Summary of Wage Order Rates and Credits for the Hospitality Industry. Farm employers post the wage order summary and a copy of the general work agreement in a visible location.

New York adds a step most states do not have. Under Labor Law section 201, digital versions of the required copies and abstracts must also be made available through the employer’s website or by email, and all other documents required to be physically posted under state or federal law must be made electronically available the same way. Employees have to be told the posted materials are accessible electronically. For a team with remote or field staff, that rule is the one that actually gets enforced.

Separately, the Wage Theft Prevention Act requires a written pay rate notice at hire, in English and in the employee’s primary language. Labor Law section 195 then requires written notice of any change to that information at least seven calendar days before the change, unless the change is reflected on the wage statement. A January rate increase shown on the pay stub satisfies that; a mid year change made quietly does not.

New York and the Federal Floor

The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 per hour since 2009. New York’s lowest rate is more than double it, so the federal figure never governs a New York paycheck. Where a state rate is higher than the federal one, the employee gets the higher rate, the principle the US Department of Labor applies across its consolidated state minimum wage tables.

Federal law still runs everything the state law does not displace: overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act, recordkeeping, and the classification tests that decide who is entitled to a minimum wage at all. Our federal minimum wage guide covers those rules, and the state increase tracker shows where New York sits against the rest of the country.

There is one New York specific link between the two systems. The state salary thresholds for the executive and administrative overtime exemptions are set by wage order and sit well above the federal threshold, and they are revised on the same January calendar as the minimum wage. A salaried manager can be exempt under federal law and non exempt under New York law, which is a payroll problem rather than a paperwork one.

What to Do When a Rate Rises

A minimum wage increase in New York is a payroll project with five moving parts, not a single field update. The rates move on January 1, and from the 2027 adjustment onward the size of the move is published in the autumn rather than known years in advance. Work the same sequence every time.

The step small teams skip is the second one. If your labor budget starts from a fully loaded hourly figure rather than the base rate, the increase becomes much easier to model, and our breakdown of how to calculate labor cost shows that arithmetic.

Getting the rate right is the easy half. Keeping the paperwork that proves it, offer letters, pay rate notices, acknowledgments, and posted notices in two formats, is where a team without an HR person loses the afternoon. FirstHR keeps that documentation attached to the employee record, so an updated rate flows into the onboarding materials instead of sitting in a folder nobody opens until an audit.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the minimum wage in New York right now?

It is $17.00 per hour in New York City and in Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties, and $16.00 per hour in the remainder of the state, both effective January 1, 2026. There is no small business exception and no employer size tier. What decides your rate is the county where the work is physically performed.

Which New York counties pay the higher rate?

The five boroughs of New York City plus Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester. Every other county is on the $16.00 rate, including Rockland, Putnam, Orange, and Dutchess, which catches out employers in the lower Hudson Valley. The line is drawn by county, not by commuting distance or metro area.

Can I count tips toward the minimum wage in New York?

Only in hospitality. A food service worker downstate gets at least $11.35 in cash with a maximum $5.65 tip credit, and upstate $10.70 with a $5.30 credit. Service employees get $14.15 downstate and $13.30 upstate. No tip credit is allowed in building service, in nail salons, or in any other miscellaneous industry.

Does any New York city or county set its own minimum wage?

No. The geography is written into the state law itself, which is why there are two statewide rates. The closest thing to a local rate is at the airports: covered airport workers at JFK and LaGuardia must be paid the higher of the Commissioner designated rate or the Port Authority minimum wage of $21.25 per hour for 2026.

Is there a separate fast food or home care minimum wage in New York?

Fast food rates matched the general hospitality rates as of January 1, 2025, so covered chains pay $17.00 downstate and $16.00 upstate. Home care aides do have a higher minimum: $19.65 downstate and $18.65 upstate, effective January 1, 2026. Nail salon workers get the full minimum with no tip credit.

Is there a lower training or youth wage in New York?

No. The Department of Labor states plainly that there is no lower wage rate established for trainees or youth. The narrow exemptions that exist are for staff counselors at children’s camps, students at non profit charitable or educational institutions, and students obtaining supervised vocational experience for school credit.

When does New York’s minimum wage go up again?

On January 1, 2027, and the amount had not been published as of the last review of this page. That is the first indexed increase: Labor Law section 652 ties it to the Northeast Region consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers, with publication due no later than October 1 for the following January 1.