New York Minimum Wage 2027

Downstate $17.00, upstate $16.00

Section 652 of the Labor Law writes separate rates into the statute for three areas: New York City, the “remainder of downstate” (Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties), and the remainder of the state. Since December 31, 2021 the first two have had the same rate, so in practice there are two. Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Ithaca and every other place outside the five boroughs, Long Island and Westchester use the $16.00 rate.

The regions started far apart. On December 31, 2018 large New York City employers had to pay $15.00 while the rest of the state was at $11.10. Long Island and Westchester rose a dollar a year and caught up with the city at the end of 2021. The rest of the state reached $15.00 only in 2024 and has stayed one dollar behind since.

New York City employers with 10 or fewer employees: $13.50, until December 30, 2019.

Why there is no raise on January 1, 2027

The same section that set $17.00 and $16.00 for 2026 promised something new for 2027: a yearly raise tied to prices, using the average of the three most recent August-to-July changes in the CPI-W for the Northeast. It also built in three “off-ramps”. There is no raise for the coming year if that price index fell, if the state's unemployment rate (three-month average) rose half a point or more above its low of the past twelve months, or if New York had fewer jobs in July than in both April and January. The pause can last at most two years in a row.

The Department of Labor has to publish the new rates by October 1. For 2027 it found that one of the conditions was met, so both regional rates, and the cash wages for tipped hospitality workers, stay where they were in 2026.

The March 1, 2027 proposal is not law yet

In October 2026 Governor Hochul proposed Program Bill #44. It would narrow the jobs off-ramp and have the Labor Commissioner set adjusted rates from March 1, 2027: $17.60 in New York City, Long Island and Westchester and $16.55 in the rest of the state, with home care aides at $20.30 and $19.30. Only the Legislature can pass it. Until it does, employers owe the rates above, and the calculator does not use the proposed amounts.

Servers and hotel staff: tip credits only in hospitality

Only hospitality employers may count tips toward the minimum wage in New York. A nail salon or a car wash has to pay the full rate before any tips. In restaurants and hotels the cash wage depends on the kind of job:

A server in Queens therefore gets at least $11.35 from the restaurant, and tips must cover the other $5.65 of each hour. When they do not, the employer pays the difference. Fast food workers get the full $17.00 or $16.00, with no tip credit.

Home care aides still get a raise

Home care aides have their own minimum under Public Health Law section 3614-f. It follows prices without an off-ramp, but it can never be more than the regional minimum wage plus $3. On January 1, 2027 it rises from $19.65 to $20.00 an hour in New York City, Long Island and Westchester and from $18.65 to $19.00 in the rest of the state, which is exactly that cap.

Exempt salary and the extra hour for long days

A salaried executive or administrative employee in New York is exempt from overtime only above the state's weekly salary floor: $1,275.00 ($66,300 a year) in New York City, Long Island and Westchester and $1,199.10 ($62,353 a year) elsewhere. That is far above the federal $684.00. The amounts rise in proportion every time the minimum wage rises; with the rates frozen, the 2026 figures carry into 2027. Professionals have no separate New York salary test.

The “spread of hours” rule pays one extra hour at the minimum wage for any day on which the time from starting work to finishing it, breaks included, is more than 10 hours, or on which there is a split shift. In New York City that extra hour is worth $17.00.

Farm workers, students and teenagers

Farm workers earn the same hourly minimum as everyone else in their region. Their overtime starts later: after 52 hours a week in 2026 and 2027, falling to 48 hours in 2028, 44 in 2030 and 40 in 2032.

New York has no lower rate for teenagers or trainees. A few students are outside the minimum wage altogether, among them students working for a nonprofit that runs strictly for charitable, educational or religious purposes, and students doing supervised work experience their school requires.

A full-time year in each region

At 40 hours a week, $17.00 is $35,360 a year and $16.00 is $33,280. After federal and New York State income tax, Social Security, Medicare and the deductions for Paid Family Leave and disability insurance, a single filer keeps about $29,095 downstate and $27,545 upstate. New York City residents also owe city income tax of 3.078% to 3.876%, which is not taken out here; the New York paycheck calculator includes it.

Filing a wage complaint

The New York State Department of Labor, Division of Labor Standards collects unpaid minimum wage, overtime and spread-of-hours pay on the worker's behalf. The department takes claims for wages earned in the last three years; a lawsuit can reach back six years (Labor Law §§ 198 and 663).

How this is calculated

Choose where you work, then a date. Today and January 1, 2027 give the same result, because both regional rates are frozen. The calculator multiplies the rate by your weekly hours, counts 52 weeks in the year, and shows a month as one twelfth of the year.

Taxes are 2026 rules for a single filer with no children: federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, New York State income tax and the employee deductions for Paid Family Leave and disability insurance. New York City and Yonkers taxes are not included.