Last verified: May 18, 2026. The numbers in this article come directly from the New York State Department of Labor and apply to work performed in the five boroughs of New York City (Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens, and Richmond counties) during calendar year 2026.
If you work in New York City and someone is paying you less than what your industry requires, you have a real, enforceable path to get those wages back. This is the working guide to who must pay you what in 2026, where the carve-outs are, and exactly how to file a complaint if your paycheck does not match the law.
The 2026 NYC Minimum Wage by Industry
Effective January 1, 2026, the general minimum wage in New York City is $17.00 per hour. The same $17.00 rate applies in Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk) and Westchester County. The rest of New York State is at $16.00 per hour. Beginning in 2027, the rate will adjust annually based on a three-year average of the Consumer Price Index for the Northeast region. [NY DOL]
Some industries pay differently. Here is the 2026 NYC breakdown straight from the New York State Department of Labor.
Tipped food service workers (restaurants, diners, takeout counters)
If your job involves serving food or drinks for tips, your employer in NYC can legally pay a cash wage of $11.35 per hour and take a tip credit of $5.65 per hour, so long as your tips plus the cash wage equal at least $17.00 per hour. If your tips don’t get you there, the employer must make up the difference. [NY DOL Tipped Workers]
Tipped service employees (bellhops, valet, nail salon, hotel housekeeping in resort hotels)
Cash wage of at least $14.15 per hour in NYC, with a maximum tip credit of $2.85 per hour. Same total: $17.00.
Fast food workers
If you work for a fast food chain that operates more than 30 locations nationally — McDonald’s, Chipotle, Starbucks, Popeyes, Domino’s, and the rest — you are entitled to the full $17.00 per hour in NYC. Fast food employers cannot take a tip credit against the minimum wage, even if customers tip through an app or at the counter.
Home care aides
Effective January 1, 2026, home care aides who perform work in NYC, Long Island, or Westchester have a minimum wage of $19.65 per hour — a separate, higher floor set by Public Health Law § 3614-f. In the rest of New York State the rate is $18.65 per hour. This applies to workers whose primary responsibility is in-home assistance with activities of daily living. [NY DOL Home Care Aides]
Salaried executive and administrative employees (the overtime-exempt threshold)
To be exempt from overtime as an executive or administrative employee in NYC for 2026, an employer must pay a salary of at least $1,275.00 per week ($66,300 per year). Workers in the rest of New York State must earn at least $1,199.10 per week. If you are paid less than that and your employer is treating you as overtime-exempt, you may be misclassified — and that is one of the most common wage-theft claims in the city.
What “Minimum Wage” Actually Means in Practice
The wage floor applies to where you work, not where the business is headquartered. If you do a shift in Queens for an employer based in Albany, you get the NYC rate of $17.00 per hour for those hours. The rule from NY DOL is plain: “Workers must be paid the minimum wage rate for their work location regardless of where the main office of their employer is located.”
If you split a shift across regions — say, three hours in Westchester and five in upstate Orange County — the employer must either pay the higher rate for the whole shift, or pay each hour at the rate applicable to the region where the work was performed. Either way, every region’s rate that applied during the pay period must appear on your pay stub.
Bonuses, commissions, and piece-rate pay all count toward the minimum, but only if the employer can document that the total comes out to at least $17.00 per hour for every hour you actually worked. They cannot average a good week against a bad one to skate under the minimum.
Overtime in 2026
Most employees in New York must be paid overtime at 1.5 times their regular rate of pay for any hours worked over 40 in a workweek. The regular rate is your gross earnings divided by the hours you worked — so if your employer pays you different rates for different tasks, overtime is calculated against the blended rate, not the lowest one.
For tipped workers, overtime is paid at 1.5 times the full minimum wage, minus the applicable tip credit. In NYC for a tipped food service worker that math is: 1.5 × $17.00 = $25.50, minus the $5.65 tip credit = a cash overtime rate of $19.85 per hour.
Spread of Hours and Call-In Pay
If your workday from the start of your first shift to the end of your last shift spans more than 10 hours — even if you took an unpaid break in the middle — your employer in the hospitality industry owes you one additional hour of pay at the minimum wage. That is the “spread of hours” rule and it is one of the most commonly underpaid items in NYC restaurant work.
Hospitality workers who are sent home early after reporting for a scheduled shift are also entitled to call-in pay covering a minimum number of hours, varying by industry. If your manager texts you not to come in two hours before your shift, that does not erase the obligation.
Tip Credit: When Your Employer Cannot Take It
Even in industries where a tip credit is legal, your employer loses the right to claim it under specific conditions. The NY Department of Labor lists two big ones for hospitality workers:
The 80/20 rule. If you spend more than two hours, or more than 20 percent of your shift, doing non-tipped work — rolling silverware, deep cleaning, restocking, prepping food before service — the employer cannot take any tip credit for that shift. You are owed the full $17.00 per hour in cash for the entire shift.
Low-tip weeks. If, in a given workweek, your tips average less than $3.65 per hour in a restaurant or all-year hotel in NYC (or less than $9.55 per hour in a resort hotel), the employer cannot take a tip credit for that week. They must pay the full minimum wage in cash.
What Your Pay Stub Must Show
Under New York’s Wage Theft Prevention Act, every pay stub must list: your rate of pay, the basis of the rate (hourly, salary, piece, commission), gross wages, deductions itemized, allowances claimed (tip, meal, lodging), and net wages. If you worked in multiple wage regions or at multiple rates, each rate must appear separately. Hospitality employers must give written notice in advance of any change to your hourly rate, and any pay cut must be communicated before you perform work at the lower rate.
An employer who fails to provide a compliant wage statement owes damages of up to $250 per workday, capped at $5,000 per employee, plus attorney’s fees. For the full enforcement picture — including the new lien and seizure powers — see our field guide to how NY State and NYC actually enforce wage theft.
If You Are Being Underpaid: How to File a Complaint
The New York State Department of Labor’s Division of Labor Standards investigates unpaid wages, minimum wage violations, missing overtime, illegal deductions, denied meal periods, and wage supplements like vacation or commission pay that were promised but not paid. The complaint is free, you do not need a lawyer, and the agency can collect on your behalf.
Step 1. Get Form LS 223
Download the Labor Standards Complaint Form (LS 223) at dol.ny.gov/LS223-doc. The form asks for your contact information, your employer’s name and address, the dates you worked, your rate of pay, and a description of what wages are owed. Attach pay stubs, timecards, schedules, text messages, or anything else that supports the claim.
Step 2. Submit the form
Mail the completed LS 223 to: Division of Labor Standards, Harriman State Office Campus, Building 12, Room 185B, Albany, NY 12226. You can also file online through the Unpaid/Withheld Wages portal at dol.ny.gov/labor-standards-complaint-process.
Step 3. Wait for confirmation
You should receive a letter within 25 to 30 business days listing your case number (it will start with “LS”). Save that number — it is how you track the case from then on.
Step 4. The investigation
An investigator contacts your employer, may visit the workplace, and may schedule a Compliance Conference where both sides can resolve the dispute. You will get updates by phone, email, or letter. If a violation is found, the employer must repay the wages owed. If they refuse, the Commissioner of Labor issues an Order to Comply.
Step 5. Collection
As of the 2025-2026 New York State enacted budget, NY DOL has new tools to collect when employers won’t pay: liens on employer property, warrants, seizure of financial assets, and stop-work orders. The agency cannot guarantee collection — some employers vanish or file bankruptcy — but the enforcement teeth are sharper than they were a year ago.
Phone Numbers and Free Help
For questions about how to complete the LS 223 form or any other wage issue, call the New York State Department of Labor at (888) 469-7365. The line handles labor standards, minimum wage, overtime, and wage theft questions.
If you suspect prevailing wage violations on a public works project (construction on a school, bridge, government building), file Form PW4 (worker) or PW5 (third party) at dol.ny.gov/file-complaint instead of the LS 223.
NYC residents can also reach the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) at 311 for help with paid sick leave, the Fair Workweek Law (which covers fast food and retail scheduling), and freelance worker protections under the Freelance Isn’t Free Act.
Deadlines You Should Know
The statute of limitations to recover unpaid wages in New York is six years from the date the wages were earned. That is significantly longer than the federal Fair Labor Standards Act’s two-year (or three-year for willful violations) window. If you worked for a wage thief in 2021 and just found out, you can still file.
The complaint itself has no filing fee. There is no minimum amount owed. A claim of $40 in missing tips is just as eligible as a claim of $40,000 in unpaid overtime. If you were also let go after raising the issue, our walkthrough on how to file and certify for NY State unemployment in 2026 covers the parallel income claim you can run while the wage case is pending.
Where Things Go Wrong
The patterns NY DOL investigators see most often in NYC:
Restaurants paying tipped food service workers $11.35 cash but failing to make up the difference in low-tip weeks. Fast food franchises misclassifying shift leads as managers to avoid the $17.00 floor. Construction subcontractors paying $14 or $15 an hour to workers they call “trainees” — there is no trainee minimum wage in New York. Home health agencies splitting shifts across counties and paying upstate rates for NYC work. Salons taking deductions for product, uniform, or “training” that drop effective pay below $17.00. Hospitality employers ignoring the spread-of-hours premium when shifts span more than 10 clock-hours.
Every one of these is a viable complaint under the LS 223 process. And if a recovered wage settlement is large enough to push you into a higher tax bracket, our 2026 NY State tax refund tracker covers what to expect when next year’s return hits.
Quick Reference Card
NYC general minimum wage 2026: $17.00/hr
NYC tipped food service: $11.35 cash + $5.65 tip credit
NYC tipped service employees: $14.15 cash + $2.85 tip credit
NYC fast food workers (chains 30+ locations): $17.00/hr, no tip credit allowed
NYC home care aides: $19.65/hr
NYC exempt salary threshold: $1,275.00/week ($66,300/yr)
Overtime: 1.5x regular rate after 40 hours/week
Statute of limitations: 6 years
NY DOL complaint line: (888) 469-7365
Complaint form: LS 223
DCWP (NYC paid sick leave / Fair Workweek): 311
Sources verified May 18, 2026: NY State Department of Labor minimum wage page, NY DOL Tipped Workers page, NY DOL Home Care Aides FARE Grant page, NY DOL Minimum Wage FAQ, NY DOL Labor Standards Complaint Process page, NY DOL File a Complaint page.
