If your boss shorted your paycheck or denied you a paid sick day, the first question is not “how do I file?” — plenty of guides cover the form. The first question is how much money are you actually owed? New York law puts specific dollar figures on each kind of violation, and most workers never calculate them. This guide shows you how to add up your own claim — wage by wage, sick day by sick day — before you ever touch a complaint form, so you walk in knowing the number you are fighting for.
Last verified: May 30, 2026.
Start with the floor: the 2026 minimum wage
Every unpaid-wage claim begins with the legal minimum your employer was required to pay. As of January 1, 2026, the New York State Department of Labor sets the minimum wage in New York City — and in Long Island and Westchester — at $17.00 per hour. For the rest of New York State it is $16.00 per hour. Starting in 2027, the rate will rise automatically with inflation, tied to a three-year average of the Consumer Price Index for the Northeast.
Tipped workers have a split rate. In 2026, a tipped food service worker in NYC must be paid a cash wage of $11.35 per hour, with the employer allowed to claim a tip credit of up to $5.65 per hour — but only if your tips actually bring you up to the full $17.00. Tipped service employees get a $14.15 cash wage and a $2.85 tip credit. If your tips plus cash wage do not reach $17.00 in a given pay period, your employer owes you the difference. That gap is the heart of most tipped-worker claims.
How to calculate unpaid or underpaid wages
The math is simple arithmetic, and doing it yourself is the single most useful thing you can do before filing. Take it one piece at a time:
Underpaid hourly wage. Subtract what you were actually paid per hour from $17.00 (the 2026 NYC floor), then multiply by every hour you worked at the lower rate. If you were paid $15.00 for 200 hours, you are owed ($17.00 − $15.00) × 200 = $400.
Unpaid overtime. Most employees must be paid time-and-a-half for hours over 40 in a single week. At the 2026 NYC minimum, that overtime rate is $17.00 × 1.5 = $25.50 per hour. Multiply your unpaid overtime hours by the difference between your overtime rate and whatever you were paid for those hours.
Tip-credit shortfall. For each pay period, add your cash wage and your tips. If the total divided by hours worked is below $17.00, multiply the per-hour shortfall by your hours that period.
Bounced paycheck, withheld tips, illegal deductions, or a rate cut with no notice. These are all claimable as unpaid wages. Add the full withheld amount to your total.
Keep a running tally on paper or a spreadsheet. The Department of Labor will want copies of pay stubs, time records, scheduling-app screenshots, and any text where your boss assigned hours — gather them as you calculate. (Send copies, never originals.)
What a denied paid sick day is worth
Under New York City’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act — now folded into the city’s Protected Time Off Law — most employees earn paid leave at a rate of 1 hour for every 30 hours worked. Employers with 100 or more employees must allow up to 56 hours of paid leave a year; employers with 5 to 99 employees must allow up to 40 hours. Businesses with four or fewer employees must provide up to 40 hours, paid or unpaid depending on the owner’s net income.
As of February 22, 2026, every covered worker also gets 32 hours of unpaid protected time off, immediately available from day one and refreshed at the start of each calendar year. Separately, all employers — regardless of size — must provide 20 hours of paid prenatal leave per 52-week period for an employee receiving care during pregnancy. Prenatal leave does not accrue; the full 20 hours is available immediately.
When you use paid leave, your employer must pay you your regular rate — at least the $17.00 minimum in NYC. A tipped worker is paid the full $17.00 for leave hours, and the employer cannot take its usual tip credit. So a denied three-hour dentist appointment for a tipped worker is worth at least $17.00 × 3 = $51.00 in straight pay. That number matters, because the penalty for denying it is a multiple of it.
The penalty multipliers — what the violation is really worth
Here is where the dollar figures climb, and where most workers underestimate their claim. When DCWP or a judge finds a paid-leave violation, the law lets them order the employer to pay:
Three times the wages that should have been paid for each time you took protected time off or paid prenatal leave but were not paid — or $250, whichever is greater. So that $51.00 denied dentist appointment is not a $51 claim. It is 3 × $51.00 = $153 — and since $250 is greater than $153, the $250 floor applies. Each separate denied instance is calculated on its own.
$500 or $2,500 in damages, plus full back pay, benefits, interest, and reinstatement, for each time the employer retaliated against you — for example, by firing or disciplining you for requesting leave or filing a complaint. Retaliation is illegal even if you only mistakenly but in good faith asserted your rights.
On the wage side, wage theft is treated as larceny under New York State Penal Law Section 155, and serious cases can be referred to a district attorney for criminal prosecution. As of the state’s Fiscal Year 2025–2026 budget, the Department of Labor can place liens on an employer’s property, issue warrants, seize financial assets, and issue stop-work orders to collect on wage-theft judgments — which is why filing is worth more in 2026 than it used to be.
Eligibility checklist before you file
The state will not accept every claim. Before you file an LS223 wage claim, confirm:
- You worked inside New York State.
- The wages were earned within the last three years.
- You were a genuine employee, not a true independent contractor or self-employed.
- You have not already sued for the same wages in small claims or civil court.
- The wages are not subject to a union grievance and arbitration procedure.
- You were not an executive, administrative, or professional employee earning over $1,300 per week (threshold effective March 13, 2024).
- For a withheld wage supplement (like promised vacation or bonus pay), at least 30 days have passed since it became due.
For a paid-leave complaint with DCWP, the key eligibility points are simpler: you performed work in NYC, and you are within the filing deadline below. Immigration status does not affect your right to file — DCWP does not collect it and keeps complainants’ identities confidential.
Deadlines you actually need to remember
The two systems have different clocks, and missing them forfeits the money:
- NY State wage theft (LS223): file within three years of the date you earned the unpaid wages.
- NYC paid sick / safe leave (DCWP): file within two years of the date you knew or should have known of the violation.
- Employer records: once DCWP opens an investigation, the employer has just 14 days to produce payroll and timekeeping records — failure can create a legal inference in your favor.
Where to file — the exact forms and numbers
For unpaid wages, overtime, tips, or minimum-wage shortfalls (NY State): Complete the Labor Standards Complaint Form (LS223), available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Bengali, Haitian Creole, Korean, Polish and more at dol.ny.gov/file-labor-standards-wage-theft-claim. Upload it through the state’s portal, or mail it to: NYS DOL, Division of Labor Standards, Harriman State Office Campus, Building 12, Room 185B, Albany, NY 12226. Questions: call (888) 525-2267.
For denied paid sick leave, safe leave, or prenatal leave (NYC): File a complaint with the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection online at nyc.gov/workers, or by phone by calling 311 (212-NEW-YORK outside NYC) and asking for a DCWP representative. Free interpretation services are available. You can also file directly in court — you are not required to go through DCWP first.
Where to get free help
You do not have to do the math or the paperwork alone. The NY State Department of Labor’s Division of Labor Standards staff will walk you through a wage claim at (888) 525-2267. For sick-leave questions, NYC’s DCWP answers questions and processes complaints at 311 regardless of immigration status. The DCWP also has a free online “ask a question” tool on its Protected Time Off page. Worker advocacy nonprofits and legal-aid clinics across the five boroughs can review your tally before you file — and because both agencies keep complainant identities confidential, asking questions costs you nothing.
Related guides on HelpNewYork
This calculation guide pairs with our step-by-step filing walkthroughs. For the full forms-and-enforcement how-to, see New York Wage Theft and NYC Paid Sick Leave in 2026: The Forms, Phone Numbers, and New Enforcement Powers. To audit your paycheck line by line, read the NYC Minimum Wage 2026 Pay Stub Audit. And for the exact rates by industry, see NYC Minimum Wage 2026 by Industry.
Bottom line
A wage-theft or sick-leave claim is not an abstract grievance — it is a specific number you can calculate today. Start with the $17.00 floor, add up every underpaid hour, every withheld tip, every denied paid day, then apply the multipliers: three times the wages (or $250) for denied leave, $500 or $2,500 for retaliation. Workers who know their number before they file are harder to brush off — and in 2026, with the state able to seize assets and place liens to collect, that number is more collectible than ever.
Sources: NYS Department of Labor (dol.ny.gov), NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (nyc.gov/dca). Last verified: May 30, 2026.
