Your rights at work in New York

• The minimum wage in New York City, Long Island and Westchester is $17.00 an hour (2026). The New York State Department of Labor says it stays at $17.00 on 1 January 2027.
• In the hospitality industry, employers may pay tipped food service workers a lower cash wage of $11.35 an hour in New York City with a tip credit of $5.65, as long as tips make up the difference.
• Overtime: non-exempt employees must be paid at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. Some salaried managers and professionals are exempt; check your job's classification.

In New York, an employer or its agent may not demand, accept or keep any part of a tip left for an employee. A charge added to a bill beyond food, drink and other listed services is presumed to be a tip and must go to the employees who provided the service.

Under New York City's Protected Time Off law (formerly the Paid Safe and Sick Leave law), you earn 1 hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked, up to:

• 40 paid hours a year at employers with 5 to 99 employees (and at small employers with 4 or fewer employees and a net income of $1 million or more);
• 56 paid hours a year at employers with 100 or more employees.

In addition, since 22 February 2026 every employer must give you 32 hours of unpaid protected time off, available immediately when you start and again each calendar year. You can use it for the health and safety reasons the law lists, such as your own or a family member's illness. Your pay statement must show your balances.

Since 1 January 2025, private-sector employees in New York State, full-time or part-time, get 20 hours of paid prenatal leave a year for pregnancy-related medical appointments, from the first day of work. It is separate from other leave, is paid at your regular rate (or at least the full minimum wage), and only the pregnant employee can use it.

New York Paid Family Leave gives eligible employees up to 12 weeks of job-protected paid leave in any 52-week period to bond with a newly born, adopted or fostered child, care for a family member with a serious health condition, or help when a spouse, domestic partner, child or parent is deployed abroad on active military service. In 2026 it pays 67% of your average weekly wage, up to $1,228.53 a week. Employees fund it through a payroll contribution of 0.432% of gross wages, up to $411.91 a year (2026).

Employers with four or more employees must include a good-faith pay range in job advertisements, promotions and transfers. When you leave a job, your final wages are due no later than your next regular payday.

It is illegal to fire or discriminate against you because of characteristics such as race, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, marital status, military status or disability, or because you complained about a labor-law violation, joined a union, took sick leave or family leave, filed a workers' compensation claim or served on a jury. Federal law also protects workers aged 40 and over from age discrimination, and prohibits discrimination based on citizenship status or national origin in hiring and in the Form I-9 process.

In New York City, the Commission on Human Rights enforces the City Human Rights Law, which protects everyone in the city, including visitors and non-citizens. Fast-food workers in New York City cannot be fired, or have their hours cut by more than 15%, without just cause or a legitimate business reason.

• NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP): minimum standards set by the City, including Protected Time Off. Complain online at nyc.gov/workers or call 311 and say "Protected Time Off"; interpretation is free and DCWP does not ask about immigration status. Complaints must be filed within two years.
• New York State Department of Labor: minimum wage, overtime, tips and Paid Family Leave.
• NYC Commission on Human Rights: discrimination and harassment, (212) 416-0197.
• NY Attorney General: workers' rights and wage theft.
• U.S. Department of Justice, Immigrant and Employee Rights Section: citizenship and national origin discrimination and I-9 document abuse, worker hotline 1-800-255-7688.