New York Labor Laws

In the US, the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) sets standards for hourly wage rates and overtime pay, requiring employers to maintain accurate records of their employees’ working hours. These laws serve as directives for employers, helping to prevent employee abuse and exploitation across various sectors, including non-profit, public, and private organizations. 

New York’s employee management regulations differ significantly from federal law. Federal statutes typically apply to employers with 15 or more employees, while state policies extend protections to employers with four or more employees. Employment agencies and labor unions are also required to comply with these laws.

For starters, minimum wage policies in New York vary across the different cities of the state. An employee must be paid the minimum wage rate of the location they work in, and not the location of the company they work for. These are as follows:

Overtime pay is set at 1.5 times an employee’s regular hourly wage. However, there are exceptions to the rule for certain occupations. New York’s break laws are extensive as well, with different categories of employees afforded varying durations of meal and rest breaks.

New York State’s minimum wage is set to increase by $0.50 in 2025 and 2026. From 2027, the minimum wage will increase every three years according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). 

Hiring laws in New York prohibit discrimination against employees based on race, national origin, ethnicity, sex, religion, disabilities, sexual orientation, marital status, military status, genetic predisposition, prior arrests, past convictions, and age. Employees can not be denied a job promotion, terminated, or treated differently because of their protected characteristics.

New York is not a right-to-work state. This means working employees in the state may be required to join a union and pay membership dues if the union negotiates their compensation and working conditions.

Additionally, there are no limits on the number of hours an adult employee may be required to work in a day. Certain occupations, however, must be given 24 hours of rest in a seven-day work week.

Private-sector employers in New York can terminate an employee for any reason, including reasons that might seem unfair. Public-sector employees and workers covered by collective bargaining agreements often have more legal protection against unfair termination. These employees can challenge wrongful termination if their contracts require a ‘good cause’ for termination.

Furthermore, any employee in the state cannot be fired for prohibited reasons like discrimination, whistleblowing, participation in lawful political or recreational activities in their own time, serving jury duty, or taking sick leave.

After an employee is terminated or resigns in New York, final wages must be paid by the next scheduled payday. Employees can file a claim with the New York State Department of Labor if an employer fails to pay on time.

Successful claims can result in recovery of wages, damages, and legal fees, with penalties for the employer if they are found non-compliant. Learn more about Termination Laws in New York.

The following laws also influence employment in New York:

• Extra Wage Law: New York’s ten-hour rule requires employers to pay their employees an extra hour of minimum wage if their work hours, including breaks and off-duty time, exceed ten in a single day. These hours can be spread over the day or scheduled as split shifts.
• Health Insurance Laws:  Employees, who work for employers with 20 or more workers, can avail group health insurance for 18 to 36 months under COBRA. This insurance is granted to employees who would otherwise lose coverage due to specific events including job loss, reduced work hours, changing jobs, divorce, death, or other qualifying life events. New York’s mini-COBRA entitles employees to continued coverage, extending an employee’s total coverage up to 36 months. Young adults aged 29 can share a parent’s health insurance plan through Young Adult or Make Available insurance policies. 
• Workplace Safety Laws: Generally, OSHA outlines workplace safety and health regulations in New York, requiring employers to ensure their workplace is free from hazards that can cause serious injury or death. Under OSHA, workers can request safety inspections and are protected from retaliation for reporting law violations. State and local government workers are also covered by New York’s Public Safety and Health Act, which adopts all protective regulations set by OSHA and sets additional policies for the reporting and recordkeeping of employee injuries and job-related ailments. The Act also gives the state commissioner the authority to develop new state-specific safety standards for employee well-being.  
• Background Check Laws: Employees in New York are protected by the state’s Fair Chance Act, which prohibits employers from making inquiries into an employee’s criminal history before extending a job offer. Individuals with a conviction history can not be denied employment unless their criminal offenses are directly related to the job or if their employment poses a risk to property and the general safety of the public. However, background checks can be conducted once a job offer has been made after which, if an applicant is deemed unfit for their job position due to their criminal history, they can be denied employment. To do so, employers must provide a clear explanation for rejecting the applicant’s employment, provide a certified copy of the conducted background check, and give the applicant five days to respond.  
• Drug/Alcohol Testing Laws: Employers in New York are not allowed to test job applicants for marijuana or tetrahydrocannabinol (a component of cannabis, commonly known as THC) for employment. However, drug tests may be allowed for certain job applicants for safety or security reasons in the transportation, health, or construction industries. Employers can restrict employees from bringing drugs to the workplace to ensure a drug-free work environment. Still, New York’s Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) prohibits them from discriminating against employees who use legal marijuana outside of workplaces, work hours, or without any relation to an employer’s property or equipment. 
• Ban-the-Box Laws: New York’s Clean Slate Act seals an individual’s criminal history for a fair chance at employment, given they maintain a clean record without probation or parole.  Misdemeanor records are sealed after three years and felony records are sealed after eight years of conviction or release from jail. However, these sealed records can still be accessed under certain conditions. 
• Whistleblower Protection Laws: Public and private employees in New York are protected from employer retaliation for reporting law violations that pose a threat to employee health and safety. Employers can not threaten, discipline, or terminate employees for whistleblowing. Affected employees can sue for reinstatement, back charges, benefits, attorney, and court fees. 
• Termination Laws: The New York State WARN Act requires private sector employers with 50 or more workers to notify affected parties at least 90 days before plant closures and layoffs. Prompt notice must be given to employees 30 days before the closure of a plant that results in 25 or more employees losing their jobs. Mass layoffs that affect 33% of the workforce of an employment location require an advance notice of 90 days. Employers are also required to send WARN notices to employee representatives, the state Department of Labor, and local investment partners. 
• Uniform Maintenance Laws: While employers may dictate the style and maintenance of uniforms, they are responsible for covering uniform care costs for employees earning minimum wage to ensure wages don’t fall below the legal threshold. This support can either come through direct payment for care or by the employer handling the uniform maintenance themselves. If an employer decides to skip employee uniform maintenance, they must pay employees additional wages to clean their own uniforms. This amount is set according to the employee’s weekly work hours:

Minimum wage rates for regular employees and fast food workers in New York are as follows:

• New York City, Long Island, and Westchester: $16.00 per hour
• The remainder of the state: $15.00 per hour

Workers are entitled to the minimum wage rate applicable to their work site, regardless of the location of their employer’s main office. 

Suppose an employee works in two minimum wage regions, such as Westchester and New York City. In this case, an employer can either pay the highest minimum wage rate for all hours worked or pay each hour according to the applicable minimum wage rate for each region.

Employers in New York are allowed to take tip credit from a tipped employee’s minimum wage. Minimum wages for tipped employees are as follows: 

Minimum Wage for Tipped Employees in Hospitality:

Employers in the hospitality industry can not deduct tip credit from an employee’s wages if the employee spends more than 20% of their work hours doing non-tipped activities or if the employee’s weekly tips fall below the following rates:

Most employees in New York are entitled to minimum wage, but there are certain exceptions to the rule including:

• Executives and administrators 
• Professionals
• Outside salespersons
• Taxicab drivers
• Government employees (except some non-teaching staff)
• Part-time babysitters
• Ministers and religious order members
• Volunteers, learners, apprentices, and students at non-profit institutions
• Students in vocational training
• Independent contractors

Following New York Labor Law Section 191, employee payment schedules differ based on occupation. These regulations, however, only apply to private-sector employers. Federal, state, and local government employers are not mandated to follow these schedules. 

Employers must also provide all new hires with a written pay notice at the time of employment that includes details of their pay rate, payment frequency, paydays, the employer’s official business name, and employer contact information.

Non-exempt employees in New York are entitled to receive overtime pay at 1.5 times their regular hourly wage for all hours worked beyond 40 in a standard workweek. Employment contracts may specify higher overtime payments than those mandated by law.

Overtime for tipped employees must be paid at 1.5 times their regular hourly wage. However, employers can deduct tip credit from this overtime rate.

Farm workers are entitled to overtime for hours over 56 in a week, and residential employees i.e. employees who live in their employer’s residence must be paid overtime for hours over 44 in a week.

State law does not require employers to pay overtime to employees for working on a holiday, weekend, or through the night. Additional pay in these scenarios can be negotiated with collective bargaining agreements. 

The following is a list of some of the most notable exceptions and exemptions to the overtime rate in New York State:

• Executive, administrative, learned, and creative professionals who earn at least $1200 per week (applicable in NYC, Suffolk, Nassau, and Westchester counties; the salary exemption threshold for all other New York employees is $1,124.20 weekly)
• Outside sales professionals
• Farm laborers 
• Volunteers, interns, and apprentices
• Taxicab drivers 
• Employees of religious and charitable organizations
• Camp counselors 
• Part-time babysitters
• Employees of student organizations (such as fraternities, sororities, and faculty associations)

Break laws in New York entitle both private and public employees to an unpaid meal break lasting 30 minutes for every six hours of consecutive work. However, there are certain rules that employers must follow when scheduling breaks in an employee’s work day:

• Employees who work more than six hours starting before 11 a.m. and continuing until 2 p.m. must have an uninterrupted lunch period of at least half an hour between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. 
• Employees with shifts lasting from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. or later in the evening may have an additional meal break of 20 minutes between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. 

Shorter meal breaks may be allowed at the discretion of the state commissioner. 

Following the federal PUMP Act (2023), all breastfeeding employees are entitled to reasonably timed breaks to express milk at work for up to a year after a child’s birth. 

New York’s labor laws provide increased rights for breastfeeding individuals in the workplace. Employers are required to provide a 30-minute paid break to an employee for expressing breast milk. Breaks should be provided as often as the employee requires. Furthermore, employees can use their existing meal or rest break time to extend their breastfeeding break. 

Employees must also be provided a private, non-bathroom location at their workplace for this purpose. State law requires these breaks to be provided for three years after a child’s birth.

 New York labor laws require employers to provide the following types of leave benefits to employees:

• Sick Leave: As of September 30, 2020, eligible employees under New York’s Paid Sick Leave Program accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Large employers, with 100 or more employees, must provide up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per calendar year, while smaller employers, with five to 99 employees, must offer 40 hours of paid sick leave per calendar year. Employers with four or fewer employees can provide 40 hours of unpaid sick leave if their net income is $1 million or less; if their net income exceeds $1 million, they must give 40 hours of paid sick leave.
• Family and Medical Leave: New York’s Paid Family Leave Policy allows eligible employees to take paid, job-protected time off to bond with a new child, care for a seriously ill family member, or assist loved ones during military deployment. Paid Family Leave guarantees job protection, continued health insurance, and protection from discrimination or retaliation. Starting January 1, 2025, pregnant workers will also be entitled to additional paid time off for prenatal care under New York’s paid sick leave program.
• Jury Service Leave: Under New York’s labor laws, employees can take leave for jury duty without the threat of disciplinary action or retaliation from their employer due to their absence from work, provided they notify their employer upon receiving a jury summons. Employers with over ten employees must pay the first $40 of an employee’s daily wages for the first three days of jury service. Employers may withhold wages beyond this amount; this is not considered a penalty.
• Voting Leave: As of April 3, 2020, employees are eligible for up to two hours of paid time off to vote in New York if they do not have “sufficient time to vote,” meaning they do not have four consecutive hours available outside of their working hours. Employers cannot require employees to use personal leave to vote. Employees must notify their employer at least two to ten days before deciding to take this leave. If an employee is denied voting leave, they can seek remedies through the New York State Department of Labor or the Attorney General’s office.
• Emergency Responder’s Leave: During a declared emergency or large-scale disaster, employees who are volunteer firefighters or members of a volunteer ambulance service are entitled to unpaid leave for performing their emergency duties unless their absence causes undue hardship to their employer. Employers must be given prior written notice of the employee’s volunteer status and the duties related to the emergency. Volunteer employees can choose to take unpaid leave or utilize any accrued leave the employee is entitled to. State employees are not entitled to this benefit.
• Donation Leave: New York Labor Law § 202-B grants state employees paid leave for up to seven days for bone marrow donation and up to thirty days for organ donation. Employees must provide written notice of leave to inform employers at least 14 days in advance unless a medical emergency occurs. Employers cannot retaliate against employees for taking donation leave.
• Military Leave: Public employees in New York are entitled to four years of military leave for enlisting in the armed forces. Military stipend policies ensure that a serving employee’s biweekly salary is equal to their state salary level. After their discharge from military service, employees must be reinstated in their former job positions in 90 days to a year.

The following are the official public holidays granted to eligible state employees for 2024:

Any individual under the age of 18 is considered a minor in New York. Parents are legally required to take care of their children till they turn 21 years old or become emancipated. 

State law does not clearly define ‘emancipated minors’.  However, the emancipation of a minor can be determined by a court in certain circumstances. Minors who are married, serve in the army, are financially independent without parental support, or have parents who failed to provide for them are considered emancipated minors.

Generally, minors of any age in New York are not allowed to work during school hours, unless they have dropped out or graduated from school. Similarly, home-schooled children can not work during public school hours.

Work hour restrictions for different age groups of minors in New York are as follows:

• Minors aged 12 to 13

Minors aged 12 to 13 can work on farms harvesting berries, fruits, and vegetables, given they have obtained a work permit. They are limited to working four hours in day, scheduled between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Farm work can not be scheduled during school hours after Labor Day i.e. September 2nd to June 20th.

From June 21st till September 2nd, work hours can be scheduled between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Furthermore, if a minor works in two more locations during their employment, their work hours can not exceed the daily limit. 

• Minors aged 14 to 15

When school is in session, minors aged 14 to 15 can not work more than:

• Three hours on a school day
• Eight hours on a non-school day
• 18 hours a week
• Six days a week

Exceptions to the rule exist for minors employed as babysitters, bridge caddies, performers, newspaper carriers, and models. Minors who are part of an approved Cooperative Education Program can work up to six hours on the day before a school day. 

During summer break, minors aged 14 to 15 can work up to 40 hours a week. 

• Minors aged 16 to 17:

Minors aged 16 to 17 are allowed to work four hours daily from Monday to Thursday and eight hours on weekends and holidays. They can work six days a week for a maximum of 28 hours. All work hours must be scheduled between 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. 

This group of minors can work till midnight on a school day with both parental/guardian permission and a certificate showing satisfactory academic performance. During summer break, they can work for 48 hours a week, with a maximum of eight hours daily scheduled between 6 a.m. and midnight. 

Learn more about scheduling policies for minors in New York with the state’s official summary of permitted working hours for minors aged under 18.

New York’s child labor laws prohibit minors under 18 from engaging in hazardous jobs involving:

However, minors aged under 18, who are registered as apprentices, student-learners, or trainees with specific government, vocational, or non-profit organizations, can work in these occupations. 

Minors under the age of 16 are prohibited from working as:

Employers found violating child labor laws in New York may face civil penalties of up to $1,000 for a first violation, $2,000 for a second, and $3,000 for a third or subsequent violation. If a violation results in serious injury or death to a minor, penalties are calculated at three times the maximum fine.