New York does not have a standalone law requiring mileage reimbursement, but that does not mean employers are off the hook. Three separate legal rules can require your employer to pay you back for work-related driving: the minimum wage floor, any reimbursement your employer has promised in writing, and the terms of a union contract or employment agreement. For 2026, employers who do reimburse typically use the IRS standard rate of 72.5 cents per mile, though no New York statute sets a required rate.
The Three Rules That Can Require Reimbursement
New York has never passed a law that says, in so many words, “employers must reimburse mileage.” Some businesses read that silence as permission to pay nothing. In practice, three overlapping legal frameworks can require reimbursement, and ignoring all three is where employers run into trouble.
Your Pay Cannot Drop Below Minimum Wage
Under both the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and New York’s wage laws, your take-home pay cannot fall below minimum wage after accounting for required work expenses. The U.S. Department of Labor treats the cost of using a personal vehicle for an employer’s benefit the same way it treats a required uniform or tool: if unreimbursed vehicle expenses pull your effective hourly rate below minimum wage in any workweek, your employer has violated the law.1U.S. Department of Labor. WHD Opinion Letter FLSA2020-12
For 2026, New York’s minimum wage is $17.00 per hour in New York City, Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk Counties), and Westchester County, and $16.00 per hour in the rest of the state.2NY.gov. New York State’s Minimum Wage For hourly workers paid near those floors, especially delivery drivers and home health aides, the math matters in every pay period. For workers paid well above minimum wage, the risk of a violation from unreimbursed mileage alone is smaller.
A Promise to Reimburse Becomes Enforceable
This is the rule most employers overlook. New York Labor Law Section 198-c defines “benefits or wage supplements” to explicitly include reimbursement for expenses.3New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 198-C Once your employer promises mileage reimbursement in a handbook, offer letter, written policy, or employment agreement, that promise is enforceable the same way vacation pay or health benefits would be. Failing to honor it exposes the employer to the same penalties as failing to pay wages.
A company that says “we reimburse mileage at the IRS rate” in its handbook has created a binding obligation. Quietly ending reimbursement, or paying some employees but not others, can give rise to a wage supplement claim even if your base pay stays above minimum wage.
Union Contracts and Employment Agreements
In unionized workplaces, collective bargaining agreements often include specific mileage or travel expense provisions. Failure to follow those terms is both a labor dispute and, where the reimbursement qualifies as a wage supplement under Section 198-c, a potential wage law violation. Individual employment contracts can create the same kind of binding commitment. New York courts have also found implied obligations where an employer kept up a consistent reimbursement practice over time, even without a formal written policy.
Which Miles Actually Qualify
Not every mile you drive for work is reimbursable. The dividing line is whether the trip is business travel or a personal commute.
Commuting Versus Business Travel
Your normal trip between home and a regular workplace is a personal commute. It is not reimbursable, even if the drive is long. Travel beyond that regular commute for business reasons typically does qualify. Common examples include driving between job sites during a shift, visiting clients, traveling to off-site training, and making deliveries.
For tax purposes, the IRS treats travel between your home and a temporary work location (one where the assignment is expected to last a year or less) as deductible business travel rather than commuting, as long as you have a regular workplace elsewhere.4Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463 (2025), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses Many New York employers borrow this framework when drawing the line in their own policies.
Workers Without a Fixed Workplace
Sales representatives, field technicians, and home health aides who travel to a different location each day raise a harder question. When there is no single “regular” workplace, courts and the Department of Labor look at the employer’s directives and the nature of the role. A common approach is to treat the first and last trip of the day as the commute and reimburse everything in between, though the specific rule should appear in a written policy to avoid disputes.
How Much You Should Be Paid Per Mile
New York law does not set a required per-mile rate. Most employers benchmark to the IRS standard mileage rate, which for 2026 is 72.5 cents per mile for business use.5Internal Revenue Service. IRS Sets 2026 Business Standard Mileage Rate at 72.5 Cents Per Mile, Up 2.5 Cents That rate rolls gas, insurance, depreciation, and maintenance into one number. The U.S. Department of Labor has stated that reimbursement at the IRS standard rate is “per se reasonable,” meaning it is presumed to adequately cover your actual expenses.1U.S. Department of Labor. WHD Opinion Letter FLSA2020-12 The 2026 rate applies the same way to gasoline, diesel, hybrid, and fully electric vehicles.
Employers can reimburse less than the IRS rate, and some do. They can also use an actual-expense method, which pays for documented gas, maintenance, insurance, and depreciation, or a fixed-and-variable-rate plan that combines a monthly fixed payment with a per-mile component. Whichever method an employer picks, the reimbursement still has to be enough to keep your effective pay above minimum wage.
What You Can Do If You Are Not Being Paid
If you believe your employer owes you reimbursement, you have several ways to recover what you are owed, and the penalties on employers who lose these cases can be substantial.
Where to File
You can file a wage complaint with the New York State Department of Labor or bring a lawsuit in state or federal court. The two options are not mutually exclusive, and you do not have to go through the DOL before filing suit. New York’s statute of limitations for wage claims is six years, which is unusually long. The federal FLSA window is two years, or three for willful violations.6New York State Senate. New York Code Labor Law 663 – Civil Action7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 255 – Statute of Limitations A six-year lookback means unpaid mileage can accumulate into a significant number before you ever file.
Damages
If you win a wage claim, your employer must pay the full amount of underpaid wages plus prejudgment interest. Unless the employer can show a good-faith belief that it was complying with the law, the court will also award liquidated damages equal to 100% of the unpaid wages, doubling the total recovery. You are also entitled to reasonable attorney’s fees.8New York State Senate. New York Code Labor Law 198 – Costs, Remedies The Department of Labor can impose additional civil penalties on top of what the employer owes you.9New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 218
Where unreimbursed mileage pushed your effective pay below the federal minimum wage, you can also bring an FLSA claim and recover unpaid wages, an equal amount in liquidated damages, and attorney’s fees.10U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 16 – Deductions From Wages for Uniforms and Other Facilities Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Because New York’s minimum wage is so much higher than the federal rate, state-law claims will usually be stronger.
Retaliation Is Prohibited
New York Labor Law Section 215 bars your employer from firing you, threatening you, or otherwise retaliating against you for raising a wage complaint, whether you take it to the employer directly, to the Department of Labor, or to an attorney. You do not need to cite a specific section of the law for the protection to apply.11New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 215 – Penalties and Civil Action; Prohibited Retaliation If an employer retaliates after you raise a mileage reimbursement concern, that creates a second, independent legal claim on top of the underlying wage dispute.
What to Document
Keep your own records of each work trip: the date, business purpose, starting point, destination, and total miles driven. If your employer cannot produce reimbursement or payroll records when a dispute arises, courts routinely accept the employee’s reasonable estimate of hours and expenses. New York Labor Law Section 195 requires employers to keep payroll records for at least six years, matching the statute of limitations on wage claims.12New York State Senate. New York Code Labor Law 195 – Notice and Record-Keeping Requirements Your own log is what lets you take advantage of that rule.