New York State Overtime Laws: Rates, Spread of Hours, and Claims

New York State overtime laws require most workers to be paid one and a half times their regular hourly rate for every hour worked beyond 40 in a workweek, and they give you six years to file a claim if you were underpaid. State protections are broader than federal ones in several places: the recovery window is longer, more workers are covered, and successful claims typically double through liquidated damages. Whether the rules apply to you depends on your salary, your actual job duties, and, for a few groups, your industry.

Who Qualifies for Overtime in New York

New York sorts workers into non-exempt (entitled to overtime) and exempt (not entitled). Both New York Labor Law and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act use a two-part test: what you earn and what you actually do.

The 2026 Salary Thresholds

To even be considered exempt, you must earn at least a set weekly salary. As of January 1, 2026:

New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties: $1,275 per week, roughly $66,300 per year.
Rest of New York State: $1,199.10 per week, roughly $62,353 per year.

If your salary falls below the threshold that applies to your county, you are non-exempt and entitled to overtime no matter what your title is or what your duties look like.¹ These numbers are adjusted periodically, so a position that was exempt last year may not be exempt this year.

The Duties Test

Earning above the salary threshold is not enough on its own. Your actual work has to fit one of the recognized exemption categories. The three most common are:

Executive: you primarily manage a business or department, regularly direct at least two full-time employees, and have real authority over hiring and firing.²
Administrative: you perform office or non-manual work tied to business operations or management policy, and you regularly exercise independent judgment on significant matters.
Professional: your work requires advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning typically gained through extended specialized education, or it is original creative work in a recognized artistic field.³

A “manager” or “director” title does not automatically make someone exempt. If you spend most of your time doing the same work as the people you supposedly supervise, the exemption probably does not apply.

A separate exemption covers certain technology workers, including systems analysts, programmers, and software engineers whose primary work involves designing, developing, testing, or analyzing computer systems or programs. Workers who use computers as a tool, like engineers running design software, do not qualify. Neither do people who repair or manufacture hardware.⁴

Other Groups With Different Rules

New York also exempts outside salespeople, certain government employees, farm laborers, taxi drivers, camp counselors, and members of religious orders.⁵ Some workers exempt under federal law still qualify for overtime under New York’s broader state protections, so check both.

Live-in domestic workers have a different threshold entirely. If you live in your employer’s home, overtime kicks in after 44 hours per week rather than 40.⁶ Many live-in aides and nannies are shorted overtime because employers apply the wrong number.

How Your Overtime Rate Is Calculated

The basic formula is simple. Every hour past 40 in a workweek pays 1.5 times your regular hourly rate. Earn $24 an hour and your overtime rate is $36. Where it gets complicated is figuring out the “regular rate” when your pay includes tips, commissions, or bonuses.⁵

Salaried Non-Exempt Workers

If you earn a salary but are not exempt, your employer divides your weekly salary by 40 to get your hourly rate, then pays 1.5 times that for each overtime hour. A $960 weekly salary produces a $24 regular rate and a $36 overtime rate.

Two Different Hourly Rates in the Same Week

When you perform different tasks at different hourly rates during a single week, your overtime rate is based on a weighted average. Add up all earnings, divide by total hours, and use that blended figure. Work 25 hours at $20 and 20 hours at $16, and your total pay is $820 for 45 hours. That’s a regular rate of about $18.22 and an overtime rate of roughly $27.33 for the five overtime hours.⁵

Commissions and Non-Discretionary Bonuses

Commissions and non-discretionary bonuses must be folded into your regular rate before overtime is calculated. Discretionary bonuses, true gifts, and premium pay for weekend or holiday shifts are excluded.⁵

When a commission or bonus spans multiple weeks, the employer allocates it back to the workweeks in which it was earned and pays additional overtime for any of those weeks in which you worked more than 40 hours.⁷

Tipped Workers

If you receive tips and your employer takes a tip credit against the minimum wage, the math has to happen in a specific order. The employer starts with your full regular rate before any tip credit is subtracted, multiplies by 1.5, and then subtracts the tip credit. Doing it in the wrong order, subtracting the tip credit first and then multiplying, is a violation.⁸ Many restaurants get this wrong, often unintentionally.

Two Extra Pay Rules Many New York Workers Miss

New York has two protections on top of standard overtime that most workers never hear about.

Spread of Hours Pay

When the gap between the start and end of your workday exceeds 10 hours, including breaks and meal periods, your employer owes you one extra hour of pay at the applicable minimum wage. This applies even if you were not working during the entire spread. In 2026, that extra hour is worth $17.00 in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester, and $16.00 in the rest of the state.⁹

Call-In Pay

If your employer requires you to report to work but sends you home early or gives you less work than scheduled, you are still owed a minimum amount of pay. In most industries the minimum is four hours at your rate or the length of your scheduled shift, whichever is shorter. In hospitality, the minimum is three hours or the scheduled shift length. The unworked portion can be paid at the minimum wage rate rather than your regular rate.

If You Think You Were Underpaid

You have three ways to recover unpaid overtime: file a complaint with the New York State Department of Labor, file with the federal Department of Labor, or sue in court. Each has trade-offs.

New York State Department of Labor

You can submit a Labor Standards Complaint Form (LS 223) online or by mail. The department investigates, reviews payroll records, and can order back wages, liquidated damages, and interest. There’s no cost, and you don’t need a lawyer.¹⁰ Investigations can move slowly, and cases are prioritized by severity and how many workers are affected.

U.S. Department of Labor

If your employer is covered by the FLSA (most businesses with at least $500,000 in annual revenue or those involved in interstate commerce), you can file with the federal Wage and Hour Division. Federal investigators can negotiate settlements or sue on your behalf, which works well when the same violation affects workers across multiple locations.¹¹

Lawsuit

You can hire an attorney and sue directly in state or federal court, seeking unpaid wages, liquidated damages, and attorney’s fees. When the same violation affects many workers, claims can be filed as collective or class actions. Because winning employees recover attorney’s fees, many employment lawyers take these cases on contingency.

The Six-Year Window

Under New York law, you have six years from the date of the violation to file a wage claim. That’s much longer than the federal FLSA deadline, which gives you two years for standard violations and three for willful ones.¹² Workers who left a job years ago may still be able to recover. Don’t assume too much time has passed.

Arbitration Agreements

Some employers require workers to sign arbitration agreements giving up the right to sue in court. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the enforceability of these agreements for wage and hour claims under federal law, including provisions that block collective or class actions. If you signed one, you can still pursue your overtime claim, but you’d do so in private arbitration rather than before a judge or jury. Filing a complaint with the NYSDOL or the federal Department of Labor remains available regardless of any arbitration clause.

What You Can Recover

If you win an unpaid overtime claim, you recover the full amount owed plus liquidated damages equal to 100% of that amount, effectively doubling the payout. An employer can avoid liquidated damages only by proving a good-faith belief that its pay practices complied with the law. For willful violations of New York’s equal pay provisions, liquidated damages can reach 300% of the unpaid amount.¹²

Courts also award prejudgment interest under New York’s Civil Practice Law and Rules at 9% per year, and a winning employee recovers reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs.¹²

Your Employer Cannot Retaliate

New York law makes it illegal for an employer to fire, threaten, discipline, or otherwise punish you for complaining about unpaid overtime. The protection applies whether you complain directly to your employer, file with the Department of Labor, contact the Attorney General, or tell a coworker. You do not need to cite a specific statute for the protection to apply.¹³

The law specifically prohibits employers from threatening to report a worker’s immigration status as retaliation. Former employers cannot retaliate either, such as by giving a false reference.

If the Department of Labor finds retaliation occurred, it can order reinstatement, award lost wages, impose a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for a first violation (up to $20,000 for repeat offenders within six years), and award liquidated damages up to $20,000. You can also file a private lawsuit seeking these remedies plus attorney’s fees.¹³ Federal law provides similar protections under the FLSA, so workers covered by both have two layers of defense.¹⁴

Records That Support Your Claim

Employers must maintain accurate payroll records for at least six years, showing hours worked each week, pay rates, gross wages, deductions, and net wages.¹⁵ They must also give you a wage statement each payday showing how your pay was calculated, and, at hiring, a written notice under the Wage Theft Prevention Act with your pay rate, overtime rate if applicable, payday, and employer information, in English and in your primary language if a Department of Labor translation exists.¹⁶

If your employer does not track your hours at all, or if you never got a written notice at hiring, that itself is a violation and often signals broader problems. Keep your own record of hours worked and pay received. When your records and your employer’s don’t match, your contemporaneous notes carry real weight in a Department of Labor investigation or a courtroom.

1
New York State Department of Labor. Minimum Wage Frequently Asked Questions
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17B – Exemption for Executive Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
3
New York State Department of Labor. Professional Employee Overtime Exemption Frequently Asked Questions
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17E – Exemption for Employees in Computer-Related Occupations Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
5
New York State Department of Labor. Overtime Frequently Asked Questions
6
New York State Department of Labor. Domestic Workers Bill of Rights
7
eCFR. Principles for Computing Overtime Pay Based on the Regular Rate
8
New York State Department of Labor. Minimum Wage for Tipped Workers
9
New York State. New York State’s Minimum Wage
10
New York State Department of Labor. The Labor Standards Complaint Process
11
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17A – Exemption for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer and Outside Sales Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
12
New York State Senate. New York Code, Labor Law LAB 198 – Costs, Remedies
13
New York State Senate. New York Code, Labor Law LAB 215 – Penalties and Civil Action, Prohibited Retaliation
14
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 77A – Prohibiting Retaliation Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
15
New York State Senate. New York Code, Labor Law LAB 195 – Notice and Record-Keeping Requirements
16
New York State Department of Labor. Notice of Pay Rate