NYS Minimum Wage History: Wage Boards, $15 Tiers, and Indexing

The history of New York State’s minimum wage runs from a 1933 law covering only women and minors to today’s regional system, which as of January 1, 2026 sets the floor at $17.00 per hour in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County, and $16.00 per hour everywhere else in the state.¹ Starting in 2027, those rates will adjust automatically each year based on inflation.

The 1930s: A Law Struck Down, Then Rewritten

Governor Herbert H. Lehman signed New York’s first minimum wage bill on May 1, 1933. Drafted with significant input from Frances Perkins, it applied only to women and minors and reached laundry, hotel, and restaurant workers, leaving out domestic service and farm work.²³

The law did not last. In March 1936 the New York Court of Appeals declared it unconstitutional, and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that ruling in June 1936, citing employers’ right to freely bargain. After the Supreme Court reversed course on a similar Washington State law in 1937, Lehman signed a second New York minimum wage statute in April of that year.²³

Wage Boards by Industry, 1937 to 1960

The 1937 law set no single statewide rate. It authorized the Industrial Commissioner to appoint three-person wage boards, each with public, employee, and employer representatives, to establish pay standards industry by industry. The stated goal was wages “sufficient to provide adequate maintenance and to protect their health.”²

Laundry, beauty service, and confectionery workers were covered first in 1938, followed by cleaning and dyeing in 1939 and hotels and restaurants in 1940. In 1944 the law was amended to include men. By 1956, roughly 1.26 million workers fell under state wage orders, and by 1962 eleven industries or occupations were covered. Each board typically took eighteen to twenty-four months to issue an order, and that slow pace eventually drove the shift to a single statewide rate.³²

The First Statewide Rate: $1.00 in 1960

Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller signed New York’s first general statewide minimum wage law, setting a single hourly rate of $1.00 effective October 1, 1960. One floor replaced the patchwork of industry orders.²

Rate Changes Through the 2000s

From that $1.00 start, the state rate climbed in steps:

The rate then held at $3.35 for the rest of the 1980s, matching the federal minimum wage during that stretch.⁵ Two increases followed in the early 1990s:

The $4.25 figure held for nearly a decade. On March 31, 2000 it jumped to $5.15, matching the federal floor again. Mid-decade increases then pushed New York above the federal rate for the first time in years:

January 1, 2005: $6.00
January 1, 2006: $6.75
January 1, 2007: $7.15⁶

On July 24, 2009 the state and federal minimums aligned at $7.25, and the New York rate stayed there until the end of 2013.

Breaking From the Federal Floor in 2013

On March 29, 2013, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the state budget for fiscal year 2013–2014, which raised the minimum from $7.25 to $9.00 over three years:⁶

December 31, 2013: $8.00
December 31, 2014: $8.75
December 31, 2015: $9.00

This marked the start of New York’s sustained divergence above the federal $7.25, which has not moved since 2009. The 2013 law did not index future increases to inflation and did not cover tipped food service workers, directing the Labor Commissioner to appoint a separate wage board for those categories.⁷

The 2015 Fast Food Wage Board

Before the legislature acted on a broader $15 wage, Cuomo used an administrative route for one of the state’s lowest-paid sectors. On May 7, 2015, Acting Commissioner of Labor Mario J. Musolino appointed a Fast Food Wage Board under Labor Law §§ 653 and 656, which let the Labor Commissioner order industry-specific increases without legislative approval.⁸

On July 22, 2015, the board recommended $15 statewide for fast food chain workers, reporting that 60 percent of the state’s fast food employees relied on public assistance at an estimated cost of $903 million a year. Musolino signed the adopting order on September 10, 2015, with a phase-in reaching $15 by December 31, 2018 in New York City and July 1, 2021 elsewhere. It applied to establishments in chains with 30 or more locations nationwide where customers paid before eating.⁹

The 2016 Law: Regional Tiers and the Road to $15

In April 2016, Cuomo signed legislation phasing in a $15 minimum for all workers, not just those in fast food. The law amended Labor Law § 652 and replaced the single statewide rate with regional schedules reflecting cost-of-living differences.¹⁰ Four schedules took effect on December 31, 2016.

New York City, Large Employers (11 or More)

12/31/2016: $11.00
12/31/2017: $13.00
12/31/2018: $15.00

New York City, Small Employers (10 or Fewer)

12/31/2016: $10.50
12/31/2017: $12.00
12/31/2018: $13.50
12/31/2019: $15.00

Long Island and Westchester

12/31/2016: $10.00
12/31/2017: $11.00
12/31/2018: $12.00
12/31/2019: $13.00
12/31/2020: $14.00
12/31/2021: $15.00⁶

Rest of the State

12/31/2016: $9.70
12/31/2017: $10.40
12/31/2018: $11.10
12/31/2019: $11.80
12/31/2020: $12.50
12/31/2021: $13.20
12/31/2022: $14.20¹

For upstate New York, the 2016 law did not spell out exact rates all the way to $15. After the scheduled increases ran out, further adjustments were left to the Labor Commissioner, using indices including inflation, state personal income growth, and wage growth.¹⁰

The 2023 Budget: Final Scheduled Increases and Inflation Indexing

On May 3, 2023, Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Fiscal Year 2024 state budget (Senate Bill S4006), which set the last scheduled increases and introduced automatic inflation adjustments starting in 2027.¹ The rates:

January 1, 2024: $16.00 (NYC, Long Island, Westchester) / $15.00 (rest of state)
January 1, 2025: $16.50 / $15.50
January 1, 2026: $17.00 / $16.00¹⁰

Beginning January 1, 2027, annual increases will be calculated from the three-year moving average of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) for the Northeast Region. The Labor Commissioner must publish each year’s adjusted rate by October 1 of the preceding year.¹⁰

The Off-Ramp That Could Pause Future Increases

The 2023 budget included a provision allowing automatic increases to be suspended for up to two consecutive years if certain economic triggers are met: the CPI-W rate of change turning negative, the state’s three-month average unemployment rate rising by 0.5 percentage points or more above its recent low, or seasonally adjusted nonfarm employment declining during specified periods.¹⁰

The National Employment Law Project estimated that if the off-ramp were triggered in 2027, roughly 1.45 million low-wage workers would lose a scheduled increase, costing them a combined $609 million in earnings. NELP said the triggering conditions have occurred about 25 percent of the time over the past two decades and called on the legislature to repeal the provision.¹¹ During the 2023 budget talks, the State Assembly had proposed that inflation-tied increases “should not be subject to exceptions,” and the New York AFL-CIO urged lawmakers to reject the provision, arguing that workers need raises most during downturns.¹²

Where Tipped, Home Care, and Farm Workers Fit

The general minimum wage does not tell the whole story. Several categories of workers follow different rules.

Tipped Hospitality Workers

New York allows a tip credit only for workers in the hospitality industry. As of January 1, 2026:¹³

NYC, Long Island, Westchester, food service workers: $11.35 cash wage plus $5.65 tip credit
NYC, Long Island, Westchester, service employees: $14.15 cash wage plus $2.85 tip credit
Rest of state, food service workers: $10.70 cash wage plus $5.30 tip credit
Rest of state, service employees: $13.30 cash wage plus $2.70 tip credit

Under Labor Law § 652, the cash wage for tipped food service workers must be at least two-thirds of the applicable minimum wage (rounded to the nearest five cents) or $7.50, whichever is higher, provided tips bring total pay to the full minimum.¹⁰

Home Care Aides

Under Public Health Law § 3614-f, home care aides receive a minimum wage above the general rate. As of January 1, 2026, it is $19.65 per hour in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester, and $18.65 per hour in the rest of the state.¹⁴ Aides doing Medicaid-reimbursed work in New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties are also covered by a separate wage parity law (Public Health Law § 3614-c), which adds a supplemental benefit of $4.09 per hour in New York City and $3.22 per hour in the suburban counties.¹⁵

Farm Workers

Farm laborers were historically excluded from many state labor protections. The Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act, signed by Cuomo on July 19, 2019, extended minimum wage coverage, overtime pay, a mandatory day of rest, collective bargaining rights, and insurance requirements to most farm employees effective January 1, 2020.¹⁶ The overtime threshold started at 60 hours per week and is being phased down to 40 hours by 2032. As of January 1, 2026, it sits at 52 hours.¹⁷

New York does not have a lower training wage or youth wage.¹⁸

What’s Pending: The NYC $30 Proposal

On March 10, 2026, New York City Council Member Sandy Nurse and thirteen co-sponsors introduced Int. 0757-2026, the “New York City Minimum Wage Act.” The bill would raise the city minimum to $20 per hour by 2027 for employers with more than 500 employees nationwide and ultimately to $30 per hour by 2030. Smaller employers would follow a slower schedule reaching $29 by 2031, and the bill would phase out the tip credit for food service workers.¹⁹

The bill was referred to the Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection and, as of mid-2026, has not advanced beyond committee. It faces a significant legal obstacle: New York courts have held that state law occupies the field on minimum wage, barring local governments from setting their own rates. In Wholesale Laundry Board of Trade v. City of New York (1962), a state appellate court struck down an earlier NYC minimum wage law on those grounds, and the state’s highest court affirmed.²⁰

1
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2
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3
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4
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FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. State Minimum Wage Rate for New York
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Littler Mendelson. New York Supersizes Minimum Wage for Certain Fast Food Employees
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14
NY.gov Department of Labor. Home Care Aide Minimum Wage Fact Sheet
15
NY.gov Department of Labor. Home Health Care Aides and Wage Parity
16
NY.gov Department of Labor. Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act
17
NY.gov Department of Labor. Farm Laborers Wage Board
18
NY.gov Department of Labor. Minimum Wage Frequently Asked Questions
19
NYC Council. Int 0757-2026
20
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