Putnam County Minimum Wage: Tipped Rates, Overtime, and Exemptions

The Putnam County minimum wage is $16.00 per hour as of January 1, 2026. Putnam sits in New York’s “Remainder of State” wage region, which covers every county outside New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester, and every non-exempt worker in the county must be paid at least that rate for all hours worked, no matter the industry.¹ The three-region structure comes from New York Labor Law Section 652.²

Tipped Workers

Tipped workers in Putnam County are covered by the Hospitality Industry Wage Order (12 NYCRR Part 146), which splits them into two groups with different cash-wage floors. In both cases, the total of cash wages plus tips has to reach $16.00 per hour. If it falls short in any given week, the employer pays the difference.

Food Service Workers

For food service workers, the tip credit is $5.30 per hour, so the minimum cash wage the employer must pay directly is $10.70 per hour.³

Service Employees

Service employees outside food service have a smaller tip credit of $2.70 per hour, setting the minimum cash wage at $13.30 per hour. The employer can only use the tip credit during weeks when the worker’s average tips meet a minimum level, which is $3.40 per hour for service employees in the Remainder of State.⁴

One rule applies to every tipped job. Under New York Labor Law Section 196-d, employers and managers cannot take any part of an employee’s tips, though voluntary tip pooling among front-of-house staff like servers and bussers is allowed.⁵

Overtime and Spread-of-Hours Pay

Non-exempt workers who work more than 40 hours in a week are owed at least 1.5 times the regular minimum wage for each extra hour. At $16.00, that puts the overtime floor in Putnam County at $24.00 per hour.

A second rule covers long days. Under the Miscellaneous Industries Wage Order (12 NYCRR 142-2.4), a worker is owed one additional hour of pay at the basic minimum wage whenever the spread of hours in a single day runs past 10 hours or the shift is split.⁶ For a worker earning exactly $16.00, that adds $16.00 to the day’s pay on top of the hours actually worked. Hospitality workers get the same protection under the Hospitality Industry Wage Order, but the extra hour is calculated at the employee’s regular rate, so tipped workers earning above minimum still benefit.

Home Care Aides

Home care aides have their own, higher floor. In the Remainder of State region, the minimum wage for home care aides is $18.65 per hour effective January 1, 2026. These workers may also be entitled to overtime, call-in pay when sent home early, spread-of-hours premiums, and uniform maintenance pay.⁷

Uniform Maintenance Pay

If your employer requires a uniform and does not clean it for you, you are owed extra weekly pay on top of your regular wages. The 2026 Remainder of State rates are:

More than 30 hours per week: $19.85
20 to 30 hours per week: $15.80
Fewer than 20 hours per week: $9.55

A required uniform means work-specific clothing that cannot reasonably be worn outside of work, like a branded shirt, chef’s coat, or apron. Everyday clothing that happens to meet a dress code does not qualify.

Who Is Not Covered

Not every worker in Putnam County is entitled to $16.00 per hour. New York Labor Law Section 651 excludes several categories from the definition of “employee”:

Executive, administrative, and professional employees who meet the duties test and earn at least $1,199.10 per week in the Remainder of State⁸
Outside salespeople who spend most of their time making sales off the employer’s premises
Taxi drivers
Workers employed by federal, state, or municipal government entities
Volunteers, learners, or apprentices at qualifying charitable, religious, or educational organizations, along with ordained clergy and members of religious orders
Part-time babysitters working on a casual basis in the employer’s home

Job title alone does not decide exempt status. The actual duties performed, and for salaried exemptions the pay level, are what matter.⁹

What Changes in 2027

The $16.00 figure is the last step of a fixed, legislated schedule. Starting January 1, 2027, the Commissioner of Labor will adjust the rate each year using the three-year moving average of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) for the Northeast Region, rounded to the nearest five cents.² Future increases will track regional inflation rather than arrive as half-dollar steps.

If You Have Been Underpaid

Workers paid below the minimum wage can file a complaint with the New York State Department of Labor using the Labor Standards Complaint Form (LS223).¹⁰ The form asks for the employer’s legal business name and address, a breakdown of what is owed, and the dates of underpayment. Pay stubs, your own log of hours worked, and any written employment agreements make the claim stronger.

You have six years to file, and employers are required to keep payroll records for the same six years, so evidence should still be available for older underpayments.¹¹ If the investigation confirms a violation, the Department can order the employer to pay back wages plus liquidated damages equal to 100 percent of the unpaid amount, along with possible interest and civil penalties.¹²

Filing is protected. Under New York Labor Law Section 215, an employer cannot fire, demote, cut hours, reassign, or otherwise punish you for reporting a potential wage violation to the Department of Labor, to the employer, or to the Attorney General. Protections also cover workers who provide information to investigators, testify in proceedings, or are simply believed by the employer to have complained. A worker who proves retaliation can be awarded reinstatement, lost wages, and liquidated damages of up to $20,000, and the employer faces separate civil penalties.¹³

1
New York State. New York State’s Minimum Wage
2
New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 652 – Minimum Wage
3
New York State Department of Labor. Minimum Wage for Tipped Workers
4
New York State Department of Labor. Part 146 Hospitality Industry Wage Order
5
New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 196-D – Gratuities
6
Cornell Law Institute. N.Y. Comp. Codes R. and Regs. Tit. 12 142-2.4
7
New York State Department of Labor. Home Care Aide Minimum Wage Fact Sheet
8
New York State Department of Labor. Minimum Wage Frequently Asked Questions
9
New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 651 – Definitions
10
New York State Department of Labor. Labor Standards Complaint Form for Individuals
11
New York State Department of Labor. Wage Theft Prevention Act Frequently Asked Questions
12
New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 198 – Penalties
13
New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 215 – Penalties and Civil Action; Prohibited Retaliation