Minimum wage changes soon in New York

The statewide minimum wage in New York is scheduled to rise.

An increase to the wage of 50 cents an hour is set to take effect on Jan. 1, according to the state Labor Department.

The increase will bring the minimum wage to $16.50 an hour in New York City, Westchester County and on Long Island. In the rest of the state, including Upstate New York, the new minimum wage will be $15.50 an hour.

For the New York City area, the raise is an increase of about 3.1% and in the rest of the state, it’s a jump of about 3.3%.

The increase means an extra $20 a week for a minimum wage earner working a full-time job at 40 hours per week. In Upstate New York, that would translate into pay of $620 a week.

New York’s minimum wage is scheduled for another increase in 2026. That raise will also be for 50 cents an hour.

After that, the minimum wage will increase by a three-year moving average of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers in the Northeast region.

The increases in 2025 and 2026 and the planned indexing of the wage to inflation are the result of policy changes passed previously as part of the state budget process.

The legislation included provisions that allow the wage to be frozen if the state’s economy weakens, so the raises aren’t guaranteed.

The minimum wage in New York has increased substantially in the last 10 years.

A decade ago it was $7.25 an hour. Once the latest set of increases are in place, the wage will have increased over 120% from that level in Upstate New York.