New York's minimum wage reached $17 downstate and $16 upstate

New York’s minimum wage went up three times under a 2023 state budget law. In New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County it climbed from $15 an hour to $16 in 2024, $16.50 in 2025, and $17 on January 1, 2026. In the rest of the state it rose from $14.20 to $15, then $15.50, then $16. Home care aides got additional increases on top of those rates.

Workers don’t have to do anything to get the raise. Employers must pay at least the rate for their region, and fast food workers follow the same regional rates.

The law also ties future raises to inflation. Starting in 2027, the wage is supposed to rise each year based on a regional consumer price index. But the law includes off-ramps, which Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed, that pause a raise when certain economic conditions are met. The state says one of them was triggered for 2027, so the minimum wage stays at $17 and $16 on January 1, 2027. Hochul has proposed changing the off-ramp so the wage can be adjusted starting in March 2027; that needs the Legislature’s approval.

Sen. Jessica Ramos and Assemblymember Latoya Joyner pushed for bigger raises: their Raise the Wage Act sought $21.25 an hour downstate by 2026. Hochul’s budget proposed only tying the wage to inflation. The final deal combined the two, with three raises followed by her indexing plan, and Hochul signed it in May 2023.