PLATTSBURGH — With the new year comes an increase in the state’s minimum wage.
Beginning Jan. 1, New York’s minimum wage will increase to $16 per hour in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County and $15 per hour in the rest of the state.
Minimum wage for home care aides will also increase to $18.55 per hour in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County and $17.55 per hour in the rest of the state.
MULTI-YEAR PLAN
Gov. Kathy Hochul reminded New Yorkers that the minimum wage increase is part of a historic, multi-year plan to increase the minimum wage and index it to inflation.
Raising New York’s minimum wage to keep pace with inflation will benefit hundreds of thousands of minimum-wage workers across the state, the governor said in a news release.
“New York’s historic minimum wage increase will help to ensure that New Yorkers can continue to keep pace with rising costs,” Hochul said.
“Starting January 1, minimum wage workers who do not see the increase reflected in their paychecks are urged to file a complaint with the Department of Labor to make sure that they get the wages they are owed.”
The wage increase plan is part of the 2024 state budget. It will increase incrementally through 2026 and then it will index to inflation beginning in 2027.
WAGE TIMELINE
After the initial increase, the minimum wage will increase by $0.50 in 2025 and 2026. In 2027, the minimum wage will increase annually at a rate determined by the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) for the Northeast Region – the best regional measure of inflation.
An “off-ramp” is available in the event of certain economic or budget conditions.
Eighteen other states either currently tie their minimum wage to inflation or some other economic formula or are slated to do so, including three states which have minimum wages at or above $15 in 2023.
DOUGLAS REACTS
North Country Chamber of Commerce President Garry Douglas said the wage increase has many layers to it.
“While the region’s employers have been somewhat divided in the past on support or opposition to minimum wage increases, there will be unintended impacts on many small businesses. This will be in tangent with and hard to separate from the continued shortage of available workers at all levels and in all sectors. This has naturally increased wages but has also reduced jobs that otherwise would exist and has reduced business activity from what it otherwise could have been,” Douglas said.
“We all know restaurants and businesses that have reduced hours or days of operation, contractors who cannot take on work, staff shortages at healthcare operations, and even manufacturers turning away opportunities as they cannot staff up. The state needs to start really connecting the economic and workforce dots which won’t happen through mandates.”
Minimum wage earners who do not see the increase reflected in their paychecks can file a wage complaint on the New York State Department of Labor’s website or by calling 833-910-4378.