New York tipped minimum wage 2026
The New York tipped cash wage is $11.35 per hour. Employers may take a tip credit of up to $5.65 per hour, provided the worker's cash wage plus tips reaches the state minimum of $17.00 per hour for every workweek. [DOL Tipped][NY labor dept.]
Cash wage and tip credit
When tips fall short
If a worker's cash wage plus reported tips do not average to the New York minimum of $17.00 per hour over a workweek, the employer must pay the shortfall. The Tip Credit Checker tool runs the math at /tools/tip-credit. Under the 2021 DOL final rule, time spent on non-tip-producing work above 20 percent of the shift (or 30 continuous minutes) must be paid at the full minimum, not the tip-credited rate. [DOL FS-15]
Background
DOL: $17.00 in New York City and Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties; $16.00 in the remainder of the state DOL tipped table: DOL prints 'varies' for the tip credit and cash wage because the figure differs by region and by occupation New York: New York does permit a tip credit; DOL prints "varies" because the figure differs by region and occupation. The headline pair here is the food-service-worker rate for New York City, Long Island and Westchester as at 1 January 2026: $11.35 cash plus a $5.65 credit. In the remainder of the state it is $10.70 cash plus a $5.30 credit. From 2027 the rate is tied to a three-year average of the CPI for the Northeast, subject to statutory economic and budget off-ramps. No 2027 figure is published. From 2027 the rate follows a three-year average of the CPI for the Northeast, subject to statutory off-ramps.