New York restaurant pay rules (2026): what to pay tipped and non-tipped staff

New York has three minimum wages, set by state law for three parts of the state: $17.00 an hour in New York City, the same on Long Island and in Westchester, and $16.00 everywhere else. Tipped food service workers get a matching set of lower cash wages. On top of the rates, the state's Hospitality Industry Wage Order adds pay rules of its own: an extra hour for a long day, minimum pay when staff are called in, and an allowance when they wash their own uniforms.

This page puts New York's figures in one place. It covers what you owe tipped staff like servers and bartenders, what you owe everyone else, and two example weeks with the math shown. Every figure links to the official page it comes from.

Updated September 24, 2026: these figures are still current. New York's minimum wage is $17.00 an hour in New York City, Long Island and Westchester ($11.35 cash wage for tipped employees) and $16.00 in the rest of the state ($10.70 cash wage for tipped employees) through December 31, 2026. It changes on January 1, 2027; the new rate had not been published when we checked.

This is general information, not legal advice. Whether a rule applies can depend on your business's size and your own facts; the note at the end says more.

New York pay rules at a glance

As of August 19, 2026:

Sources: NY State, minimum wage; NY DOL, tipped workers; US DOL, state minimum wage laws.

The tipped figures are for food service workers: staff whose main job is serving food or drinks to guests, such as servers, bartenders, captains and bussers, and who regularly get tips. Other tipped hospitality staff, called service employees, have different rates, and fast food employees can't be paid a tipped wage at all (NY Hospitality Wage Order).

Who counts as a tipped employee in New York

New York law sets no minimum amount of tips for the tip credit (NY DOL, tipped workers).

In a restaurant that usually means servers, bartenders, bussers and counter staff who serve customers, including baristas who get tips. Cooks and dishwashers usually aren't tipped employees. Only tips the employee actually receives count. If someone works two jobs, say a server who also works prep shifts, the tip credit applies only to the hours in the tipped job (DOL Fact Sheet #15).

What you must pay tipped staff in New York

Servers, bartenders, bussers and baristas who get tips can be paid a lower cash wage, with part of their tips counted toward the minimum wage. That's the tip credit, and it comes with conditions:

• Pay at least your region's cash wage: $11.35 an hour in New York City, Long Island and Westchester; $10.70 in the rest of the state. Each is the region's minimum wage minus the most you can credit from tips, $5.65 or $5.30 (NY DOL, tipped workers).
• Cash wages plus tips must reach the minimum wage for every hour worked, week by week: $17.00 in New York City, Long Island and Westchester; $16.00 in the rest of the state. If tips fall short in a workweek, you pay the difference by the regular payday for that week (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
• Tell them first. Before you take the tip credit, tell each tipped employee, in writing or out loud: the cash wage you pay, the tip credit you claim, that the credit can't be more than the tips they actually get, that they keep all their tips except through a valid tip pool, and that the credit doesn't apply unless you've told them all this (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
• Overtime is figured on the full minimum wage. An overtime hour is worth 1.5 times the minimum wage: $25.50 in New York City, Long Island and Westchester, of which you pay at least $19.85 in cash wages; $24.00 in the rest of the state, of which you pay at least $18.70 in cash wages (DOL Fact Sheet #15).

You don't have to take the tip credit. If you pay tipped staff the full minimum wage, their tips are all on top, there's nothing to make up at the end of the week. New York still keeps cooks and dishwashers out of a tip pool you require, though (see below).

New York's own tip-credit conditions

• The notice has to be written. The federal notice above can be spoken; New York's can't. Before the job starts, give each employee a written notice of the regular and overtime pay rates, the tip credit you take and the payday, saying that extra pay is due if tips fall short. It goes in English and in the employee's primary language when the state has published the notice in that language, again before any pay change, and you keep the signed acknowledgment for 6 years (NY Hospitality Wage Order).
• Too much side work cancels the day's tip credit. If a food service worker spends two hours or more, or more than 20% of the shift, on work that doesn't bring in tips, whichever is less, the whole day is paid at the full minimum wage (NY Hospitality Wage Order).

What you must pay non-tipped staff in New York

Cooks, dishwashers, prep cooks, and cashiers or counter staff who don't get tips are paid like any other hourly employee:

• At least your region's minimum wage for every hour worked: $17.00 an hour in New York City, Long Island and Westchester; $16.00 in the rest of the state (NY State, minimum wage). No tip credit applies.
• The same goes for a tipped employee's hours in a non-tipped job, like a server's prep shift (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
• Overtime is at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. At $17.00 an hour, that's $25.50; at $16.00 an hour, $24.00 (US DOL, state minimum wage laws).
• Can they share in the tip pool? No. New York limits a required pool to staff who customarily and regularly receive tips (NY Hospitality Wage Order). Managers and supervisors can never take from the pool.

Worked examples (made-up numbers)

The names, hours and tips below are made up. The rates are New York City's as of August 19, 2026. Elsewhere in New York, use the rates for your area above.

A server's week: when you have to top up

Sam is a server paid the $11.35 cash wage. He works 30 hours in each of two weeks: a busy one with $450.00 in tips and a slow one with $110.00.

In the slow week, $110.00 in tips covers only part of the $169.50 tip credit (30 × $5.65), so you pay the difference by the regular payday: $510.00 − $450.50 = $59.50. In the busy week you owe nothing extra, and every dollar of tips is still Sam's.

A cook's week with overtime

Ana is a line cook paid the New York City minimum wage, $17.00 an hour. She works five 9-hour days: 45 hours.

Overtime is counted by the workweek, and hours can't be averaged across two weeks: a long week earns overtime even if the next one is short (US DOL, overtime). Bonuses can change the rate too; see Time clock, breaks and overtime: first-month payroll mistakes to avoid.

Tip pooling rules in New York

New York has its own tip-pool rules (NY Hospitality Wage Order): An employer may require food service workers to pool or share tips and set each occupation's percentage. Only employees who give personal service to patrons as a principal and regular duty may take part (wait staff, bussers, bartenders, barbacks, runners, hosts); cooks and dishwashers are excluded. Employers may deduct only the tip's pro-rated share of the card fee.

Federal rules apply too, and where the two differ, follow the stricter one (US DOL, tips):

• The business, its managers and supervisors never keep employees' tips. A manager can't take anything from a pool; they may keep only tips for service they directly and solely provide. An owner with a real stake who helps run the business counts as a manager too.
• With a tip credit, a pool you require can include only staff who customarily and regularly receive tips: servers, bartenders, bussers, counter staff who serve customers.
• Without a tip credit, federal law would let you include cooks and dishwashers, but New York doesn't: a pool you require stays limited to staff who serve customers.
• Card fees: you may reduce a card tip by the percentage the card company actually charges you, and no more (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
• Service charges: under federal law, a mandatory service charge isn't a tip: money you share from one is wages, and it counts in the regular rate for overtime (DOL Fact Sheet #15). New York adds its own rule: Any charge beyond food, beverage, lodging and specified services (for example a 'service' charge) is presumed to be a gratuity and must go in full to the service staff (12 NYCRR 146-2.18). A banquet/special-function administrative charge may be kept only with written notice in 12-point or larger type on the contract, menu and bill saying it is not a gratuity (146-2.19) (NY Hospitality Wage Order).
• Pay pooled tips out by the regular payday for the week or pay period (DOL Fact Sheet #15).

Delivery fees: if you keep any part of a delivery fee, tell delivery customers on the bill or receipt that the fee isn't a tip (NY DOL, tips FAQ).

How to split a pool fairly, with a worked example: Tip pooling for new restaurant owners.

Overtime in New York

New York's overtime law draws the same line as the federal one (US DOL, state minimum wage laws): non-exempt employees get at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek (US DOL, overtime).

A workweek is any fixed, recurring stretch of seven days that you choose, and hours can't be averaged across two weeks. There's no daily overtime, no double time and no seventh-day premium under New York or federal law, and weekend or holiday hours don't earn a premium by law.

For tipped staff, overtime is figured on the full minimum wage, not the cash wage (see the tipped section above).

Breaks in New York

• Meal breaks: Non-factory (incl. restaurant) workers: 30-minute lunch between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. for shifts of more than 6 hours that extend over that period; 45-minute meal midway through shifts of more than 6 hours starting between 1 p.m. and 6 a.m.; all workers get an extra 20 minutes between 5 and 7 p.m. when the workday runs from before 11 a.m. to after 7 p.m. Generally unpaid. Shorter periods only with a written NYSDOL permit (NY Labor Law § 162).
• Rest breaks: No specific New York rule found — federal rules apply (NY DOL, meal and rest FAQ). The FLSA does not require breaks. Short breaks an employer offers (about 5 to 20 minutes) are paid work time (US DOL, breaks).
• Minors: No separate New York rule for minors; the adult rules above apply to them too (NY DOL, minors).

Other New York rules that affect pay

• Reporting-time pay: Hospitality 'call-in pay' (12 NYCRR 146-1.5). An employee who reports for duty at the employer's request or with its permission is paid at least 3 hours for one shift, 6 hours for two shifts totaling 6 hours or less, or 8 hours for three shifts totaling 8 hours or less. If the regularly scheduled shift is shorter, pay that many hours instead. Actual attendance is paid at the regular or overtime rate minus any tip credit. The unworked balance is paid at the basic minimum hourly rate with no tip credit and is not part of the regular rate. Meal or lodging credits can't offset it. Applies to all employees regardless of pay rate (NY Hospitality Wage Order).
• Split shifts and spread of hours: Hospitality Wage Order (restaurants and all-year hotels). On each day the spread of hours exceeds 10, the employee gets 1 extra hour at the basic minimum hourly rate. The spread runs from the start to the end of the workday and includes meal breaks and off-duty intervals. This applies to all restaurant employees, whatever their pay rate. Meal or lodging credits can't offset it, and it is not part of the regular rate. Part 146 defines 'split shift' (146-3.9) but has no standalone split-shift premium. A split shift triggers the extra hour only when it pushes the spread above 10 hours (NY Hospitality Wage Order).
• Paid sick leave: NY Paid Sick Leave: employees earn at least 1 hour for every 30 worked, up to 56 hours a calendar year at employers with 100 or more employees, 40 hours at 5-99, and 40 hours at 0-4 (paid when net income is over $1 million, unpaid otherwise). New York City has its own, separate law (NY State, paid sick leave).

Uniform maintenance pay

If you require a uniform and don't maintain it for staff, meaning washing, ironing, dry cleaning and repairs, you owe weekly uniform maintenance pay on top of wages. You don't owe it when the uniforms are wash-and-wear, need no special care and you supply enough of them, or when you launder them for free, keep enough clean ones on hand and tell staff in writing (NY Hospitality Wage Order). The weekly amounts from January 1, 2026:

Local rates in New York

Apart from the regional rates above, which state law sets, we found no New York city or county with its own minimum wage.

Local ordinances on other rules (sick leave, scheduling): New York City.

In New York City, the Protected Time Off law (the old paid safe and sick leave law) gives up to 56 hours of paid leave a year at larger employers, on top of unpaid protected time (NYC DCWP, Protected Time Off). The city's Fair Workweek scheduling law covers fast food chains, not table-service restaurants (NYC DCWP, Fair Workweek).

How Mays helps

Mays runs the schedule, time clock, tip pool and payroll export for each location. For New York pay rules, that means:

• Positions and wages. Give each position a default hourly wage, for example the tipped cash wage for servers and at least the minimum wage for cooks. Mays doesn't check wages against the minimum wage, so update them yourself when the rate changes on January 1, 2027.
• A tip pool per location. Split pooled tips by hours worked, equally or by FTAR score, per pay period or day by day, and choose which positions receive. Until you choose, everyone who worked gets a share, cooks included, so if you take a tip credit, pick only tipped positions, and make sure every punch carries a position: once positions are picked, a punch without one gets no share. When you set it up, turn on Leave managers and admins out of the pool: it's off by default. The tips come from your connected POS at that location (Square) or from tips synced with 7shifts time punches, and each person's share appears in the Tip Payouts report and the payroll export.
• The tip-credit make-up is yours to check. Mays doesn't compare a tipped employee's cash wages plus tips with the minimum wage, so check each workweek the way the server example above does.
• Time clock and timesheets. Staff clock in on their phone, a shared kiosk or an NFC tag. Timesheets run by pay period, and overtime is counted by the workweek, with an optional daily threshold for states that have one.
• Payroll export. A standard CSV or a Gusto-format CSV with regular and overtime hours and pooled tips for each employee.
• Spread of hours and call-in pay are yours to add. Mays has no New York rules pack, so it doesn't add the extra hour for a day longer than 10 hours or work out call-in pay. Its reporting-pay rule follows California's formula, so leave it off for a New York location.
• Keep cooks and dishwashers out of the pool, tip credit or not. Under Who receives, pick only positions that serve guests, like servers, bartenders, bussers, runners and hosts.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from these official pages, as they read on the date shown.

• New York State, New York State's minimum wage, checked September 24, 2026
• New York State Department of Labor, minimum wage for tipped workers, checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, state minimum wage laws, checked September 24, 2026
• New York Hospitality Industry Wage Order (12 NYCRR Part 146), checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #15: tipped employees under the FLSA, checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, overtime pay, checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, tips under the FLSA, checked September 24, 2026
• New York State Department of Labor, tips and gratuities FAQ, checked September 24, 2026
• New York Labor Law § 162, meal periods, checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, breaks and meal periods, checked September 24, 2026
• New York State Department of Labor, meal and rest periods FAQ, checked September 24, 2026
• New York State Department of Labor, hours of work for minors, checked September 24, 2026
• New York State, paid sick leave, checked September 24, 2026
• NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, Protected Time Off law for employers, checked September 24, 2026
• NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, Fair Workweek FAQ for fast food, checked September 24, 2026

This page is general information, not legal advice. Laws change, and coverage rules (your business's size, whether federal law covers you) decide which of them apply. Check the pages above, and ask an employment lawyer or accountant about your situation.

Run New York payroll on the right numbers

Set each position's wage, turn on the tip pool with managers left out, and let the time clock count overtime by the workweek. Then payroll is an export, not an evening.

Start your free trial: 30 days, every module, no card needed. Setting up a tip pool? Read Tip pooling for new restaurant owners.