Hochul announces agreement to increase New York's minimum wage

Beginning in 2024, state will raise minimum wage to $16 in New York City, Long Island & Westchester, $15 elsewhere in NYS – followed by 50-cent annual increases in 2025 & 2026

√ Beginning in 2027, minimum wage will increase annually according to Consumer Price Index

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the fiscal year 2024 budget agreement includes a “transformative plan to help low-wage New Yorkers keep up with the rising cost of living by increasing New York's minimum wage for three years, and then tying future increases to inflation.”

On Jan. 1, 2024, the minimum wage will increase to $16 in New York City and the counties of Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester, and to $15 in all other parts of the state. In 2025 and 2026, the minimum wage will increase by an additional 50 cents in each year, after which the state's minimum wage would increase at a rate determined by the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) for the Northeast Region – what Hochul’s team called “the best regional measure of inflation.”

Her team added, “Raising New York's minimum wage to keep pace with inflation will benefit hundreds of thousands of minimum wage workers across the state.”

Hochul said, "In the face of steadily rising costs and inflation, this historic plan to overhaul New York's minimum wage will ensure that the wages of those hit hardest by the affordability crisis – including women, single mothers, and people of color – keep pace with the cost of living. This is a win for workers and for businesses: Indexing the minimum wage to inflation will help hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers maintain their purchasing power, contribute to the state economy, and support our small business community. This budget reaffirms my administration's commitment to addressing the affordability crisis for workers and businesses, and I will continue to work closely with the Legislature on solutions to provide New Yorkers with relief."

Following three years of set growth in 2024, 2025 and 2026, beginning Jan. 1, 2027, New York state will increase its minimum wage by the three-year moving average of the CPI-W for the Northeast Region. An "off-ramp" is available in the event of certain economic or budget conditions.

A press release stated, “Indexing the minimum wage to inflation will help to maintain the purchasing power of workers' wages from year to year. And increasing the minimum wage would overwhelmingly benefit low-income workers, particularly women and people of color who comprise a disproportionate share of minimum wage workers.

“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. Economic research shows that raising the minimum wage can lead to reductions in poverty, reduced social assistance spending, stimulative spending, improved worker productivity, and other benefits.”