New York restaurant labor laws

New York: overtime after 40h a week, $16.00 minimum wage, 30-min meal break after 6h, night limits for minors. Every figure sourced.

The figures ShiftNivo schedules against in New York, read from the source linked at the bottom of this page.

Updated October 17, 2026

Start with New York's rules loaded →No credit card. Free during early access.

What the engine does not model here

Checked here, by the date a shift starts on and in the workspace's week: the spread of hours (one more hour at the minimum wage past 10 hours from first start to last end) and call-in pay (3, 6 or 8 hours for one, two or three shifts a day), both priced with no tip credit; meal periods by the time of day (for a shift of more than 6 hours, 30 minutes between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., or 45 if it starts between 1 p.m. and 6 a.m., of which the Department of Labor accepts 30; and 20 more between 5 and 7 p.m. for a day from before 11 a.m. to past 7 p.m.); and 24 hours off in a row each week. Not checked: call-in pay is owed only up to the length of a person's fixed weekly shift, which one week cannot show; being sent home early; breaks under 20 minutes, which are paid time; uniform maintenance pay; the dual-job tip credit rule; the New York City, Long Island and Westchester figures ($17.00), which apply only once picked under City or county; who is exempt from the day of rest (a foreman in charge, and resort or seasonal restaurants in small communities); and New York City's Fair Workweek law, which covers fast-food chains and retailers with 20 or more employees in the city.

Overtime

Daily: No separate rule*
Weekly: after 40h · 1.5×
Double time: No separate rule*

Rest between shifts: No separate rule*
Eating period: 30 min after 6h
Minimum wage: $16.00since 2026-01-01
Default time zone: America/New_York

* “No separate rule” means the engine does not enforce one here. That is not the same as saying the jurisdiction has none.

City and county minimum wages · 2

Some cities and counties in this state set their own minimum wage or tipped wage above the state's, and a restaurant they cover pays the higher one. When you set a location's labor rules, ShiftNivo offers these right after the state. Figures as they stood on October 16, 2026, from each place's own page or its state's; each place changes them on its own dates, most often January 1 or July 1.

Long Island and Westchester
Minimum wage
$17.00since January 1, 2026
Tipped cash wage
$11.35since January 1, 2026
Next change
Unchanged on January 1, 2027, as announced
Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties, with the same figures as New York City.
Minimum Wage - New York State Department of Labor
New York City
Minimum wage
$17.00since January 1, 2026
Tipped cash wage
$11.35since January 1, 2026
Next change
Unchanged on January 1, 2027, as announced
Every employer. $11.35 is the cash wage of food service workers in hospitality; other tipped service staff are owed $14.15. The credit is lost in a week when tips average under $3.65 an hour.
Minimum Wage - New York State Department of Labor

Public holidays · 11

A public holiday carries no statutory premium for a private employer under federal law, so these are shown as observed days. Eleven federal holidays are assigned to every state, with a few recognized state holidays added; a state's own full list is not complete here.

Christmas DayDecember 25
Columbus Daysecond Monday in October
Independence DayJuly 4
JuneteenthJune 19
Labor Dayfirst Monday in September
Memorial Daylast Monday in May
Martin Luther King Jr. Daythird Monday in January
New Year's DayJanuary 1
Presidents' Daythird Monday in February
Thanksgivingfourth Thursday in November
Veterans DayNovember 11

Youth hours

The bands the product checks for New York. United States figures come from the Department of Labor — its state table as published on 15 July 2025, or its federal rules — and are corrected from the state's own source where the table is wrong. Permits, supervision and exemptions sit underneath every band, and each one says what is not checked. Confirm with the state before relying on them.

Under 14
Not permitted
Federal floor. 14 is the minimum age for most non-agricultural work.
Ages 14 to 15
School day
3h
Non-school day
8h
School week
18h
Week
40h
Days a week
6
Not between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.
June 1 to Labor Day: not after 9 p.m.
The evening limit moves to 9 p.m. outside the school year. No more than 6 days in a week, checked here in the workspace's week. Figures as published by the US Department of Labor on 15 July 2025. Confirm them with your state labor department.
Ages 16 to 17
School day
4h
Non-school day
8h
School week
28h
Week
48h
Days a week
6
Not between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., on school nights
If enrolled in school. Eight hours on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or a holiday; midnight with written permission from both a parent and the school. The evening limit binds only on a night before a school day. No more than 6 days in a week, checked here in the workspace's week. A resort or seasonal restaurant in a rural community, or in a city or village of fewer than fifteen thousand people, is exempt (Labor Law 143(5)); the board cannot tell one, so it flags a seventh day there too. Figures as published by the US Department of Labor on 15 July 2025. Confirm them with your state labor department.

Source: dol.gov/agencies/whd/youthrules · dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/child-labor

Minors →

What ShiftNivo checks for you here

Overtime after 40 hours in a week, priced as you build, with a warning four hours before anyone crosses it.
A shift longer than 6 hours without its 30-minute eating period.
Workers under 18: the minimum age, the hours in a day and in a week, and the evening limit, read from a birth date and marked as errors, not warnings.
A minor's days of work in a week at ages 14 to 17, against the limit of 6, with every location's shifts counted together.
11 public holidays, each flagged the week before it arrives.
Everywhere: double bookings, approved time off, and shifts outside the hours someone said they can work.

Start with New York's rules loaded →

Next door

The rules one border over, for a second location or a team that crosses it.

The federal standard: Federal (FLSA) →All 66 jurisdictions →

This is reference data, not legal advice.

Every figure on this page was read from the source linked beside it and carries the date it took effect. Minimum wages are indexed once or twice a year in most jurisdictions — usually on 1 April or 1 October — so this table is reviewed on a schedule rather than when somebody notices.

Employment standards change, and a restaurant's obligations depend on facts no software can see: an exemption, a collective agreement, a municipal ordinance, the particular job somebody does. Some rules are deliberately not modeled, and where that is true this page says which.

Treat these figures as a starting point. Confirm them against the source before relying on them for pay, and take advice about your own situation.

Found something wrong? Corrections get fixed first. hello@shiftnivo.com

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