New Minimum Wage Rates & Discrimination Protections in New York State

December 31st is just around the corner, which means employees in New York State will soon be getting a minimum wage increase. In addition, changes to New York State’s Human Rights Law have resulted in updates to the Discrimination poster. Keep reading to find out all the details.

Minimum Wage Rates for Miscellaneous Industries

New York State’s Department of Labor (DOL) has just released the Miscellaneous Industry Employees’ minimum wage poster, which has a revision date of 12/18. All employers in New York State are required to display this poster, which reflects hourly wage rates based on an employer’s location.

Effective December 31, 2018, through December 30, 2019, the following wage rates will apply:

In New York City —

• The minimum wage will be $15.00 per hour for employers with 11 or more employees.
• The minimum wage will be $13.50 per hour for employers with 10 or fewer employees.

In Long Island & Westchester County —

• The minimum wage will be $12.00 per hour.

In the remainder of New York State —

• The minimum wage will be $11.10 per hour.

Additional Minimum Wage Posting Requirements

Employers in certain specific industries are also required to obtain and post the minimum wage poster that applies to their industry. These include the apparel, building service, hospitality, and farm industries. Industry-specific posters can be downloaded from the New York State Labor Standards Forms and Publications page, under “Minimum Wage Forms,” with the exception of the farm poster, which can be found under “Farm Labor.”

Discrimination Updates for New York State

New York State’s Human Rights Law now prohibits discrimination in employment based on pregnancy and gender identity. These protected classes have been added to the Discrimination poster, along with the information provided below.

Also prohibited in the workplace is sexual harassment or harassment based on any of the protected classes in the law.

One more change to the law employers should be aware of is that in addition to reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities, reasonable accommodations may be required for employees with pregnancy-related conditions.

Compliance Made Easy!

If you have not already done so, we encourage you to order our 1-Year Compliance Plan, so that you will automatically receive the updated New York State poster as soon as it is available. And because we provide free poster updates for mandatory changes, no matter how many occur during the plan year, you can always count on Poster Compliance Center to keep your business in compliance!