The federal law that establishes minimum wage and overtime pay is known as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). However, in New York City, the employers must abide by the minimum wage standards set forth by the New York Labor Standards Department, which is $15 per hour for employers with 11 or more employees in the City, $12 an hour in Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester Counties, and $11.10 an hour for the rest of New York for anyone not in the hospitality industry.
The law also states who can and cannot be considered exempt from receiving overtime pay (the difference between salaried and hourly employees). Under the FSLA, a person making $455 per week or more can be salaried instead of hourly and exempt from overtime pay.
However, the New York Labor Standards Departments states that an employee in a company of 11 or more employees in New York City borders must earn $1,1125 a week ($58,500 a year) to be exempt. In the city, a firm with 10 or fewer employees must pay exempt employees $1,012.50 per week or more.
The standard in Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester Counties is $900 per week and the remainder of New York state is $832 per week. Under the laws in New York City, anyone who is classified as a non-exempt employee is to be paid 1.5 times their hourly rate for any hours worked over 40 hours during a workweek.
Finally, the New York Equal Pay Act makes it illegal for employers to pay make and females doing the same job, having the same classifications, and working the same amount of time within the company to be paid differently. This applies to all employers, whether they have 1 employee or 1,000 or more employees.
Derek Smith
3 min. read
Derek Smith