New Yorkers will see minimum wage hikes on New Year’s Day, with the rate rising to $17 per hour in the Big Apple, Westchester and Long Island while reaching $16 in the rest of the state.
The $0.50-an-hour hikes will mark the third minimum-wage increase in three years and come as nearly two dozen states are increasing their own minimum wages in 2026.
In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers agreed to a series of hikes starting in 2024, when NYC, Westchester and Long Island’s minimum wage went from $15 to $16. That was followed by a $0.50 increase this year. Starting in 2027, future hikes will be tied to the Consumer Price Index — that is, the percentage change in prices that consumers pay for goods and services — according to Hochul’s office.
The rest of the state also saw $0.50 minimum-wage increases in 2024 and 2025, though the baseline was $1 less than in the Big Apple. Future hikes there will be tied to the CPI, which is considered a strong gauge of inflation, too.
The pay bumps came after New York City’s minimum wage had been the same — $15 — for years.
The recent legislation, pushed by progressives in the Dem-controlled state legislature, is part of a national trend in which at least 22 states are set to increase their minimum wages next year.
The policy is expected to affect more than 8.3 million workers, according to a review from the lefty Economic Policy Institute.
In addition to New York, states raising the minimum wage on Jan. 1 include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
Alaska, Florida and Oregon have scheduled hikes for later in the year, Axios noted.
Hawaii is set to post the biggest single increase, boosting its minimum wage by $2 — to $16 an hour — on Jan. 1.
Nebraska and Missouri will both cross the $15 threshold on New Year’s Day, with Nebraska jumping $1.50 to $15 and Missouri rising $1.25 to the same level.
Florida will reach $15 an hour on Sept. 30, marking the final step in a voter-approved plan to lift wages by $1 per year every year until hitting that threshold.
Washington will retain the highest minimum wage in the country, rising to $17.13 an hour on Jan. 1. The state uses a set formula based on inflation to determine annual hikes.
In the Golden State, workers will get a minimum of $16.90 per hour, though fast food employees already get $20 an hour at large chains.
Several states will make smaller, inflation-linked increases.
New Jersey’s minimum wage will reach $15.92, though the state maintains multiple wage tiers. For instance, long-term care facility direct care staff will earn $18.92 an hour, one of the highest industry-specific floors in the nation.
The increases arrive as inflation continues to squeeze household budgets, particularly for lower-income workers.
Advocates argue the hikes are necessary just to keep up with the cost of living, noting that $15 an hour — once a rallying cry for unions and their sympathizers — doesn’t stretch as far as it did a decade ago.
Labor activists launched the “Fight for $15” movement around 2012, when the idea was widely dismissed as unrealistic. Today, a $15-per-hour minimum wage is increasingly the norm.
Still, business owners warn the coming wave of increases could squeeze small employers just as hiring slows and automation accelerates.
“Higher minimum wages tend to help older workers who already have experience and are working part-time to supplement income,” Dean Lyulkin, CEO of Cardiff, a small business loan company, told The Post.
“For younger workers, especially in an age of AI and automation, the real challenge is not pay; it is access.”
Lyulkin said raising labor costs risk shutting inexperienced workers out of entry-level jobs altogether.
“When entry-level labor becomes more expensive, the first thing that disappears is the opportunity to get hired and learn on the job,” he explained.
Small businesses, he added, are far less equipped than corporate employers to absorb rising wage mandates.
“Large companies in construction and food service can absorb higher labor costs through scale and capital. Small contractors cannot,” Lyulkin said.
“They are locked into highly competitive bids written months ago, so higher wages squeeze margins immediately and push owners to hire fewer helpers, not more.”
Restaurants face similar pressure, particularly independents operating on thin margins.
“If an independent steakhouse is already running on margins below 5%, there is simply no room to absorb additional wage pressure,” Lyulkin said.
“Owners respond by cutting hours, automating where possible, and slowing hiring altogether.”
The timing of the minimum wage increases is compounding existing headwinds, he continued.
“At the same time we are hearing about a slowing labor market and AI reducing entry-level roles, we are also making it more expensive to hire inexperienced workers,” Lyulkin said.
“Those forces compound. Employers become more cautious, not more generous.”
Lyulkin said Cardiff’s small-business clients are less concerned about paying workers more than surviving the transition.
“Rising wages, higher rents, input costs, and regulation are all hitting at once,” he remarked.
“Something has to give.”
This story originally appeared on NYPost
