New York Adopts Increased Salary Thresholds for Minimum Wage and Overtime Exemptions

Seyfarth Synopsis: New York State formally adopted regulations increasing the salary thresholds for minimum wage and overtime exemptions for “executive” or “administrative” employee under the New York Labor Law.  Employers should review their pay practices to ensure compliance with these changes taking effect January 1, 2024.

As previously reported here, the New York Department of Labor (“NYDOL”) proposed regulations to increase the salary threshold for minimum wage and overtime exemptions under the New York Labor Law.  On December 27, 2023, New York issued a notice that the NYDOL has adopted the proposed regulations, the final version of which can be found here. 

Effective January 1, 2024, the new salary thresholds for the “executive” and “administrative” exemptions will be:

 

	New York City, Westchester, and Long Island	The Rest of New York State
2024	$1,200.00/week ($62,400.00/year)	$1,124.20/week ($58,458.40/year)
2025	$1,237.50/week ($64,350.00/year)	$1,161.65/week ($60,405.80/year)
2026	$1,275.00/week ($66,300.00/year)	$1,199.10/week ($62,353.20/year)

 

In addition to the salary threshold, to be an exempt “executive” or “administrative” employee for purposes of minimum wage and overtime under these regulations, the employee must perform certain duties, which are unchanged under the new regulations.

As a further reminder, New York does not have a higher salary threshold than federal law with respect to an “employee employed in a bona fide professional capacity.”  As such, the professional exemption under New York law will continue to be subject to the federal professional exemption salary threshold, currently set at $684.00 per week ($35,568.00 per year). 

Moreover, as previously reported here, New York increased these thresholds for other purposes under the Labor Law which do not affect the salary thresholds for minimum wage and overtime exemption.  Those changes go into effect on March 13, 2024.

Finally, New York previously approved increases to the minimum wage rate effective January 1, 2024, as we discussed here. 

We strongly recommend that employers with New York operations review and revise their pay policies and procedures to ensure compliance with these new laws and regulations. 

Please reach out to any of the authors – or your Seyfarth attorney – with any questions.