Minimum Wage in New York state Jumps to $12.50, NYC Remains at $15

By Yehudit Garmaise 

   Today the New York state minimum wage jumped from $11.80 to $12.50 an hour, except in New York City, where all businesses are already required to pay $15 per hour.

   The minimum wages in Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties will increase to $14 per hour today.

    The rest of the state, however, in the coming year, will pay $12.50 an hour, a rate that will remain until Dec. 30, 2021, at which point the rate will be increased every year until all of New York state pays at least $15 an hour.

   New York’s plan to eventually raise all minimum wage earners salaries to $15 an hour will lift the earnings of 2.1 million New Yorkers in all the industries across the state, Gov. Andrew Cuomo wrote today in a statement.

   To publicize their adoption of the state-mandated minimum wage laws, all employers are required to hang posters that provides minimum wage information somewhere in their establishments, so that employees know what they should expect to be paid, according to New York's Department of Labor.

   The New York labor website also reveals that the state can help workers to collect them payment when they have not received the latest state-mandated minimum wage rates.

    “We help collect underpayments for workers who have not received the minimum wage,” says the state's labor department, which added that it collects the owed funds without resorting to court action.  “However, an employer that violates the Minimum Wage Law is subject to criminal prosecution and penalties. Action may also be taken in civil court.”