New York’s tipped food-service workers will not get a raise in their base pay on January 1. The state Labor Department’s minimum wage page lists the cash wage for tipped food-service workers at $11.35 an hour in New York City, Long Island and Westchester, and $10.70 an hour in the rest of the state, and says that “on January 1, 2027, New York’s minimum wage will stay the same.”

The two tipped food-service rates

The department’s table shows each cash wage alongside a tip credit, which is the amount an employer may count toward the minimum wage from the tips a worker receives. In New York City, Long Island and Westchester, the cash wage for tipped food-service workers is $11.35 with a $5.65 tip credit. In the rest of the state it is $10.70 with a $5.30 tip credit.

Add each cash wage to its credit and the full minimum wage comes back. In the three downstate areas, $11.35 plus $5.65 is $17.00. Upstate, $10.70 plus $5.30 is $16.00. Those are the state’s 2027 minimum wage rates, which the department lists as $17.00 an hour for New York City, Long Island and Westchester and $16.00 an hour for the rest of the state. The department says only hospitality employers may take a tip credit.

Does the state’s wage rule reach tipped work, or does a server stay where they are? For tipped food-service workers, the answer on January 1 is the second one: the state is keeping the same cash wage, so a server’s base pay stays at $11.35 an hour downstate and $10.70 upstate. Tips still decide the rest of the paycheck, and the credit is the gap the employer is allowed to count on from tips. For a 40-hour week, the cash wage alone comes to $454 downstate and $428 upstate, before any tips.

The $11.35 and $10.70 cash wages are tied to the state minimum wage, which the Labor Department says holds on January 1, 2027, so the numbers to watch next are whatever the department posts for the following year.

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The regional gap is small in the cash wage and larger in the full minimum. The two food-service cash wages differ by 65 cents an hour, $11.35 against $10.70, while the full minimums differ by $1.00, $17.00 against $16.00. The remaining 35 cents sits in the tip credit, which is $5.65 downstate and $5.30 upstate. Over a 40-hour week, that 65-cent difference in cash wage is $26.

Tipped service employees are different

New York keeps a second tipped category on the same table, for service employees. Their cash wage is $14.15 an hour with a $2.85 tip credit in New York City, Long Island and Westchester, and $13.30 with a $2.70 credit in the rest of the state. Both categories are unchanged on January 1. The smaller credit means a service employee’s employer counts less of the tips toward the minimum, and the base wage is higher.

A worker unsure which of the two groups a job falls in can put the question to the Labor Department, whose page lists both.

Where other states are moving

New York is one of the states where January brings no change. Minnesota’s Department of Labor and Industry lists its minimum wage at $11.87 an hour on January 1, 2027, with a $9.68 training wage. A worker comparing New York with a neighboring state should look at the wage and the tip credit together, since the cash wage alone does not give the full picture.

What a tipped worker’s cash wage adds up to in each region

The free source is the New York State Department of Labor’s minimum wage page, which carries every figure here. A tipped food-service worker can check the region first: New York City, Long Island and Westchester use the higher column, and every other county uses the lower one.

Then compare a recent pay stub with the table. The stub should show a cash wage of at least $11.35 downstate or $10.70 upstate for a food-service job, with tips reported on top. Add the tip credit to the cash wage and the total should equal $17.00 downstate or $16.00 upstate, which is the minimum the employer must make sure the worker reaches.

If the numbers on the stub do not match the table, the Labor Department is the office that publishes them. Every rate in this story, from the $11.35 and $10.70 cash wages to the $5.65 and $5.30 tip credits, comes from that page.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.