Governor Hochul: “New Yorkers are getting a pay raise. First of all, January 1st, the minimum wage will go into effect. It goes to $16 an hour in New York City, Westchester and Long Island. $15 an hour in Upstate, including right here in Albany. And going forward in the future, we'll be indexing the minimum wage for the first time ever to inflation.”
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the start of a statewide public awareness effort to ensure that New Yorkers earning minimum wage receive the state’s historic minimum wage increase when it takes effect next year. On January 1, per an agreement between Governor Hochul and the New York State Legislature, New York’s minimum wage will increase to $16-per-hour in New York City, Westchester, and Long Island, and $15-per-hour for the rest of the state. Raising New York's minimum wage to keep pace with inflation will benefit hundreds of thousands of minimum wage workers across the state.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the event is available here.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Before we get started, I'd like to highlight some bit of good news for 2024. New Yorkers are getting a pay raise. First of all, January 1st, the minimum wage will go into effect. It goes to $16 an hour in New York City, Westchester and Long Island. $15 an hour in Upstate, including right here in Albany. And going forward in the future, we'll be indexing the minimum wage for the first time ever to inflation. So,families can finally start getting ahead, which is so important to all of us.
The Department of Labor is launching a public relations campaign to make sure that people know that if their paycheck does not go up and they're minimum wage earners, they need to report that because there could be instances of wage theft where the employers do not ensure that the increase goes into effect. So, we want to make sure everyone is aware of that.