$1.7M NY Minimum Wage Workers To Get Pay Raise Jan. 1

NEW YORK — Hourly workers in New York are among millions of Americans in 22 states who will bring home more pay in 2024, according to a new study from the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., left-leaning think tank that analyzes the economic impact of policies and proposals.

The minimum wage increases to $16 an hour on Jan. 1 for workers in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County, up from $15. For the rest of the state, the minimum wage will increase to $15 from $14.20.

The tipped minimum wage for New York City, Long Island and Westchester County will be $10.65 an hour, up from $10 in 2023. For the rest of the state, the tipped minimum wage will be $10 per hour, up from $9.45.

The wage adjustments affect 1,717,600 minimum wage workers in New York, who on average will bring home an extra $878 a year in pay.

The raises affect 19.8 percent of the workforce. In New York, 342,800 children, representing 22.4 percent of all children in the state, will be affected by the increases.

Other states with minimum wage increases on Jan. 1 are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, and Washington.

The Economic Policy Institute estimates some 9.9 million workers will receive $6.95 billion in additional wages with the New Year’s Day pay bumps. In the absence of federal action to raise the minimum wage, states and localities are taking the lead in advancing fairer wage floors through legislation, ballot measures and automatic inflation adjustments, the group said.

The analysis shows women will make up 57.9 percent of workers getting a pay raise on Jan. 1. The raises also disproportionately benefit Black and Hispanic workers, the report said.

Black workers comprise 9 percent of the workforce in states with increases but represent 11 percent of workers affected by the increases. Hispanic workers make up 19.6 percent of the workforce in affected states and are nearly 40 percent of the people getting raises Jan. 1.

Families will also benefit. Just over 25 percent of affected workers, or 2.5 million people, are minimum wage workers. Overall, some 5.6 million children live in homes where an individual will get a pay raise.

The report said almost 1 in 5 workers getting a raise have incomes below the federal poverty level. Nearly half have incomes two times below the poverty line.

More than 17 million workers still earn less than $15 an hour, according to the analysis — nearly half of them in the 20 states that use the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour or have no minimum wage.

States with $7.25 minimum wages are Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee have no minimum wage.