New York Restaurant Workers Receive Minimum Wage Increase in 2019

The minimum wage rate for New York State restaurant employees will increase in 2019.  

Front-of-the-house workers who receive tips (e.g., waiters, bussers, bartenders, and runners) are to be paid at an increased “tipped minimum wage rate,” which varies by number of employees and location;

Note that a restaurant can take a “tip credit” towards its minimum wage obligation and pay the tipped minimum wage rate only if it provides certain information to the tipped employee.

The 2019 minimum wage rate for back-of-the-house employees (e.g., cooks, dishwashers, and kitchen workers) is as follows;

All restaurant employees must be paid on an hourly basis, unless they are managing the restaurant.  A weekly salary or a fixed amount per shift or per day can be illegal because it does not compensate restaurant employees for overtime hours worked over forty per workweek. A common restaurant wage theft violation is for kitchen workers to be paid on a salary and therefore not paid at the overtime rate of time and a half when they work over 40 hours in one workweek.

If you have not been paid at the correct minimum wage or have not received time-and-a-half for your overtime hours (hours after40 in a work week), please call the attorneys of Pechman Law Group at 212-583-9500 for a free consultation.

‍