Spread of Hours

New York restaurant workers are entitled to an extra hour of pay when the work day spans more than ten hours.

Under New York law, a restaurant worker whose workday is longer than ten hours must receive an extra hour of pay at the minimum hourly wage (which ranges from $15.00 to $16.00, depending on location in New York) in addition to pay for the actual hours worked. For example, let’s say a waiter in a large NYC restaurant works a double shift, the first shift running from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and the second shift running from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.  That waiter is entitled to eight hours of pay for the shifts he worked plus one extra hour of pay at the minimum wage (i.e. $16.00) because his start to finish time (the “spread of hours”) of his workday exceeded ten hours.