What do you need to know to hire in New York?
A progressive income tax topping out at 10.9%, a $17 downstate wage floor, Paid Family Leave, and a 90-day state WARN Act. Each New York guide below takes one layer of state rule.
· New York, United States guide
Illustration · Albany, New York
New York runs one of the heaviest state stacks in the country. A progressive income tax topping out at 10.9%, an extra New York City tax on city residents, Paid Family Leave, statutory disability, and paid sick leave all sit on top of the federal floor.
The federal baseline is identical to every other state: FLSA, FICA, FUTA and FMLA. Everything New York adds, the $17,600 unemployment base, the leave programmes, and its own 90-day WARN Act, is what these guides cover.
Most employers budget for the income tax and miss the 90-day state WARN notice that triggers at just 50 employees. This page is the map; each guide is the detail.
What do you need to know to hire in New York?
New York runs on the federal employment floor with a heavy state layer on top of almost every line. There's a progressive state income tax topping out at 10.9%, an extra New York City tax up to 3.876% on city residents, a $17 downstate minimum wage, and overtime after 40 hours a week.
Where New York gets specific is its leave stack and its separation rules: Paid Family Leave, statutory disability, paid sick leave, and a state WARN Act that bites at 50 employees. Each guide below takes one of those layers.
Sienna runs payroll for a 12-person team and just approved her first New York hire. The federal stack she already knows still applies: Social Security at 6.2% each side to $184,500, FUTA, and FMLA once the company passes 50 employees. New York layers a progressive income tax, employee-funded leave programmes, statutory disability, and its own 90-day WARN notice on top.
Start from the United States overview for the federal baseline. This page is the New York-specific layer, and the guides below break it into the questions an employer actually asks before a first hire.
What does an employer actually pay in New York?
New York-specific cost is the unemployment-insurance tax, employee-funded leave deductions, and the federal pass-through. State income tax is withheld, not an employer cost, but city residents owe an extra New York City tax on top.
Unemployment insurance runs on a $17,600 taxable wage base. A new employer starts at 3.4%, and experience-rated accounts land between 1.625% and 9.425%.
State income tax: progressive, topping out at 10.9% on the highest earners. New York City tax: city residents pay an extra local income tax up to 3.876%. Minimum wage: $17 an hour downstate (NYC, Long Island, Westchester), with $11.35 cash for tipped food-service roles. Overtime: time and a half after 40 hours a week, no general daily rule.
Unemployment insurance: a $17,600 wage base, 3.4% for a new employer, 1.625% to 9.425% once experience-rated. State leave: Paid Family Leave at 12 weeks and statutory disability at up to 26 weeks, both employee-funded. Final pay: on the next regularly-scheduled payday for both a resignation and a discharge.
Sources: New York State Department of Labor, 2026 UI rates and US DOL state minimum wage.
The figures above are the headline. The detail, from withholding setup to the NYC resident tax, the SUTA filing cadence, the tip credit, and the exempt-salary threshold, sits in the New York tax and unemployment guide and the wage and overtime guide.
The New York guides, one layer at a time
Four New York guides are live, one per layer of state rule. Each answers the questions an employer asks before the first hire, with the statutory numbers pulled from the same New York source set.
State income tax & unemployment insurance
The progressive brackets up to 10.9%, the extra NYC resident tax, the $17,600 SUTA wage base, new-employer and experience rates, and the quarterly filing rhythm.
Wage, overtime & meal break law
The $17 downstate floor, the 40-hour overtime week, the spread-of-hours rule, the tip credit, and New York's meal-period law.
Paid family & sick leave
Paid Family Leave at 12 weeks, statutory disability (DBL) at up to 26 weeks, NY State Paid Sick Leave, and how federal FMLA stacks at 50+ employees.
Termination & at-will exceptions
At-will with New York's public-policy limits, the next-payday final-pay rule, and the state WARN Act's 90-day notice at 50 employees.
The New York worker-classification guide, the state's test for employee versus contractor, is the next one we're building. Need it sooner? Tell us and we'll move it up the queue.
How does New York compare to its neighbours?
New York runs one of the heaviest state stacks in the region, but each neighbour breaks the pattern somewhere. The federal floor is identical; the state layer is not.
Cross a state line and the math changes. Connecticut runs its own paid-leave programme and a separate income-tax schedule. New Jersey mandates severance on a WARN layoff, which New York does not. Pennsylvania levies a flat state income tax instead of New York's progressive brackets and runs no state paid-family-leave programme.
If you're hiring across the region, read each state's guides before you set payroll. The structure is the same everywhere; the SUTA base, the leave mandate, and the termination rules are not.
How does Teamed hire in New York for you?
Teamed becomes your legal employer of record in New York for $599 per employee per month, flat, with zero FX mark-up in any currency. Payroll, state and NYC withholding, the Paid Family Leave and disability deductions, and the federal stack run on one platform.
There's no setup fee and no exit fee, and statutory employer cost passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
Real HR and legal experts handle your New York hires, from the first offer letter to a contested termination. An actual person, not a chatbot or a pooled queue, who knows the NYC resident-tax setup and the 90-day state WARN clock. There's no setup fee and no exit fee, the platform tracks every federal trigger in real time, and statutory employer cost passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
Contractor onboarding, EOR payroll, and entity setup live on one platform. A New York contractor who converts to W-2 keeps their record, and that same employee can graduate from EOR to your own US entity without re-onboarding. Run the Crossover Calculator to see the month the model flips. EOR is the right model for a first New York hire, until it isn't.
New York reads as the high-tax state, and it is, but the income tax is only the start. The Paid Family Leave deduction, the statutory disability cover, the paid-sick-leave bands, and a state WARN Act that fires at 50 employees all stack on top. These guides exist so the first New York hire never becomes the first New York filing.
New York is the heavy state to hire in. A progressive income tax over 10%, an extra New York City tax, and a leave stack most states never built.
The cost is not just the tax. Paid Family Leave, disability cover, sick leave, and a state WARN Act that fires at 50 people.
Read the right guide before the first hire.
