For the first time in several years, New York employers are heading into a new year without a scheduled increase to the state's standard minimum wage. Right now, you may be thinking, “Great! I don't need to do anything with employee compensation this year.”, but it could be a huge missed opportunity if you don't recognize just how unusual—and potentially valuable—this pause is for your business with a few strategic actions..

Beginning November 8, 2026, New York employers will be required to provide employees and former employees with access to their personnel records upon request. While many employers already provide some level of access, this new law creates specific timelines, notice requirements, record retention obligations, and employee rights that employers should prepare for now.

On top of heightened audit activity, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has also recently (and quietly) updated their definitions of what are considered more serious and automatic fine-inducing offenses (errors) on I-9 forms- forms all employers are required to complete for all employees within 3 days of their hire date. This means once were once correctable errors are now unavoidable financial penalties.

Know better. Do better. Be better :-)

There are many HR and HR-Adjacent items to be on the lookout for this month, and others coming up. These actions and compliance items fall on the HR task plate to complete. Make sure they are your radar.

You might have an extra pay period planned in 2026 you didn’t know about… until now! Consider and plan for what this means..

The "Big Beautiful Bill" made some overtime wages exempt from a portion of Federal income tax for employees starting in 2025. This is an employee-exemption and benefit, which may seem to imply employers don't have much to do in response, but as is the case with many things of this nature, unfortunately there are employer requirements and burdens required as part of this bill that do land squarely in your laps.

A lot of employers assume that hiring family means different rules apply. In New York State, that is almost never true. NYS treats family employees the same as any other employee — and misunderstanding this is a major audit trigger.

Get our list of required actions as we start 2026, along with recommended best-practice actions to help you stay compliant, reduce risk, and get ahead of the growing employee expectations around flexibility, workplace exceptions, and overall work-life balance.

Beginning in 2026, the New York Secure Choice Savings Program (“Secure Choice”) becomes mandatory for many employers who do not already offer a retirement plan- but also requires actions by those that do.