New York City Tip Calculator
New York City has one sales-tax rate across all five boroughs: 8.875%. Here is a calculator that starts from it.
Sales tax in New York City
New York State's 4%, New York City's 4.5% and the 0.375% Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District surcharge. Unlike a statewide average this is one rate actually in force, across all five boroughs (reporting code 8081).
- State rate
- 4%
- Local
- 4.875%
- Combined
- 8.875%
NY Dept. of Taxation and Finance — rates as of 1 March 2025.
New York City lets employers count tips toward the minimum wage
New York sets tipped rates by region and type of employer, and only hospitality employers may take a tip credit at all. For tipped food service workers the state publishes an $11.35 cash wage plus a $5.65 tip credit in New York City, Long Island and Westchester, and $10.70 plus $5.30 in the rest of the state.
- Minimum wage
- $17.00 downstate, $16.00 upstate
- Cash wage before tips
- $11.35 downstate, $10.70 upstate (food service)
- Maximum tip credit
- $5.65 downstate, $5.30 upstate (food service)
NY Dept. of Labor — as of 22 October 2026.
This is here because people ask about it and are often told the opposite of the truth. It is a fact about what an employer must pay, not a rule about what you should add. The amount is yours — including nothing.
What else is worth knowing in New York City
8.875% is a real rate, not an average
Most of the figures on this site's state pages are population-weighted averages across thousands of local rates. New York City is the exception: 8.875% is one rate actually in force, listed by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance under reporting code 8081, and it is the same in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. It is made up of the state's 4%, the city's 4.5% and a 0.375% Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District surcharge.
What that does to a 20% tip
At 8.875% the difference between 20% of the subtotal and 20% of the tax-included total is about 1.8% of the subtotal — on a $100 dinner, roughly $1.78. It is the largest gap of any page in this set, and it is still under two dollars. Both bases are ordinary.
The tipped wage downstate
New York City sits in the state's downstate region, where a tipped food service worker's published cash wage is $11.35 with a $5.65 tip credit, against a $17.00 minimum. Only hospitality employers may take that credit. As everywhere on this site, that is background rather than an instruction about your amount.
For the general question of whether to tip on tax at all, there is the tax and tip calculator. For a specific job, every service calculator has its own sourced range.
Sources & methodology
Sources reviewed: October 22, 2026
Sales-tax and wage figures are quoted from published government and research tables, with the effective date of each table shown beside it. The tipping ranges themselves are etiquette guidance and are cited separately — they describe common practice in the U.S., not an obligation, and they do not change by state.
- Publication 718 — New York State Sales and Use Tax Rates by Jurisdiction (effective 1 March 2025)Primary source for New York City's 8.875% combined rate across all five boroughs, reporting code 8081. Effective 1 March 2025.
- New York State Department of Labor — Minimum Wage (including tipped food service worker rates by region)Primary source for New York's regional minimum wage and the published cash wage and tip credit for tipped food service workers.
- The Emily Post Institute — General Tipping GuideStates the restaurant tipping ranges as percentages of the pre-tax amount (15–20% sit-down, 10% buffet).