BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Starting Jan. 1, the minimum wage in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County will increase from $15 to $16 an hour and from $14.20 to $15 across the rest of the state.

However, the Business Council of New York State's Director for the Center of Human Resources, Frank Kerbein, said the new scale is more complicated than that with different rates for tipped service employees, tipped food service workers and an adjusted threshold for staff exempt from overtime pay.

"It is an administrative burden in addition to the financial burden on employers of New York state to comply with the law," Kerbein said.

He said the overtime changes impact much more than just payroll, with things like disability costs, unemployment taxes and payroll taxes increasing as well. With employers still on the line for other things like COVID-19 paid sick leave benefits and continuing to deal with the fallout of pandemic unemployment, he says the state continues to be a difficult place to do business.

"You add up all these costs and you have the death by a thousand cuts for a lot of businesses in New York state," he said.

On the other hand, Brandi Alduk, a Starbucks barista in Queens, does not expect to benefit from the base increase as the starting wage there now is around $17 an hour.

"Fundamentally, my coworkers and I, we enjoy our job that we're doing but we just don't make enough to do it in a sustainable way," she said.

The rates will go up 50 cents an hour in 2025 and again in 2026 and then will be tied to the Consumer Price Index moving forward. Alduk is associated with AlignNY, a coalition of labor and community organizations, pushing for a uniform minimum wage statewide and to eliminate a stipulation of the law allowing the state to forego increases if unemployment is too high.

"About a quarter of the time we would not be receiving wage increases if that loophole is in effect and that would be really detrimental to our ability to be on track with staying to the cost of living essentially," Alduk said.

One more new rule defines wage theft now as larceny, meaning if employers, for instance  misclassify an employee as exempt or miscalculate tip compensation, they could be facing not only significant financial penalties but criminal ones as well. Kerbein said the Business Council has been trying to communicate that to members while the Department of Labor's outreach has been lacking.