New York state workers get a fresh pay grid

In New York, certain state officers and employees would see their pay set by a new grid starting in spring 2026. The bill rewrites part of civil service law for the professional, scientific and technical services unit, or PS&T, replacing older salary language with a new PS&T salary schedule and changing the compensation rules for covered workers.

Administrative payroll workers would fall under the new schedule on March 26, 2026. Institutional payroll workers would follow on April 2, 2026.

A grid built around salary grades

The schedule lays out hiring rates, job rates, advance rates and advance amounts by salary grade, so the change is not just a general promise of better pay. It creates a clearer wage ladder for covered jobs and gives each grade a set of numbers instead of leaving the old language in place.

For full-time annual-salaried workers in the unit, the basic salary would rise 4.5 percent in 2026, 4 percent in 2027, 3.5 percent in 2028, and 3 percent in both 2029 and 2030. Hourly, per diem, part-time and seasonal employees who are otherwise eligible would get prorated increases.

What happens to workers already on the books

The rewrite also repeals subparagraphs 1, 2 and 3 of paragraph c of subdivision 1 of section 130 of the civil service law and replaces them with five new subparagraphs. For workers already being paid at the hiring rate or the job rate for a grade, the bill would move them to the new rate for that grade when the new schedule takes effect.

For certain state officers and employees, the change reaches compensation, benefits and other terms and conditions of employment, not just base pay. That makes the spring 2026 dates the key line for employees trying to understand when their current pay rules stop and the new system begins.