NYC Crew Rates: $17 Minimum, Movers $90–$250, What Quotes Miss
Fast-food crew work in New York City tends to sit near the statutory floor. Boat and deckhand roles run roughly $18 to $30 an hour depending on experience, local movers charge $90 to $250 or more per hour for the crew and truck, and film or television crew pricing splits sharply between non-union hourly work and union day-rate minimums. The city’s minimum wage stands at $17.00 per hour as of January 1, 2026, and any professional quote worth trusting should land above that baseline once insurance and overtime terms are factored in. Before booking anyone, ask for an itemized quote that spells out the certificate of insurance, overtime rules, and crew size.
TL;DR:
Quotes below the $17.00 per hour minimum wage are suspicious, as they likely exclude taxes, insurance, and overtime costs.
Boat and deckhand roles typically pay between $18 and $30 an hour, with higher rates for licensed or experienced crew.
Moving crews charge $90 to $250 or more per hour depending on crew size and additional services like packing or furniture disassembly.
Union film crew minimums are set by contracts and function as fixed, non-negotiable costs, especially for overtime, turnaround, and insurance requirements.
Always request an itemized, detailed quote that includes crew size, insurance, overtime rules, and access or equipment fees before comparing prices.
Table of Contents
New York City’s wage floor and what it means for your budget
Every hourly quote you receive in this city has to clear a legal floor before anything else gets negotiated. As of January 1, 2026, New York City’s minimum wage is $17.00 per hour, and that figure applies across boroughs, not just Manhattan. Tipped workers have their own math: tipped service employees can be paid a cash wage of $14.15 with a $2.85 tip credit, while tipped food service workers can be paid $11.35 in cash with a $5.65 tip credit, as long as tips close the gap to the full minimum.
The $17.00 hourly minimum wage took effect across New York City on January 1, 2026, and it sets the absolute floor for every crew category in this guide, from counter staff to deckhands.
Employers carry the risk here, not the worker. If tips fall short in a given shift, the employer has to cover the difference so the worker still nets the full minimum. That obligation shapes how honest quotes get built.
Verify current figures directly through NYC Business wage guidance before signing any contract.
Cross-check regional minimums using the New York State Department of Labor’s lookup tool.
Treat any quote priced at or below $17.00 per hour with suspicion. It likely omits taxes, insurance, or overtime.
Typical hourly ranges for fast food, boat, and moving crews
Rates vary widely by category, and the number on a quote rarely tells the whole story until you know what it includes.
Fast-food crew work in New York City tracks closely with the statutory minimum. National salary aggregators report a broader average across the country, but that figure needs to be anchored to the local $17.00 floor rather than treated as a New York benchmark. Total employer cost still runs higher once payroll taxes and benefits are added, even when the posted hourly rate matches the minimum exactly.
Boat crew and deckhand roles pay meaningfully more, reflecting the physical demands and certifications the job often requires. Job postings across New York State commonly show hourly ranges between $18 and $30, with the higher end going to deckhands who carry specialized licensing or seasonal charter experience. A first-season deckhand should expect the lower band; someone with multiple seasons and a captain’s endorsement can push toward the top.
Local movers price by the crew, not strictly by the person, which makes their hourly numbers look larger at first glance:
A two-person crew typically runs $90 to $140 per hour for local jobs.
A three- to four-person crew typically runs $120 to $250 or more per hour, depending on distance, stairs, and add-on services like packing or furniture disassembly.
Pro Tip: Ask every moving company whether their quoted hourly rate includes the truck, fuel, and standard equipment, or whether those are billed separately. That single question resolves most of the sticker shock that shows up on moving day.
What a “clean” quote usually includes: labor for loading and unloading, a standard truck, and basic moving blankets or pads. What usually gets added on top: stair or elevator carries, long carry distances from the truck to the door, bulky-item handling like pianos or safes, and parking or travel time in dense neighborhoods.
How film and TV crew rates work differently
Production crew pricing does not behave like the categories above. Non-union shoots often run on straightforward hourly rates, but the moment a union contract governs the job, pricing shifts to daily or weekly minimums that are treated as guaranteed floors, not negotiable starting points.
AMPTP’s Local 52 wage scales publish contract minimum daily rates for roles like production mixer, boom operator, grip, and electrician, and those minimums step up on a fixed schedule through the 2024 to 2027 contract term.
Non-union productions can build custom hourly or day-rate agreements, but they still tend to reference union scales as a market benchmark.
Union day-rate minimums, as published in the Local 52 wage scales, function as guaranteed line items on a production budget, not estimates that can be talked down. That distinction matters when a producer compares a non-union quote against a union crew card.
Budgets also need to account for overtime past eight or ten hours, turnaround violations when a crew’s rest period gets cut short, meal penalties when meals run late, and the insurance riders most stages and locations require before a single light gets rigged.
Reading a quote for hidden costs and required minimums
The hourly number on a quote is the opening line, not the total. Several categories of add-on cost show up again and again once a job is underway.
Certificate of insurance requirements. Buildings and production locations frequently require a COI naming the property as an additional insured, and NYC’s municipal permit guidance outlines when that applies for filming and events.
Building and access fees. Freight elevators, loading dock scheduling, and doorman coordination can add time and cost that never appears in a base hourly rate.
Truck and parking time. Movers and production trucks both bill for time spent circling for parking or waiting at a loading zone.
Stair carries and heavy-item handling. Pianos, safes, and oversized equipment usually trigger a surcharge separate from the base labor rate.
Weekend and holiday premiums. Many crews charge 1.5 times or more outside standard weekday hours.
Most professional crews also enforce a minimum crew size or a minimum shift length, often four hours, which changes the real per-hour math on a short job.
That range typically covers COI processing, building access, and standard overtime exposure.*
Building a quote request that gets you an honest number
Getting comparable bids means asking every vendor the same detailed questions up front.
Define the scope: date, location, hours needed, and whether the job is hourly or a flat day rate.
Specify crew size and the roles you need on site.
Ask for insurance limits and confirm they can produce a COI naming your building or venue if required.
Confirm what equipment is included versus billed as a rental.
Ask about parking, truck time, and loading dock scheduling.
Get the overtime rate and the trigger point (after eight hours, after ten hours) in writing.
Ask about cancellation fees and the invoicing timeline.
A simple line in your request, “Please send an itemized quote listing crew size, insurance and COI details, overtime terms, and any equipment or access fees,” gets vendors to respond with numbers you can actually stack against each other.
For short, well-defined jobs, hourly pricing usually works fine.
For anything with multiple moving parts, like a shoot with several departments, project-based pricing through a managed producer often protects your budget better than an hourly rate that can balloon with overtime.
What years of production work taught us about fair crew pricing
Booking crew in New York City rewards people who ask sharper questions before day one, not people who negotiate hardest on the day of the shoot. We’ve written before about the NYC film permit process and how SAG-AFTRA commercial rates shape union production budgets, and the same lesson shows up in both: the number you agree to matters less than the terms attached to it.
A few habits consistently separate smooth productions from expensive surprises.
Confirm insurance limits during the first conversation, not the week of the shoot.
Require itemized invoices that break out labor, equipment, and any access fees separately.
Specify load-in and load-out windows and parking arrangements before the crew arrives, not after a truck is circling the block.
The proprietary benchmarks and client case studies we’ve gathered across production seasons will expand this guide as they become available.
— Vain.
Why the hourly number is the wrong place to start
Most people shopping for crew in this city fixate on the hourly figure, and that habit costs them more than it saves. The real variable is what the rate includes: a $30 hourly deckhand with the right certifications is a better deal than a $22 hourly hire who cannot legally operate certain equipment, and a mover quoting $90 an hour without insurance coverage can end up costing more than one quoting $140 with everything itemized.
The conventional advice, compare the lowest hourly number, ignores that union and contract minimums exist precisely because bare hourly rates have historically failed to account for overtime, turnaround, and safety obligations on production sets. That same logic applies outside film work. A moving crew or boat crew operating without clear insurance terms is transferring risk onto you, the buyer, whether or not the invoice says so.
Prioritize the scope conversation before the price conversation. Get crew size, insurance, and overtime terms in writing first, and let the hourly rate be the last number you compare, not the first.
How Vain. handles crew booking so you do not have to
Sourcing crew, verifying insurance, and managing overtime across a multi-day shoot takes real coordination time, and that time comes out of your production budget one way or another. Production management, crew booking, and project budgeting can be handled by a single vendor as part of creative production and consultancy work, so coordination is streamlined.
Complex shoots with multiple departments benefit from a single point of contact managing COI, equipment, and crew scheduling.
Tight turnarounds are easier to hit when one team owns the logistics instead of splitting it across separate hires.
Visit Vain.'s services page to request a tailored quote for your next production.
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FAQ
What is a good hourly rate in New York?
A good hourly rate depends entirely on the role, but it should never fall below New York City’s $17.00 minimum wage as of January 1, 2026. Skilled roles like boat crew or licensed movers typically command $18 to $30 or more per hour once experience and certifications are factored in.
What are the typical pay rates for film crew members in the United States?
Film crew pay splits between non-union hourly rates and union contract minimums, with union scales set at the daily or weekly level rather than hourly. Local 52’s wage scales publish contract minimums for roles like grip, electrician, and boom operator that function as guaranteed floors on union productions.
How will the job market in New York City be in 2026?
New York City’s minimum wage rose to $17.00 per hour on January 1, 2026, which raises baseline labor costs across hourly crew categories citywide. Beyond that wage change, this guide does not cover broader job market forecasting.
How much do movie set workers make?
Non-union set workers negotiate hourly or day rates individually, and those rates commonly reference union scales as a benchmark even when the production itself is not signatory.
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