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New York vs Los Angeles Time Difference
New York runs a constant three hours ahead of Los Angeles, every day of the year — the one major pairing on this site where the gap never moves at all.
New York
America/New_York
Los Angeles
America/Los_Angeles
Calculating the live gap…
The pairing that never drifts
Nearly every international pairing on this site has some kind of seasonal wrinkle — a narrow-gap window, an opposite-hemisphere flip, or a country that skips daylight saving altogether. New York and Los Angeles have none of that. Both cities fall under the same US federal daylight saving law and move their clocks on exactly the same two Sundays each year, so the three-hour gap between Eastern and Pacific Time is one of the most reliable, unchanging figures on the entire site.
The three-hour delay that shaped American television
For decades, that fixed three-hour gap had a very physical consequence: much of live American television simply wasn't live everywhere. A broadcast airing at 8:00 p.m. Eastern would be recorded and rebroadcast three hours later for the Pacific time zone — a practice known as tape delay — so West Coast viewers still got their favorite programs at a normal evening hour rather than watching a New York show at 5:00 p.m. local time. Live sports and some major news events broke that pattern when the moment truly couldn't wait, but plenty of scheduled entertainment programming ran on a deliberate three-hour lag well into the cable era.
Best time to call, hour by hour
The table below runs through a full New York day and shows the matching Los Angeles time for each hour, with the rows where both cities fall inside a typical 9:00–17:00 workday highlighted. Because the three-hour gap never changes, this table looks the same on any date of the year.
| New York time | Los Angeles time | Both in business hours? |
|---|---|---|
| Calculating… | ||
The overlap runs from New York's late morning through its afternoon, matched against Los Angeles' morning — a wide, dependable window that, unlike most pairings here, never needs to be double-checked closer to the date.
How we calculate this page: both live clocks, the current gap, the DST transition dates, and the hour-by-hour overlap table are all computed directly from the IANA America/New_York and America/Los_Angeles time zone data via your browser on every page load — nothing here is a fixed, hard-coded figure.
Frequently asked questions
What is the time difference between New York and Los Angeles?
A constant three hours, with New York ahead, every single day of the year. Both cities follow the identical US federal daylight saving schedule, so the gap never shifts.
Why does the New York-Los Angeles gap never change?
Both cities are in the continental United States and switch to daylight saving time on the same dates under the same federal law, the Uniform Time Act of 1966 (as later amended). Because both sides move their clocks together, the three-hour difference between Eastern and Pacific Time never narrows or widens.
What is the best time to schedule a call between New York and Los Angeles?
A late New York morning works well for both — 11:00 a.m. to noon in New York is 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. in Los Angeles, giving LA a normal start to the day and New York a late-morning slot before lunch.
Why was live coast-to-coast US television broadcast delayed for decades?
Before satellite and digital distribution made true live simulcasts routine, many live East Coast broadcasts — news programs and award shows among them — were recorded and rebroadcast three hours later for the Pacific time zone, a practice commonly called tape delay, so that a show airing live at 8:00 p.m. Eastern would also air at a normal 8:00 p.m. slot in Los Angeles rather than at 5:00 p.m.
Is a three-hour time difference significant for business?
Yes, particularly for finance and media. New York's markets and East Coast institutions open three hours before Los Angeles' business day starts, so West Coast teams often begin their morning already behind on messages, news, and market moves from the other coast.
How do I convert New York time to Los Angeles time?
Subtract three hours from New York time to get Los Angeles time — this never changes, unlike most international pairings. Use the time zone converter on WatchTime Online for other cities.
Need a different pairing? Try the meeting planner or see all cities on the world clock.