Los Angeles is UTC−7 (PDT) / UTC−8 (PST). New York is UTC−4 (EDT) / UTC−5 (EST). New York is currently 3 hours ahead of Los Angeles.
Best times to meet (Los Angeles local time): 9:00 AM — 12:00 PM in New York; 10:00 AM — 1:00 PM in New York; 11:00 AM — 2:00 PM in New York; 12:00 PM — 3:00 PM in New York; 1:00 PM — 4:00 PM in New York.
Times shown in Los Angeles local time → New York local time. Based on business hours 09:00–17:00.
Los Angeles observes Pacific Time: UTC−8 (PST, Pacific Standard Time) in winter and UTC−7 (PDT, Pacific Daylight Time) during DST, which runs from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November. The Pacific Time Zone covers the US West Coast, British Columbia in Canada, and parts of Mexico. Los Angeles is 3 hours behind New York, 8 hours behind London (winter), and 17 hours behind Tokyo — the largest offset between any two major business hubs, making real-time collaboration between LA and Tokyo exceptionally difficult.
California's economy is the fifth largest in the world by GDP, and Los Angeles is its entertainment and technology hub. The entertainment industry's standard workday is broadly 10:00–18:00 PT — slightly later than the East Coast norm — a schedule partly shaped by the city's car culture and long commutes. Silicon Valley, though technically in the San Francisco Bay Area (same timezone), has contributed to a global culture of asynchronous work that somewhat eases the burden of Pacific–European collaboration.
California voters approved Proposition 7 in 2018, which would allow the state legislature to enact year-round DST, but federal law changes are required before the state could actually stop changing its clocks. Until then, LA changes on the same schedule as the rest of the continental US. The Pacific–Eastern 3-hour gap means that Wall Street has been open for three hours by the time most Angelenos start their workday — a feature, not a bug, for West Coast traders who read overnight news before the market opens.
New York City observes Eastern Time: UTC−5 (EST, Eastern Standard Time) from the first Sunday in November to the second Sunday in March, and UTC−4 (EDT, Eastern Daylight Time) during the remainder of the year. The Eastern Time Zone covers roughly a third of the US population and all of Canada's most populous provinces, making EST/EDT the de-facto "American" timezone in global business. The US adopted standard time nationally after the Standard Time Act of 1918, and year-round Daylight Saving Time rules were made permanent by the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
New York's financial markets — the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ — open at 09:30 and close at 16:00 EST/EDT, setting the rhythm for global equity trading. The city is 5 hours behind London (in winter), 14 hours behind Tokyo, and 9.5 hours behind Mumbai, which means scheduling live meetings between New York and Asia almost always requires someone to work outside normal hours. New York is 3 hours ahead of Los Angeles, so the US business day effectively runs from 06:00 Pacific to 17:00 Eastern — an 11-hour window.
The Uniform Time Act of 1966 standardised DST observance across US states, though states can opt out (Arizona does not observe DST, and Hawaii has never observed it). There are periodic debates in the US Congress about eliminating the clock change entirely, similar to EU proposals. Until such a change occurs, New York switches twice per year, occasionally causing brief periods where the offset to London or other regions differs from the norm by one hour during the transition weeks when the two regions change on different dates.
New York is currently 3 hours ahead of Los Angeles.
When it is 12:00 noon in Los Angeles, it is 15:00 in New York (based on current offsets — verify during DST transitions).
Los Angeles observes DST, changing from PDT to PST. New York observes DST, changing from EDT to EST.