NYC amends Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law, effective July 2025 

As of July 2025, New York City employers face expanded leave obligations after the city amended its Earned Safe and Sick Leave Act (ESSTA) to fold in New York State’s (statewide) latest paid prenatal leave (PPPL) requirement, according to the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP).

Although New York’s statewide PPPL law took effect on January 1, 2025, the DCWP issued amended rules on May 30, 2025, which formally incorporated the state’s prenatal leave requirement into the ESSTA, effective July 2, 2025.

As such, all private-sector employers in New York have been required to provide up to 20 hours of paid prenatal leave in a 52-week period to eligible employees, regardless of company size. The 52-week leave period starts on the first day the prenatal leave is used.

These changes do not create independent city leave requirements, but rather just include the wider state’s updated leave policies, distribution of revised employee notices of rights, and new paystub documentation requirements.

That being said, the city still shows various discrepancies from the wider state law in a few areas. 

Key Amendments of the NYC ESSTA for Employers and Employees

1. In practice, every New York City employer is required to update their existing policy to reflect the changes and provide the revised version to their current workforce. Employers must give employees a copy of their written safe and sick time and paid prenatal leave policies at the time of hire, within 14 days of any policy updates taking effect, and whenever an employee asks for it.

2. The DCWP released an updated Notice of Employee Rights that incorporates paid prenatal leave. Employers are required to provide this updated notice to all new hires, as well as to existing employees whenever their rights change, as in this case, and must keep a record confirming each employee’s receipt. In addition, the notice must be visibly posted in the workplace.

3. All NYC employers are required to update the notice provided to new hires and redistribute the updated notice to existing employees.

4. Each pay period in which an employee takes prenatal leave, employers must clearly show the following information on the employee’s pay stub or other provided documentation, such as a pay statement:

• The number of paid prenatal leave hours used during the specific pay period must be shown.
• The total remaining balance of paid prenatal leave available within the 52-week period must also be reported.

5. According to the updated agency FAQs, the required information may be delivered through an electronic system in certain circumstances. This mirrors the current obligation for providing notice of paid sick and safe time.

6. NYC employers are required to review their obligations carefully and ensure that updates to policies, notices, and recordkeeping are properly implemented.

Key Provisions of the New York State Paid Prenatal Leave

The following provisions outline important aspects of New York State’s paid prenatal leave:

• Paid prenatal leave is provided in addition to statutory sick leave and any other paid time off benefits granted under company policy or applicable law.
• The leave is limited to employees receiving prenatal healthcare services, which include medical examinations, fertility treatments, and appointments related to the end of pregnancy.
• Spouses, partners, and other support persons are not eligible to take prenatal leave.
• Employers are prohibited from requiring employees to exhaust other forms of leave before using prenatal leave, and they may not request medical records or confidential health information as a condition of approving leave requests.

Inconsistencies With State PPPL Law and Guidance 

Several provisions of the DCWP’s amended rules conflict with state law, regulations, and guidance on PPPL, including:

Documentation requests: 

Under the amended DCWP rules, an employer may request documentation if an employee takes more than three consecutive workdays of PPPL. 

State law, however, specifies that employees are not required to provide medical records or other documents, and employers cannot demand confidential health details. Employers who seek such documentation risk violating state law.

Advance notice for absences: 

The DCWP rules also allow employers to require employees to give reasonable notice before using safe/sick time or PPPL for absences deemed “foreseeable.” 

State law and guidance, however, do not differentiate between foreseeable and unforeseeable absences or grant employers additional rights in these situations. Instead, state guidance only instructs that employees should follow their employer’s normal time-off procedures. 

Employers therefore should not impose notice obligations for PPPL that go beyond what applies to other leave types.

Increment of leave use: 

The amended DCWP rules provide that employers may set the minimum increment of PPPL at “one hour per day.” 

State law, on the other hand, requires a minimum increment of one hour but specifies only that “paid prenatal personal leave may be taken in hourly increments,” without authorizing alternative structures.

Related Content:

New York becomes first state to offer paid prenatal personal leave 

Minnesota to update meal and rest break rules from Jan 2026

Minnesota paid leave law finalized ahead of 2026 start date

Missouri ends guaranteed sick leave for workers