One Law, Four Different Obligations

New York State Sick Leave (Labor Law § 196-b) has been in effect since 2021, but it remains one of the most misunderstood laws on the books — largely because what you owe depends on your size and your income. Your obligation is set by your headcount and your net income in the previous tax year:

  • 4 or fewer employees and net income of $1 million or less: up to 40 hours of unpaid sick leave per year
  • 4 or fewer employees and net income over $1 million: up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per year
  • 5 to 99 employees: up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per year
  • 100 or more employees: up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per year

That first tier is the one many small businesses miss. “Unpaid” does not mean “optional” — employees of even the smallest employers earn job-protected sick leave, accrue it at the same rate, and are entitled to return to their position afterward. The only difference is whether the hours come with pay.

One more trap for growing businesses: employee counts are based on the highest number employed at any point in the calendar year — and the state counts your total workforce, not just your New York staff. Cross a threshold mid-year, and your obligation increases from that point forward.

How the Leave Works

The mechanics are the same across all tiers:

  • Employees accrue at least 1 hour per 30 hours worked, from the first day of employment
  • Unused leave carries over at year end, though annual use can be capped (40 or 56 hours, by employer size)
  • Employers may frontload the full annual amount instead of tracking accrual
  • Leave covers illness, diagnosis, treatment, and preventive care — for the employee or a family member — plus safe leave related to domestic violence, stalking, and human trafficking
  • No documentation may be required for absences shorter than 3 consecutive scheduled workdays
  • Employees may request their balance at any time, and you must provide it within 3 business days
  • Sick leave records must be kept for 6 years

New Since 2025: Paid Prenatal Leave — For Every Employer

Effective January 1, 2025, New York became the first state to mandate paid prenatal personal leave: 20 hours per 52-week period for pregnancy-related care — exams, procedures, monitoring, provider visits, including fertility treatment and end-of-pregnancy care.

Two things make this one different:

  • It applies to every private employer, regardless of size. There is no unpaid tier — even a 3-person shop under the $1 million threshold pays for prenatal leave hours.
  • There’s no accrual. All 20 hours are available immediately, to every employee, with no waiting period. The hours are separate from — and on top of — regular sick leave.

Only the pregnant employee may use prenatal leave (it doesn’t cover a partner attending appointments), it must be usable in hourly increments, and you may not ask for medical records or details of the condition.

Gone Since 2025: COVID-19 Sick Leave

New York’s separate COVID-19 quarantine leave law — a fixture since March 2020 — sunset on July 31, 2025. Employers no longer owe standalone COVID leave; a COVID-related absence is now handled like any other illness under regular sick leave.

New York City Goes Further in 2026

NYC employers have an additional layer. Beyond the city’s existing Earned Safe and Sick Time Act, a 2025 amendment effective February 22, 2026 requires NYC employers to provide 32 hours of unpaid “protected time off” — available on day one of employment, each year, on top of sick leave — with expanded qualifying reasons such as public-disaster closures and caring for a household member with a disability. The city’s final implementing rules took effect July 23, 2026, so this is now fully enforceable. If you have NYC employees, your leave policy almost certainly needs an update this year.

The Cost of Getting It Wrong

Sick leave violations in New York are treated as a failure to pay wages — which brings underpayment awards, liquidated damages, interest, and civil penalties, enforceable by the Department of Labor or by employees directly in court. Retaliation against employees for using leave is separately prohibited. With a six-year lookback on wage claims, small tracking errors compound quietly for a long time.

Don’t Confuse Sick Leave with Paid Family Leave

A perennial point of confusion: Paid Family Leave is a different program. PFL is insurance, funded by employee payroll contributions (0.432% of wages in 2026, capped at $411.91 per year), providing up to 12 weeks at 67% of pay (up to $1,228.53 per week in 2026) — for bonding with a new child or caring for a family member. It does not cover the employee’s own routine illness. That’s what sick leave is for, and the two run on entirely separate rules.

Staying Compliant: The Technology Advantage

Between accrual math, carryover, tier thresholds tied to headcount, a separate prenatal leave bank, and a 3-business-day balance-disclosure clock, manual tracking is where New York employers get hurt. CTR/NY’s time and attendance solutions track accruals automatically against real hours worked, maintain the multi-year records the law requires, and give employees self-service visibility into their balances — so compliance is a byproduct of your timekeeping, not a separate project.

This article is general information, not legal advice — leave laws change and apply differently to specific situations. Questions about compliance in your specific situation? Contact CTR/NY for a consultation with our team.