Benefits and leave

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Benefits and leave

The law does not require most employers to provide any paid vacation. However, your employer can be required to keep any promise it made to provide vacations, holidays, or sick days. In addition, most employees are entitled to paid family leave and paid sick leave as described more fully below.

Employees working in the state of New York may be entitled to paid sick leave under New York’s sick leave law. Employees may also be entitled to additional sick leave if they have a mandatory or precautionary quarantine or isolation order from the local health department.

New York paid sick leave

Effective January 1, 2021, New Yorkers who are eligible may take paid time off to recover from a physical or mental illness or injury; seek medical diagnosis, treatment, or preventive care; or care for a family member who is ill or needs medical diagnosis, treatment, or preventive care.

Under the state law, sick time may be used to care for the employee or the employee’s child, parent, parent of a spouse or domestic partner, spouse or domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling. Under the state law, sick time may also be used for “safe time” purposes to address certain needs because the employee or employee’s family member is a victim of domestic violence, a sexual offense, or stalking.

Employers with 100 or more employees must provide up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per calendar year.

Employers with five through 99 employees, and employers with zero through four employees with net income in excess of $1 million, must provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per calendar year.

Employers with zero through four employees whose net income is $1 million or less must provide up to 40 hours of unpaid sick leave per calendar year.

On September 30, 2020, covered employees in New York began to accrue leave at a rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked.

Employees may also be eligible to receive paid leave to care for a family member with a serious health condition under New York’s Paid Family Leave Law. 

For more information about New York State’s paid sick leave law, please visit the state government's page on New York paid leave.

COVID-19 paid sick leave for employees with a quarantine or isolation order

If an employee is under a quarantine or isolation order from a local health department, and is symptomatic and not able to work remotely, then state law requires employers to pay the same amount of wages that the worker would have otherwise received had they continued to work for the period covered by the order. The amount of paid sick leave employees are entitled to depends on the size and income of the employer: Employers with 100 or more employees must provide up to 14 calendar days of paid sick leave at the same wages the employee would have otherwise received.

If an employee is not eligible for fully paid COVID-19 sick leave, they may also apply for state paid family leave and temporary disability benefits to cover the rest of a quarantine period, or while they or a family member continue to be sick.

If you are not under a quarantine or isolation order, and you have questions about sick leave due to COVID-19, please visit Employment Protection Emergency.
 

New York City

If you work in New York City, you may be eligible to take leave under New York City’s paid sick leave law.

In New York City, employers with 100 or more employees must provide up to 56 hours of paid leave each calendar year. Employers with five to 99 employees must provide up to 40 hours of paid leave each calendar year. Employers having one to five employees and a net income of at least $1 million must provide up to 40 hours of paid leave each calendar year. Employers with one to five employees and having a net income below $1 million must provide up to 40 hours of unpaid leave each calendar year.

New York City employers with at least  domestic worker must provide up to 40 hours of paid leave per calendar year. Employers with 100 or more domestic workers must provide up to 56 hours of paid leave each calendar year.

New York City employees accrue one hour of paid sick and safe time for every 30 hours worked and can begin using sick and safe time as soon as they accrue it. Employees must be allowed to carry over 40 or 56 hours of accrued sick time year to year. Employers are required only to allow employees to use 40 or 56 hours of accrued time per year (even if the employee has more accrued).

This means that most full-time employees will have at least 5 paid sick days if they have worked for an employer for more than eight months.

Employees should request leave from their employers. An employee may be required to provide reasonable notice only if the use of sick time is foreseeable. Otherwise, for unexpected medical issues, no advance notice is required, but an employer may require that notice be given as soon as practicable.

An employer may not require employees to provide documentation from medical professionals about the necessity of sick leave unless the employee is out for more than three consecutive days.

New York City employees who also qualify for paid sick leave under the state's paid sick-leave law are not entitled to take separate leaves. Paid sick leave will run concurrently. If New York City law provides the employee with additional leave time that the state does not, then that leave will be separate from any leave the employee qualifies for under the state law.

If you work in New York City and have been unlawfully denied sick leave or for more information:

Westchester County

If you work in Westchester County, you may be eligible to take sick leave if you are a domestic worker, regardless of the number of employees your employer has, and safe leave under Westchester County’s safe-time leave law.

For more information or to file a complaint, you can contact the Department of Consumer Protection at 914-995-2155 or visit the Westchester government resources page.

Employees may be entitled to unpaid sick leave under federal, state, or local laws.

Under New York State law and New York City law, if an employee works for an employer with fewer than five employees and who has a net income of $1 million a year, the employee is entitled to 40 hours of unpaid sick leave per year. For more information about sick leave under state and city laws, see question above.

New Yorkers may be eligible for additional unpaid sick leave under the federal law.

Under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), employees are guaranteed 12 weeks of job-protected leave within a 12-month period if they are unable to work because of a serious medical condition or must care for a family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a serious health condition, if their employer is covered under the law and if they are eligible under the law.

Employers are covered under the FMLA if they are a public agency or if they are a private-sector employer with at least 50 or more employees who work at least 20 work weeks in a calendar year.

Employees are covered under the FMLA if they have worked 1,250 hours during the 12 months prior to the start of leave, have worked for the employer for 12 months, and work at a location where the employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles.

Employees may take this leave on a part-time or intermittent basis. Their employer must continue their health insurance during the leave of absence, although employees may be asked to make employee contributions.

Employees should request leave from their employers. Employees must give employers 30 days’ notice if leave is foreseeable.

If you have been unlawfully denied FMLA leave, or want more information, please call the U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, at 1-866-487-9243, or visit: Family and Medical Leave Act.

The law does not currently require most employers to grant health insurance. However, if the employer promises such benefits, it must live up to its promise. The federal Affordable Care Act does not mandate that employers provide health insurance but, rather, for employers of more than 50 employees, imposes a tax penalty if they do not provide health insurance. Thus, employer compliance with the employer mandate is enforced by the IRS, not by labor or healthcare agencies.

If your employer does not provide health insurance, you can get more information about signing up for health insurance by visiting the New York State of Health site. 

The law does not currently require most employers to grant pensions or retirement benefits. If you have questions about your pension plan or benefits, contact the U.S. Employee Benefits Security Administration at 1-866-444-EBSA or visit the U.S. Employee Benefits Security Administration website. 

Employees who become ill or injured off the job may be eligible for temporary disability benefits. Disability benefits are paid at 50% of an employee’s average weekly wage with a maximum of $170 per week.

For more information on temporary disability benefits, contact the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board by phone at 1-877-632-4996 or via e-mail at claims@wcb.ny.gov, or visit: Employee Disability Benefits

For information on how to file a claim, please visit File a New York State workers' compensation claim.

Most employees who work in New York for private employers are eligible to take paid family leave, which can be taken to bond with a newly born, adopted, or fostered child, among other reasons. For more information about paid family leave, please visit the state's paid family leave information.

A birthing person may also be entitled to disability benefits for the period of time that their doctor certifies they are unable to work after the birth of a child, up to 26 weeks. They cannot collect paid family leave and short-term disability benefits at the same time, although they can collect both types of benefits within the same year, provided they do not exceed 26 weeks of combined paid family leave and short-term disability benefits within a 52-week period.

For more information about disability benefits, contact the New York State Workers Compensation Board at 1-877-632-4996 or visit the State Workers Compensation Board website.

In addition, under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), some employees (both men and women) can request up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year to care for a newborn child. Note that if an employee's leave qualifies for both state and federal leave, the leaves should run concurrently (i.e., the employee cannot take state and federal leave at separate times in one year).

Employers are covered under the FMLA if they are a public agency or if they are a private sector employer with at least 50 or more employees who work at least 20 work weeks in a calendar year.

Employees are covered under the FMLA if they have worked 1,250 hours during the 12 months prior to the start of leave, have worked for the employer for 12 months, and work at a location where the employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles.

Employees may take this leave on a part-time or intermittent basis. The employer must continue to provide health insurance during the leave of absence, although employees may be asked to make employee contributions.

Employees should request leave from their employers. Employees must give employers 30 days’ notice if leave is foreseeable.

For more information about such leave, contact the U.S. Department of Labor at 1-866-487-9242 or the Department of Labor's FMLA page.

New York’s Paid Family Leave Law (PFL) provides job-protected, paid time off to bond with a newly born, adopted, or fostered child; to care for a family member with a serious health condition; or to assist loved ones when a family member is deployed abroad on active military service. Most employees in New York can take up to 12 weeks of partially paid leave. Employees are compensated at 67% of their average weekly earnings with a maximum weekly allowance of $971.61 per week.

Family members include spouse, domestic partner, child or stepchild, anyone for whom the employee has legal custody, parent or stepparent, sibling, parent-in-law, grandparent, and grandchild.

Full-time employees can start taking leave after 26 weeks of starting work. Part-time employees can start taking leave after 175 days of work.

Employees should request leave from their employers. An employee may be required to notify the employer 30 days in advance if the leave is foreseeable. If the leave is unexpected, then employees must give their employers notice as soon as practicable.

Please note that employees generally may not use leave for their own medical conditions. See question above regarding New York’s paid sick-leave law.

If you have been unlawfully denied family leave, or for more information, please call the PFL Helpline at 1-844-337-6303 or visit the state government's page on paid family leave.  

Domestic workers work in another person’s home, and perform tasks such as providing care for children or a sick or elderly person, doing housekeeping chores, and doing other domestic duties. Domestic workers may have rights to leave under state and local laws.

New York protections

Under the New York State Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, domestic workers are entitled to at least three paid days off, which can be used for any purpose, after one year of work for the same employer.

If a domestic worker needs time off to recover from a physical or mental illness or injury; seek medical diagnosis, treatment, or preventive care; or care for a family member who is ill or needs medical diagnosis, treatment, or preventive care, the worker may be eligible for paid or unpaid leave under New York's paid sick-leave law. The worker can take this leave as soon as tey accrue it. Sick leave is accrued at one hour for every 30 hours worked. The number of hours of sick leave the worker can use per year depends on the number of employees their employer has and the employer’s net worth.

Employers with fewer than five employees and a net income of less than $1 million are required to provide up to 40 hours of unpaid sick leave per year. Employers with fewer than fewer employees and a net income of more than $1 million are required to provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave in a year. Employers with five to 99 employees are required to provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave in a year. Employers with 100 or more employees are required to provide up to 56 hours of paid sick leave each year.

Under New York State’s Paid Family Leave Law (PFL), domestic workers who are hired directly by a private homeowner and who work 20 or more hours a week for the private homeowner are required to be covered by paid family leave and are eligible once they have been in employment for 26 consecutive weeks. PFL provides job-protected, paid time off to bond with a newly born, adopted, or fostered child; to care for a family member with a serious health condition; or to assist loved ones when a family member is deployed abroad on active military service.

For more information about your rights to leave as domestic worker in New York, please visit the Department of Labor's page on the Domestic Worker's Bill of Rights. For more information about New York's paid sick-leave law, please visit the state government's page on paid sick leave. For more information about New York’s paid family leave law, please visit the state government's page on paid family leave.  

 

Local protections

If you work in New York City, you may be eligible to take leave under New York City’s paid sick-leave law. If you work in Westchester County, you may be eligible to take sick leave if you are a domestic worker, regardless of the number of employees the employer has, and you may be able to take safe leave under Westchester County’s safe-time leave law.

New York City employers with at least one domestic worker must provide up to 40 hours of paid leave per calendar year. Employers with 100 or more domestic workers must provide up to 56 hours of paid leave each calendar year.

Domestic workers who work in Westchester, regardless of the number of domestic workers employed by their employer, are entitled up to 40 hours of paid sick time per year.

If you work in New York City or Westchester and have been unlawfully denied sick leave, or if you would like more information:

Federal law protects most workers’ right to join a union by prohibiting employers from retaliating if workers join a union, and requiring employers to bargain if workers choose union representation

For more information, contact the National Labor Relations Board at 1-866-667-6572 or visit the National Labor Relations Board page.

Jury duty

No. Jury duty is an important obligation of all citizens. No employer who is notified in advance of a summons for jury duty can fire an employee because of that absence. Workers who are fired because they missed work to fulfill an obligation of jury duty should contact the jury commissioner for the county where they served. If the jury commissioner is unable to resolve the complaint, the commissioner may decide to subsequently refer the matter to us.  

If you have additional questions about jury duty, contact the Attorney General’s Labor Bureau.

An employer of 10 or fewer employees may withhold the full wages of an employee absent from work on account of jury service. An employer of 10 or more employees must pay to an employee serving on jury duty the first $40.00 of that employee's daily wage for the first three days of jury service. However, the state will pay a jury fee of $40 per day for a juror’s service for any days that the employer does not pay it.