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Amendments to New York City’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (“ESSTA”) will take effect on February 22, 2026. New York City employers should take note of the important changes and evaluate…
United States
New York
Employment and HR
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Amendments to New York City’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act
(“ESSTA”) will take effect on February 22, 2026. New York
City employers should take note of the important changes and
evaluate whether changes to policies and/or practices are required
in order to comply with the new requirements.
ESSTA
Under ESSTA, employers must provide full- and part-time
employees working in New York City with time off for certain
health-related reasons (sick time) and safety-related reasons (safe
time). Employers with 100 or more employees in New York City must
provide up to 56 hours of paid safe and sick leave. Employers with
between five and 99 employees in New York City must provide up to
40 hours of paid safe and sick leave. Employers with four or fewer
employees in New York City must provide up to 40 hours of safe and
sick leave, which may be paid or unpaid depending on the net income
of the employer. This sick/safe leave accrues at a rate of one hour
for every 30 hours worked by an employee.
Amendments to ESSTA
The notable amendments to ESSTA that take effect on February 22,
2026 are as follows:
In addition to the safe/sick leave currently available under
ESSTA, employers must now provide employees with a minimum of 32
additional hours of unpaid safe/sick leave that is immediately
available for use upon hire or the first of each calendar year.
These additional hours of unpaid safe/sick leave can only be used
if the employee has not yet accrued enough safe/sick leave, has
reached the employer’s annual cap on safe/sick leave, or has
specifically requested to use this unpaid leave. Employers are not
required to carry over unused hours to the following year, and they
may set a reasonable daily minimum increment for use of up to four
hours.
In addition to the safe/sick leave currently available under
ESSTA, employers must provide eligible employees 20 hours of paid
prenatal leave in any 52-week period, and employees may use
prenatal leave in one-hour increments.
Sick time coverage now includes circumstances arising from
public disasters—fire, explosion, terrorist attack, severe
weather conditions, or other catastrophe that is declared a public
emergency or disaster by the US President, New York Governor, or
New York City Mayor.
Safe time coverage now includes circumstances where:
An employee’s family member has been the victim of
workplace violence;
An employee who qualifies as a caregiver is absent to provide
care to a minor child or care recipient; and
An employee initiates, attends, or prepares for a legal
proceeding related to subsistence benefits or housing or takes
actions necessary to apply for, maintain, or restore such benefits
or housing on behalf of themselves, a family member, or a care
recipient.
With respect to employees covered by collective bargaining
agreements, the amendments clarify that ESSTA does not apply to
employees covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement unless
the agreement provides superior or comparable benefits, and unpaid
time off is not “comparable” to paid safe/sick time or
paid prenatal leave.
The amendments also modify New York City’s Temporary
Schedule Change Law (“TSCL”), a law enacted in 2018 that
allows employees two temporary schedule changes per year for
covered personal events. The amendments to ESSTA eliminate
TSCL’s two schedule changes for certain personal events, which
are now covered under ESSTA’s safe time provision (care for a
minor child or care recipient and actions related to subsistence
benefits or housing). Employees remain permitted to request
temporary schedule changes, but employers may deny the request and
require employees to use ESSTA leave if available.
Private Right of Action
The 2024 amendment to ESSTA providing for a private right of
action remains unchanged. As such, employees alleging a violation
of ESSTA’s provisions may, within two years of the violation,
commence a civil action for damages as well as injunctive and
declaratory relief, attorneys’ fees and costs, and other relief
as the court deems appropriate. An employee need not file a
complaint with the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection
(DCWP) prior to filing a lawsuit against their employer (i.e., no
exhaustion requirement exists). Employees may also elect to file a
complaint with the DCWP, but the remedies available are much more
limited.
Key Takeaways for Employers
Employers should revise leave policies, handbooks, and new-hire
materials to include the 32 hours of immediately available unpaid
leave, its non-carry-over status, the minimum increment
requirement, and clarify when accrued safe/sick time must be used
instead. Employers should also make sure they have internal systems
in place to track usage of the 32 unpaid hours of leave.
Employers should update leave policies and handbooks to
identify prenatal leave as a separate entitlement and explain
eligibility, increments, notice, and request procedures.
Employers should update leave policies and handbooks with the
expanded reasons for using safe and sick time. It is important that
employers with employees working in both New York City and
elsewhere in New York State note that the amendments expand
ESSTA’s scope beyond the New York State sick leave law. New
York State’s covered reasons for using sick time are limited to
an employee’s or their family member’s illness, injury, or
health condition and diagnosis, care, treatment, or preventative
care for such illness, injury, or condition.
Employers must treat documentation from legal and social
services providers, courts, government agencies, and school and
care providers confirming the need for safe time as sufficient and
must avoid demanding underlying details. Improperly rejecting
documentation from these additional entities risks triggering
statutory or civil penalties.
We also recommend that employers train supervisors, human
resources personnel, and leave administrators on the difference
between ESSTA, which mandates that employers grant covered
safe/sick time requests, and the amended TSCL, which gives
employers the discretion to grant or deny employees’ requests
for temporary schedule changes.
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