![\"Restaurant](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/two-chefs-working-kitchen-restaurant-696x392.webp.webp\" "\\"two-chefs-working-kitchen-restaurant\\"\/")
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Article contributed by Nicola Ciliotta,\u00a0Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP<\/a><\/p>\n New York City\u2019s updated safe and sick leave law went into effect on February 22, 2026. If you run a restaurant in the five boroughs, there are material changes you need to be aware of.<\/p>\n The amendments add a new unpaid leave requirement, expand the reasons employees can take protected time off, formally include paid prenatal leave in the City\u2019s framework, and update the rules governing temporary schedule requests.<\/p>\n The article outlines the key changes and how they affect day-to-day restaurant operations.<\/p>\n There Are Now Three Types of Leave to Track<\/p>\n As of February 22, employees now have three different categories of protected leave.\u00a0<\/p>\n 1. Paid Safe and Sick Leave<\/p>\n The original paid leave requirement is still in place. Depending on the size of your restaurant, employees can use up to:<\/p>\n 40 paid hours per year (for employers with 5\u201399 employees); or<\/p>\n 56 paid hours per year (for employers with 100 or more employees).<\/p>\n Employees may use this time for illness, medical appointments, or safety related matters, such as domestic violence or stalking, affecting themselves or a family member.<\/p>\n 2. 32 Hours of Unpaid Leave<\/p>\n Employers must now provide an additional 32 hours of unpaid safe and sick leave each year. This unpaid leave may be used for the same qualifying reasons as paid safe and sick leave, but it is separate from the required 40 to 56 hours of paid leave.<\/p>\n The full 32 hours must be available immediately upon hire and reset at the start of each calendar year. Unused unpaid hours do not carry over.<\/p>\n Employers may generally require employees to use available paid leave first unless the employee requests unpaid time. However, paid and unpaid leave must be tracked separately. Payroll systems should clearly distinguish between them rather than combining all leave into a single balance.<\/p>\n 3. Paid Prenatal Leave<\/p>\n The law now explicitly includes 20 hours of paid prenatal leave in a 52-week period. Paid prenatal leave may be used for pregnancy-related medical appointments and care, including routine checkups, diagnostic testing, and consultations. This leave is separate from the other two mentioned above. It should be spelled out in your handbook and also tracked on its own.<\/p>\n Expanded Reasons for Leave<\/p>\n The amendments also significantly broaden when employees may use protected leave.<\/p>\n In addition to illness, employees may now take paid or unpaid leave for:<\/p>\n Dealing with workplace violence affecting them or a family member.<\/p>\n Caring for a minor child or someone who depends on them.<\/p>\n School or childcare closures due to severe weather or other declared emergencies.<\/p>\n Attending court or hearings related to housing or public benefits.<\/p>\n Schedule Change Requests Are Different Now<\/p>\n Under the prior framework, employers were required to grant employees up to two temporary schedule changes per year for certain qualifying personal events. Under the recent amendments, many of those personal events, such as caregiving for a minor child or attending legal proceedings, are now expressly covered as qualifying reasons for leave under the safe and sick leave law.\u00a0<\/p>\n As a result, employers are no longer subject to a separate, stand-alone obligation to grant temporary schedule changes. Instead, employers must determine whether the request qualifies under the safe and sick leave law and handle it as protected leave rather than as a stand-alone schedule change.\u00a0<\/p>\n Payroll and Documentation Matter<\/p>\n Tracking is just as important as approving leave. Restaurants must ensure that paid safe and sick leave, unpaid leave, and paid prenatal leave are recorded separately and reflected accurately in payroll.<\/p>\n City guidance requires that pay statements or similar documentation show leave accrued during the pay period, leave used, and the employee\u2019s available balances. Employers are also expected to maintain leave records for at least three years.<\/p>\n If you rely on a payroll provider, confirm that your system clearly distinguishes between each leave category. Errors in tracking or reporting, even if unintentional, can lead to compliance problems.<\/p>\n What Restaurants Should Do Now<\/p>\n With the amendments now in effect, restaurants should focus on tightening their internal procedures. If you haven\u2019t already, you should:<\/p>\n Review your handbook to ensure all three leave categories are clearly described;\u00a0<\/p>\n Confirm that payroll tracks each category separately and reflects accurate balances;\u00a0<\/p>\n Train general managers and shift leaders to recognize when a request may qualify as protected leave; and<\/p>\n Reinforce that employees should not be discouraged from using legally protected time off.<\/p>\n Restaurants should also review scheduling practices to ensure that managers are not informally denying protected leave requests or pressuring employees to find their own coverage. Establishing a clear process for documenting leave requests and management responses can help create consistency and provide protection if questions arise later.<\/p>\n Failure to comply can result in complaints to City and State worker protection agencies, civil penalties, back pay awards, and potential litigation. Even inadvertent errors, such as misclassifying a protected absence or failing to properly track leave balances, can create unwanted legal exposure.<\/p>\n Addressing these requirements now will help restaurants reduce risk and maintain consistent day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n Nicola Ciliotta is an Associate in the Labor & Employment practice group at\u00a0Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP<\/a>\u00a0in New York City.<\/p>\n His expansive labor and employment practice encompasses everything from representing employers in court and other forums, to advising businesses on all aspects of the employment relationship.<\/p>\n Mr. Ciliotta has significant experience representing clients in state and federal court, grievance and arbitration proceedings, and before various government agencies in employment disputes involving allegations of, inter alia, discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination<\/a>, hostile work environment, and unpaid wages.<\/p>\n Mr. Ciliotta\u2019s practice also consists of conducting internal investigations and advising businesses on compliance with federal, state, and local labor laws and regulations. Nicola Ciliotta can be reached via email at\u00a0nciliotta@egsllp.com<\/a>\u00a0or by phone at 212-370-1300.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Article contributed by Nicola Ciliotta,\u00a0Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP New York City\u2019s updated safe and sick leave law…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-185191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-ny","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-nyc-headlines","12":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"EGS](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/EGS_Nicola_Ciliotta.webp.webp\" "\\"Navigating")
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