New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time Act
The city’s paid sick leave law, which took effect on April 1, 2014 as the New York City Paid Sick Time Act, has been expanded several times since then and is now called the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act. Under the current rules, every private business in New York City with 5 to 99 employees must give them up to 40 hours of paid sick leave a year, and businesses with 100 or more employees up to 56 hours. Businesses with up to 4 employees must provide 40 paid hours if their net income in the previous year exceeded $1 million, and 40 unpaid hours otherwise. In addition, since February 22, 2026, every employee has been entitled to an additional 32 hours of unpaid leave, available from the first day of work and from the start of each year.
The time off is available for the health needs of the employee or his or her family. The law defines family broadly: it includes, among others, children, a spouse, a registered domestic partner, parents, siblings, grandchildren and grandparents, as well as people with whom you have a close, family-like relationship.
Domestic workers have also received additional rights, as explained below.
An employer cannot force an employee to make up the time missed. Shift workers, however, may voluntarily, with the employer’s consent, swap to another shift or make up the hours within 7 days before or after the absence.
Will You Get Extra Sick Days?
That depends on several factors. Here is when you become entitled to paid sick days under the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act:
- You work in New York City. Note: the city rules apply to the five boroughs of the city, not to all of New York State (I write about the state rules at the end). The law covers full-time and part-time employees, as well as temporary and seasonal workers.
- Your company does not give you other paid time off that meets the requirements of the law. In other words, the employer may count paid vacation or personal days toward your sick hours if you can use them for the same purposes and under the same conditions.
- You accrue sick hours gradually, based on the hours you work (see below).
- The employer may not impose probationary or waiting periods – you can use the hours you have accrued as you go, whether you work full time or part time.
When the law took effect in 2014, the press reported enthusiastically that it would help half a million working New Yorkers. On a closer look at the conditions at the time, that was hard to believe: they covered only businesses with at least 5 employees, and the right to sick days was acquired only after 120 days of work. Later amendments removed most of those restrictions.
Time Off Is Not That Easy to Get
To repeat: if your company gives you paid vacation that meets the requirements of the law, you may have to use that vacation when you are sick, and you will not get additional paid sick days.
It must be stressed that you accrue one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 40 hours a year (56 hours at businesses with at least 100 employees). Unused accrued hours carry over to the next year, but within a year the employer only has to let you use 40 (or 56) hours plus the 32 unpaid hours.
Your rights do not depend on where you live or where the company’s headquarters is located. You may live outside the city, and your company may have its main office on the other side of the continent. All that matters is that you do your work within New York City.
If you leave your job, the employer is not required to pay you for unused days.
Doctor’s Note
After an absence from work of three days or less, you do not have to provide a doctor’s note.
If you took more than three consecutive workdays off, whether because of your own illness or a family member’s, your employer may require a doctor’s note. You have at least 7 days after returning to work to provide it.
It is worth knowing that the law prohibits the employer from requiring you to find a replacement for yourself.
Domestic Workers
The Earned Safe and Sick Time Act applies to employers who employ even one domestic worker: a nanny, housekeeper, caregiver, cook, home attendant, etc., working in the employer’s home.
Domestic workers accrue paid sick hours (1 hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year) regardless of the employer’s income, plus up to 32 hours of unpaid leave. This is in addition to the three paid days of rest per year after one year of work for the same employer, guaranteed by New York labor law – the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights.
You can read about the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights on the website of the state Department of Labor: dol.ny.gov/domestic-workers-bill-rights.
When Your Employer Refuses
If your employer did not pay you for a sick day and you are entitled to it (see above), ask for the payment or write a letter. You will find sample letters, quoting the law, on the Poradnik Sukces website (www.PoradnikSukces.com) in the article “Gdy szef odmawia zapłaty za dzień chorobowy” (“When Your Boss Refuses to Pay for a Sick Day”).
Penalties for Employers
If your employer does not pay for a sick day, you are entitled to compensation of three times the wages owed or $250, whichever is greater. If you ask for time off and your employer unlawfully refuses, or demands that you find a replacement or make up the hours, you may be entitled to $500 in compensation for each such instance. If you were unlawfully disciplined or fired for exercising your rights or filing a complaint, you become entitled to back pay and lost benefits plus damages of $500 or $2,500. In addition, the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) may fine the employer up to $500 for a first violation, up to $750 for a second, and up to $1,000 for each subsequent violation within two years.
If your employer does not obey the law, you can file a complaint with the DCWP online, by mail, or by calling 311 (from outside the city: 212-NEW-YORK). Information and answers to frequently asked questions can be found at: www.nyc.gov/site/dca/about/paid-sick-leave-FAQs.page. You have two years to file a complaint from the date you learned (or should have learned) of the violation.
Sick Days Elsewhere
Besides New York City, the pioneers of paid sick days included: Seattle (since September 1, 2012), Portland (since January 1, 2014), San Francisco (since 2007), Jersey City (since January 24, 2014), Washington DC (since 2008), and the entire state of Connecticut, where paid sick days have been required at large workplaces since 2012.
Today, paid sick days are required in many other places. Throughout New York State, employees have been accruing them since September 30, 2020 (they could be used starting January 1, 2021) – up to 40 hours at businesses with 5 to 99 employees and up to 56 hours at larger businesses. In New Jersey, since October 2018, employers of all sizes have had to provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave a year. Where there are no such laws, the decision on paid sick leave is up to the employer.
Updated October 2026.
