Reminder: New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time Act Amendments

As a reminder, the New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (“ESSTA”) has been amended expanding its leave entitlements to employees.  The amendments went into effect on February 22, 2026.

The amended ESSTA requires employers to provide employees with a minimum of 32 hours of unpaid safe and sick time immediately upon hire and employees can use the unpaid safe/sick time immediately upon receipt.  Employers must frontload this time at the start of each new benefit year.  Any unused safe/sick time does not need to be carried over to the next year.

When an employee requests time off under the ESSTA, an employer must first provide unused, accrued safe/sick time unless the employee has exhausted such time or no time is available.  The amendments also require unpaid safe/sick time to be included on employees’ pay statements or provided in writing to employees each pay period.

Further, the amendments incorporate the requirements of New York City’s Temporary Schedule Change Law, expanding the circumstances under which employees may take protected time off.  Those circumstances now include:

• caring for a child or for a member of an employee’s household with a disability;
• attending legal proceedings related to benefits for an individual under an employee’s care;
• the closure of an employee’s place of business or a child’s school or place of care due to a public disaster;
• government directives to avoid travel or stay indoors during a public disaster;
• seeking legal services or assistance if an employee or a family member is a victim of workplace violence; and
• other reasons that would qualify for safe/sick time under the ESSTA.

The ESSTA amendments also incorporate previous amendments to New York City’s ESSTA regulations that took effect earlier this year, requiring employers to provide at least 20 hours of paid prenatal leave.

As a result of the ESSTA amendments, New York City’s Temporary Schedule Change Law (“TSCL”) has been narrowed.  Under the amended ESSTA, employers are no longer required to provide two schedule changes each benefit year to care for a minor child or care recipient and for actions related to subsistence benefits or housing, as that is now covered under the ESSTA. Employees remain permitted to request temporary schedule changes, but employers may deny the request and require employees to use ESSTA leave if available. 

New York City has published an updated paid sick leave notice poster which can be found here: https://www.nyc.gov/assets/dca/downloads/pdf/about/PaidSafeSickLeave-MandatoryNotice-English.pdf.  Employers must post it in a conspicuous, accessible area and provide a copy to all employees upon hire or whenever their rights change.