If Pain, Yes Gain—Part 84: New York State Paid Sick Leave Law Signed

Seyfarth Synopsis: New York’s paid sick leave law, applicable to employers of all sizes, goes into effect on September 30, 2020, permitting employees to use sick leave beginning January 1, 2021.

On April 2, 2020, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that the Fiscal Year 2021 state budget includes a mandatory paid sick leave program.  The State Legislature passed the budget immediately thereafter, and Governor Cuomo signed the bill on April 3, 2020.  The legislation will take effect 180 days after signing, on September 30, 2020.

While covered employers must allow employees to begin accruing sick leave on September 30, 2020, employees need not be permitted to use accrued time until January 1, 2021, although employers may permit use of leave before that date.

In brief, New York employers with 5 to 99 employees in any calendar year must provide employees with up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per calendar year, and New York employers with 100 or more employees must provide employees up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per calendar year.  Employers with 4 or fewer employees in any calendar year and a net income greater than $1 million in the previous tax year must provide employees with up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per calendar year.  Employers with 4 or fewer employees in any calendar year and a net income of $1 million or less in the previous tax year must provide employees up to 40 hours of unpaid sick leave per calendar year.

New York State Paid Sick Leave adds to the existing paid leave benefits available to New York employees, including statewide Paid Family Leave, Disability Benefits, and Workers’ Compensation Law.  In addition, New York City and Westchester County currently enforce local paid sick and safe time mandates. 

For more information on the interplay of the bill and these existing state and local laws, as well as a summary of New York’s new mandatory sick leave components, see “Part 83: Second Statewide Paid Sick Leave Mandate Coming to New York.”

Employer Takeaways:

We expect the New York Department of Labor to provide guidance on the new statewide sick leave law in the coming months.  In the meantime, employers should consider taking the following steps:

• Monitor the New York Department of Labor’s website for the release of further guidance.
• Review existing sick leave policies and either implement new policies or revise existing policies, as well as any related attendance, conduct, anti-retaliation, and discipline policies.
• Ensure that payroll records include the amount of sick leave provided to each employee and are retained in accordance with Section 195 of the Labor Law, as amended by the legislation.

With the paid leave landscape continuing to rapidly expand and grow in complexity, we encourage companies to reach out to their Seyfarth contact for solutions and recommendations on addressing compliance with paid leave requirements.  To stay up-to-date on Paid Sick Leave developments, click here to sign up for Seyfarth’s Paid Sick Leave mailing list.  Companies interested in Seyfarth’s paid sick leave laws survey should reach out to sickleave@seyfarth.com.