Changes Coming to NYC Safe and Sick Leave Requirements in February 2026

Amendments to New York City’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA) are set to take effect on February 22, 2026. These amendments establish new safe and sick leave obligations for employers in New York City while reducing certain existing obligations related to temporary schedule changes.

Amendments to the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA)

Under the ESSTA, employers with 100 or more employees must currently provide up to 56 hours of paid safe and sick leave annually. Employers with five to 99 employees must provide up to 40 hours of annual paid safe and sick leave, while smaller employers are subject to lesser requirements.

These requirements are not changing. However, effective February 22, 2026, employers have the following additional obligations: 

• 32 Hours of Unpaid Leave: 
  • In addition to providing paid safe and sick leave under the ESSTA, employers must also provide at least 32 hours of unpaid safe and sick time.
  • These 32 hours of unpaid time off must be provided: (a) at the employee’s time of hire; and (b) on the first day of each calendar year. There is no waiting period for the use of this unpaid leave.
  • An employer is not required to carry over such unpaid leave from one calendar year to the next.  
  • As is the case with paid safe and sick leave under the ESSTA, this unpaid leave must be tracked and reported on employees’ pay stubs or other documentation provided to employees each pay period.
  • Additionally, employers may require that employees use this unpaid leave in increments of up to four hours per day. If an employee requests time off for a safe or sick leave purpose, the employer must treat the request as one for paid safe or sick leave, unless paid safe or sick leave is unavailable, or the employee specifically requests to use unpaid leave. 
• Paid Prenatal Leave: Under the ESSTA, New York City employers must comply with the paid prenatal leave requirements under New York State law, which took effect on January 1, 2025. New York City employers may require that employees take paid prenatal leave in minimum increments of one hour per day. A failure to comply with the New York State paid prenatal leave law can now lead to penalties under the ESSTA (in addition to damages and penalties under state law).  
• Expanded Bases for Safe and Sick Leave: The amendments to the ESSTA provide that safe time is available when the employee or employee’s family member has been the victim of workplace violence.  Previously, this leave was only available under the ESSTA when the employee or employee’s family member was a victim of domestic violence, a family offense matter, sexual offense, stalking, or human trafficking.
  • Employees may also now take leave under the ESSTA for an absence from work:
    • to provide care to a minor child or care recipient for whom the employee is a caregiver. A “care recipient” is a person with a disability, including a temporary disability, who (i) is the caregiver’s family member or resides in the caregiver’s household and (ii) relies on the caregiver for medical care or to meet the needs of daily living.
    • due to the closure of an employee’s place of business by order of a public official due to a public disaster, or such employee’s need to care for a child whose school or childcare provider has been closed or restricted in-person operations by order of a public official due to a public disaster.
    • due to direction by a public official to remain indoors or avoid travel during a public disaster which prevents such employee from reporting to their work location.
    • to initiate, attend or prepare for a legal proceeding or hearing related to subsistence benefits or housing to which the employee, the employee’s family member, or the employee’s care recipient is a party, or to take actions necessary to apply for, maintain, or restore subsistence benefits or shelter for the employee or their family member or care recipient.
• Changes to the Temporary Schedule Change Act Requirements: Under the amendment to the ESSTA, employers are no longer required to approve up to two temporary schedule changes annually for personal events, under the New York City Temporary Schedule Change Act.  Instead, the ESSTA amendment requires that the employer respond to temporary schedule change requests as soon as practicable and refrain from retaliating against employees who request temporary schedule changes.
• Employees Covered by a Collective Bargaining Agreement: The ESSTA amendments also clarify the provision of the law that discusses employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement.  The ESSTA will not apply to any employee covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement if (i) the law’s provisions are expressly waived in such collective bargaining agreement and (ii) the agreement provides for “superior or comparable benefits” for the employees covered by such agreement in the form of “paid or unpaid time off”.  (The references to “superior” benefits and “unpaid time off” are new under the ESSTA amendment.)  Such “time off” may be in the form of leave, compensation, other employee benefits, or some combination thereof; however, “unpaid time off shall not be considered a comparable benefit for purposes of paid safe/sick time or paid prenatal leave” under the ESSTA.
• Notice Requirements: Under the ESSTA, employers must provide employees with a written notice of their rights under the law: (a) when their rights under the law change, i.e., prior to the ESSTA amendment’s February 22, 2026 effective date; and (b) when they begin employment. This notice must be given in English and, if available on the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection’s (“DCWP”) website, the employees’ primary language. We anticipate that, prior to the ESSTA amendment’s February 22, 2026, effective date, the DCWP will publish a notice that may be used for this purpose.

Next Steps

Prior to the February 22, 2026, effective date of the ESSTA amendment, New York City employers should take the following steps:

• Review and update their existing policies and payroll practices to comply with the ESSTA amendments.
• Ensure that managers and supervisors are trained regarding the new leave requirements under the ESSTA.
• Provide written notice of employees’ rights under the ESSTA amendment to current employees and update the ESSTA notice of rights in new-hire paperwork.

If you would like assistance with any of these action items or would like to learn more about your company’s obligations under the recent ESSTA amendment, we encourage you to get in touch so we can help.