If you work for a private employer in New York and are pregnant, short-term disability benefits pay you cash starting four weeks before your due date and continuing six weeks after a vaginal delivery or eight weeks after a C-section. The weekly amount is 50% of your average weekly wage, capped at $170. Benefits can extend to a maximum of 26 weeks in a 52-week period if your doctor certifies medical complications, and you can follow them with New York Paid Family Leave for significantly more pay and time once your baby arrives.1Workers’ Compensation Board. Workers Disability Benefits
Who Qualifies
New York’s Disability Benefits Law covers nearly all private-sector employees in the state.1Workers’ Compensation Board. Workers Disability Benefits Full-time workers become eligible after four consecutive weeks on the job. Part-time workers qualify after 25 days of employment. Your employer pays for most of the coverage; your share is deducted from your paycheck and capped at $0.60 per week.2Workers’ Compensation Board. Disability Benefits and Paid Family Leave Insurance
Some employers sit outside the mandatory system, including certain religious organizations and government agencies. If your employer doesn’t participate and hasn’t voluntarily opted in, you won’t qualify. If you recently left a job, you may still be covered: workers who become disabled within four weeks of their last day can file through the former employer’s carrier, with the standard seven-day waiting period. If more than four weeks have passed but you’re collecting unemployment, the Workers’ Compensation Board’s Special Fund for Disability covers you and the waiting period is waived.3Workers’ Compensation Board. Employee Eligibility / Benefits
How Much You Get Paid
Your weekly benefit is 50% of your average weekly wage, calculated from your last eight weeks of pay, with a maximum of $170 per week regardless of what you actually earn.1Workers’ Compensation Board. Workers Disability Benefits Anyone earning more than $340 a week hits the cap. The first seven calendar days of your disability are an unpaid waiting period, so your first check covers day eight onward.3Workers’ Compensation Board. Employee Eligibility / Benefits
Payments are subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes and are generally treated as taxable income at the federal and state level, so what you keep will be less than $170 per week.1Workers’ Compensation Board. Workers Disability Benefits
How Long Benefits Last
Benefits start four weeks before your due date. After delivery, you receive six weeks of benefits for a vaginal birth or eight weeks for a C-section.4Workers’ Compensation Board. Workers Disability Benefits – Section: Pregnancy and maternity leave If your provider certifies that complications keep you from working longer, benefits can extend up to a total of 26 weeks within any 52-consecutive-week period.5New York State Insurance Fund. About Your Disability Benefits Claim – Section: Claims Payments Extended leave might cover things like severe preeclampsia, postpartum depression, or surgical complications, as long as your healthcare provider documents that the condition prevents you from doing your job.
How to File Your Claim
You file using Form DB-450, the Notice and Proof of Claim for Disability Benefits, available on the Workers’ Compensation Board website or from your employer’s HR department.6Workers’ Compensation Board. New York State Notice and Proof of Claim for Disability Benefits The form has three parts, each completed by someone different:
- Part A is yours. Enter your Social Security number, contact information, and the date your disability began.
- Part B goes to your healthcare provider. Your OB, midwife, or other provider confirms your expected or actual delivery date and explains why you can’t perform your job.
- Part C goes to your employer. They verify your wages for the eight weeks before your disability started and your length of employment.
Submit the completed form to your employer’s insurance carrier within 30 calendar days of your first day of disability. Missing that deadline can cost you benefits for the period before you filed.6Workers’ Compensation Board. New York State Notice and Proof of Claim for Disability Benefits The usual bottleneck is coordinating all three signatures in time, so get the form to your provider and employer well before your leave starts.
What Happens After You File
Once the carrier receives your completed DB-450, it has 18 days to either issue your first payment or send a written denial with reasons.7New York State Insurance Fund. New York State Notice and Proof of Claim for Disability Benefits If approved, the carrier may periodically ask your provider for updated medical documentation to confirm you still need leave.
If your claim is denied, you can challenge the decision through the Workers’ Compensation Board, which assigns a judge to hear disputes. If you disagree with that decision, you can file a formal appeal within 30 days.8Workers’ Compensation Board. Appeals If you don’t have a lawyer, the Board doesn’t require you to use its prescribed forms or follow all the formal filing rules.
Stacking Disability With Paid Family Leave
Disability benefits only cover you through recovery from childbirth. To get paid time to bond with your baby, you file separately for New York Paid Family Leave, which pays 67% of your average weekly wage up to a 2026 maximum of $1,228.53 per week and provides up to 12 weeks.9Paid Family Leave. New York Paid Family Leave Updates for 202610Paid Family Leave. Benefits
You cannot collect disability and Paid Family Leave at the same time, but you can take them back to back. The common pattern is disability first to cover recovery, then Paid Family Leave for bonding. You can also skip disability entirely and go straight to PFL if the higher pay rate is more valuable for your situation. The total of both programs cannot exceed 26 weeks in a 52-week period.11Paid Family Leave. Paid Family Leave and Other Benefits
Each program needs its own application and documentation, so file the PFL paperwork before your disability leave runs out. For many workers, the combined benefit produces roughly 14 to 20 weeks of paid leave, with PFL paying several times more per week than disability.
Disability Benefits Do Not Protect Your Job
Collecting disability payments is not the same as having a legal right to return to your position. Job protection comes from separate laws: the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for eligible employees at employers with 50 or more employees within 75 miles), the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (reasonable accommodations at employers with 15 or more employees), and the New York State Human Rights Law, which applies to every employer in the state with even one employee and treats pregnancy-related conditions as temporary disabilities requiring reasonable accommodation.12U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28 The Family and Medical Leave Act13U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Pregnant Workers Fairness Act14New York State Division of Human Rights. Guidance on Pregnancy Discrimination FMLA leave runs concurrently with your disability and PFL benefits, so those programs pay you while FMLA protects the job.
You Cannot Be Punished for Filing
Section 120 of the Workers’ Compensation Law makes it illegal for your employer to fire you, refuse to reinstate you, or otherwise retaliate against you for filing a disability benefits claim.15New York State Senate. New York Workers Compensation Code 120 – Discrimination Against Employees If the Board finds retaliation, it can order your employer to restore your job, pay lost wages, and cover attorney’s fees. The employer also faces a penalty of $100 to $500 that cannot be paid by insurance. You have two years from the retaliatory action to file a complaint.
A Typical Leave Timeline
- Around 36 weeks pregnant: disability benefits begin four weeks before your due date. File your DB-450 as soon as your provider can complete Part B.
- After delivery: disability covers six weeks for vaginal birth or eight weeks for C-section, with more possible if your doctor certifies complications.
- After disability ends: file for Paid Family Leave to bond with your baby, up to 12 weeks at 67% of your average weekly wage.9Paid Family Leave. New York Paid Family Leave Updates for 2026
- Combined cap: no more than 26 total weeks of disability plus PFL in a 52-week period.11Paid Family Leave. Paid Family Leave and Other Benefits
For a vaginal delivery with no complications, that works out to about 4 weeks of pre-delivery disability, 6 weeks of post-delivery disability, and 12 weeks of PFL: 22 weeks total. For a C-section, 24 weeks. Either way, you stay within the 26-week combined cap. If you need extended disability beyond standard recovery, it eats into the weeks available for PFL, so weigh that trade-off with your doctor.
Your employer’s own policies may offer more than the state minimums. Check whether your company provides supplemental disability pay, additional parental leave, or the option to use accrued sick and vacation time alongside state benefits. The state programs set the floor.