New York State Sick Time Law: Accrual, Use, and Complaints

New York State’s sick time law, Labor Law Section 196-b, gives nearly every private-sector worker in the state job-protected sick leave: up to 40 hours a year at most employers, and up to 56 hours a year if your employer has 100 or more employees. Most workers get that time paid. You start earning it your first day on the job, and you can use it for your own illness, a family member’s illness, or safety needs tied to domestic violence, stalking, sexual offenses, or trafficking.

Who the Law Covers

Every private employer in New York has to provide sick leave, and it does not matter what industry they operate in. Full-time, part-time, seasonal, and temporary workers all qualify. Domestic workers are covered too.¹ There is no minimum hours-per-week threshold, and your accrual clock starts the day you begin work.²

Immigration status does not change your rights. The state’s anti-retaliation rules specifically prohibit employers from threatening to report a worker’s suspected immigration status because they used or requested sick leave.³

How Many Hours You Get

The amount of leave and whether it is paid depends on your employer’s size, with a net-income wrinkle only for the smallest businesses.⁴

1 to 4 employees and net income of $1 million or less in the prior tax year: up to 40 hours of unpaid sick leave per calendar year.
1 to 4 employees with net income above $1 million: up to 40 hours of paid sick leave.
5 to 99 employees: up to 40 hours of paid sick leave, regardless of income.
100 or more employees: up to 56 hours of paid sick leave.

Once an employer has five or more workers, paid leave is required no matter the company’s income.²

How You Earn and Carry Over Hours

You accrue sick leave at one hour for every 30 hours worked, from your first day. Employers have the option to front-load your full annual bank at the start of the calendar year rather than tracking accrual as you go. If they front-load, they cannot claw any of it back later based on how many hours you actually put in.²

Any hours you don’t use carry over to the next year. Your employer can still cap how many hours you actually use in a single year at 40 (or 56 for the largest employers), so a carryover balance doesn’t automatically raise your annual ceiling. You might roll 50 hours into January and only be allowed to use 40 of them.²

What You Can Use Sick Leave For

The law covers a broad range of health situations: physical or mental illness, injury, or a health condition, whether or not a doctor has diagnosed it. Diagnosis, treatment, and preventive care such as checkups and vaccinations all count.

You can also use sick leave to care for a family member with the same kinds of needs. Family is defined broadly:

Children, parents (including step-parents, foster parents, and legal guardians), and grandchildren
Spouses and domestic partners
Siblings and grandparents
A child or parent of your spouse or domestic partner²

Safe leave covers situations where you or a family member has been a victim of domestic violence, a sexual offense, stalking, or human trafficking. You can use the time for medical attention, counseling, legal proceedings, relocation, or other steps needed to address safety.²

How You’re Paid and the Four-Hour Cap on Increments

When you use paid sick leave, your employer must pay you your regular hourly rate or the applicable minimum wage, whichever is higher.²

Employers can require you to take leave in set increments, but the minimum increment cannot exceed four hours. If your employer sets that four-hour floor, a short absence still costs you four hours from your bank, which can drain the balance faster than you might expect.²

Requesting Leave and What Documentation Your Employer Can Ask For

A request can be oral or written. The law sets no specific advance-notice requirement, and your employer cannot deny leave because you didn’t give notice or because you couldn’t find someone to cover your shift.⁵

Documentation rules are strict. Your employer can only request medical documentation if you use sick leave for three or more consecutive scheduled workdays. Even then, they cannot demand the specific nature of your illness or any confidential medical details. For safe leave, employers cannot require details about domestic violence incidents. If your employer does ask for documentation, they must reimburse any cost you incur to get it, like a doctor’s note fee.²

Retaliation and Getting Your Job Back

Your employer cannot punish you for requesting or using sick leave. Retaliation isn’t limited to termination or demotion. Assigning attendance points or demerits, or any action that could lead to discipline, also counts. Threatening to contact immigration authorities about you or a family member is prohibited outright.³

When you come back, your employer must return you to the same position, at the same pay, with the same benefits. Cutting your hours or shifting you into a lesser role after protected leave violates the law.⁵

No Payout When You Leave the Job

The law does not require your employer to pay out unused sick leave when you quit, are fired, or retire. Whatever balance you had simply disappears. Some employers pay out unused vacation, but sick leave under Section 196-b works differently and carries no payout requirement.²

How to File a Complaint

If your employer denies you sick leave, retaliates against you, or fails to pay you correctly, you can file a complaint with the New York State Department of Labor. You do not need a lawyer to start.

The complaint uses the Labor Standards Complaint Form (LS 223), which has a section for unpaid sick leave. You can get the form online or by calling the Division of Labor Standards at (888) 469-7365. Completed forms go to the Division of Labor Standards at 1220 Washington Avenue, Building 12, Room 185B, Albany, NY 12226.⁶

Your complaint does not have to cite a specific statute to be protected. As long as you communicate a good-faith belief that your employer violated the law, Section 215’s anti-retaliation rules apply.³

Extra Protections If You Work in NYC

New York City workers get more than the state minimum. The city’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act, as amended by Local Law 145 of 2025, requires employers to provide an additional 32 hours of unpaid protected time off on top of the state-mandated sick leave. That extra bank is available on your first day and refills each calendar year.⁷

The city law also broadens what you can use leave for. NYC workers can use protected time off to care for a child or care recipient, attend legal proceedings related to housing or public benefits, respond to a public disaster, or address workplace violence.⁷

The city provisions took effect on February 22, 2026. Where the state and city laws overlap, you get whichever protection is stronger on any given point.⁸

How State Sick Leave Lines Up With FMLA

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act gives up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for serious health conditions, but the eligibility rules are strict. You must have worked for your employer at least 12 months, logged at least 1,250 hours in the past year, and work at a location where the employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles.⁹ New York’s sick leave law has none of those thresholds, so plenty of workers who don’t qualify for FMLA still have state sick leave.

When both laws apply, your employer can require you to use accrued paid sick leave during FMLA leave, so the two run at the same time. You get paid through your sick leave balance while the FMLA clock runs. Paid leave used for an FMLA-qualifying reason counts as FMLA-protected.¹⁰ In practice, your first 40 or 56 hours of FMLA leave may be paid, and the rest is unpaid unless you have other leave to draw on.

1
The State of New York. New York State Paid Sick Leave – Domestic Workers
2
New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 196-B – Sick Leave Requirements
3
New York State Senate. New York Labor Law 215 – Retaliation
4
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Sick Leave Requirements – Section 196-1.4 Employee Counts
5
The State of New York. New York Paid Sick Leave
6
New York State Department of Labor. Labor Standards Complaint Form LS 223
7
City of New York. Protected Time Off Under the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act
8
NYC.gov. Protected Time Off Law FAQs
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28 – The Family and Medical Leave Act
10
U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Frequently Asked Questions