The NYC Earned Safe and Sick Time Act gives most people who work in the five boroughs the right to paid time off for illness, medical appointments, and safety-related situations such as domestic violence or stalking. Depending on your employer’s size, you can earn up to 40 or 56 hours of paid leave each year, plus 32 hours of unpaid protected time available from your first day. The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) enforces the law, and penalties for employers who deny leave are calculated per employee and per year.
Who the Law Covers
If you work more than 80 hours in a calendar year inside New York City, you’re almost certainly covered. The law reaches full-time, part-time, seasonal, and per-diem workers, along with domestic workers, temporary employees, undocumented workers, and people who live outside the city but perform their job within it. Citizenship and immigration status do not affect eligibility.1NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Protected Time Off: Frequently Asked Questions
Whether your leave is paid or unpaid depends on your employer’s headcount and income:
- Employers with 5 or more employees must provide paid safe and sick time, regardless of income.
- Employers with fewer than 5 employees and net income over $1 million must provide paid leave.
- Employers with fewer than 5 employees and net income of $1 million or less provide unpaid leave only.
Every covered worker, no matter the employer’s size, also gets 32 hours of unpaid protected time off each calendar year, available from the first day of employment. That unpaid block is separate from and in addition to any paid hours you accrue.2NYC Rules. Protected Time Off Under the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act
Independent Contractors Fall Outside the Law
Only employees are protected. True independent contractors are not. But the label on your paperwork doesn’t settle it. Under New York labor law, the question is how much control the hiring party has over when, where, and how you do your work. If a company sets your schedule, provides your equipment, directly supervises you, and can fire you, you’re likely an employee even if you signed a contractor agreement or receive a 1099.3New York State Department of Labor. Independent Contractors Workers who believe they’ve been misclassified can file a complaint with DCWP.
How Much Leave You Earn and How It Accrues
You earn one hour of safe and sick time for every 30 hours worked, starting your first day. The annual cap tracks your employer’s size:1NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Protected Time Off: Frequently Asked Questions
- 1 to 99 employees: up to 40 hours per calendar year.
- 100 or more employees: up to 56 hours per calendar year.
Your employer picks a fixed 12-month period to use as its calendar year. It doesn’t have to be January through December, but it has to stay consistent.
Front-Loading Is an Option
Instead of tracking accrual, employers can front-load the full allotment at the start of each calendar year. If yours does, you get all 40 or 56 hours on day one. One wrinkle for part-time workers: if an employer front-loads fewer than 40 hours based on anticipated part-time hours, it must still track actual hours and let the employee accrue more at the standard rate until reaching the 40-hour cap.4New York State. New York State Paid Sick Leave – For Employers Front-loaded leave cannot be clawed back if you work fewer hours than the employer expected.
Carryover and Payout
Unused leave carries over to the next calendar year, capped at 40 hours (for smaller employers) or 56 hours (for 100-plus). Even with carried-over hours, you can only use up to 40 or 56 hours in a single year; carryover just protects time you couldn’t use last year.5NYC Rules. NYC Rules 7-214 – Accrual, Hours Worked, Hours Used and Carry Over Employers who pay out all unused leave at the end of the year and front-load the full amount on day one of the next year don’t have to allow carryover.
If you resign, retire, or are terminated, your employer does not have to pay out unused safe and sick time.6NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. NYC Earned Safe and Sick Time Act – Frequently Asked Questions Some employers offer payout as a benefit, but the law doesn’t require it.
What You Can Use the Leave For
The law splits leave into two categories, sick time and safe time, and either can be used for you or for a family member.
Sick Time
Sick time covers any absence tied to a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition, including treatment, recovery, and preventive care such as checkups, vaccinations, and diagnostic appointments.7NYC Office of Labor Relations. NYC Administrative Code Chapter 8 – Earned Safe and Sick Time Act A routine dental cleaning counts just as much as a hospital stay.
Safe Time
Safe time applies when you or a family member has been the victim of domestic violence, a sexual offense, stalking, or human trafficking. Permitted uses include:
- Visiting a domestic violence shelter, rape crisis center, or similar program.
- Safety planning, including temporary or permanent relocation and enrolling children in a new school.
- Meeting with a civil attorney, participating in criminal or civil court matters, filing a police report, or meeting with a district attorney’s office.
- Any other action reasonably necessary to protect your physical, psychological, or economic well-being or that of a family member.
Who Counts as Family
The definition of family member is deliberately broad. It includes your spouse, domestic partner, child, parent, sibling, grandchild, and grandparent; the child or parent of your spouse or domestic partner; any blood relative; and any person whose close association with you is the equivalent of a family relationship.7NYC Office of Labor Relations. NYC Administrative Code Chapter 8 – Earned Safe and Sick Time Act That last category is open-ended on purpose. A close friend you consider family, a godchild, or a long-term partner who isn’t a legal spouse can qualify.
Public Health Emergencies
You can also use leave when a public health emergency directly affects your ability to work. That includes a child’s school or daycare closing under a public health order, your employer closing because of a declared emergency, or a city-issued public health emergency declaration.
Pay Rate While You’re on Leave
Paid leave is paid at your regular hourly rate at the time you take it, and the rate can never fall below the applicable minimum wage. Tipped workers must receive at least the full minimum wage with no tip credit, though they aren’t entitled to compensation for tips they might have earned during the absence. Commission-based workers receive their base wage or the minimum wage, whichever is higher.1NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Protected Time Off: Frequently Asked Questions
Notice and Documentation Your Employer Can Require
Your employer must give you a written Notice of Employee Rights when you start, in your primary language.8NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Protected Time Off: Notice of Employee Rights For foreseeable absences such as scheduled surgery or a prenatal appointment, the employer can require up to seven days’ advance notice. For unexpected illness or emergencies, you just need to notify your employer as soon as reasonably possible.
Employers can only ask for written documentation when you use more than three consecutive workdays of leave, and only if the requirement was spelled out in a written policy you received before taking the leave.6NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. NYC Earned Safe and Sick Time Act – Frequently Asked Questions That policy must explain what documentation is accepted, how to submit it, and how to request reimbursement for any costs of obtaining it. Your employer cannot require your provider to disclose the specific nature of a medical condition or safety situation.
Employers may set a minimum increment for using leave, but it cannot exceed four hours.9New York State. New York Paid Sick Leave If you need two hours for an appointment and your employer sets a four-hour minimum, you may be required to use four hours. The employer cannot force you to take a full day.
Retaliation Is Illegal
Your employer cannot punish you for using or trying to use your leave. The anti-retaliation rule covers firing, demotion, suspension, cutting your hours or pay, harassment, threats, intimidation, and blacklisting. An employer also cannot count protected leave against you in an attendance policy.7NYC Office of Labor Relations. NYC Administrative Code Chapter 8 – Earned Safe and Sick Time Act
Several details favor employees. You don’t need to cite the law by name, or even know it exists, to be protected. If you assert your rights in good faith but turn out to be wrong about the specifics, you’re still protected. And if your use of leave was one motivating factor behind an adverse action, a violation can be found even if the employer had other reasons too. Retaliation based on perceived immigration status is explicitly prohibited.
Penalties and How to File a Complaint
When DCWP finds that an employer kept a policy of denying leave, the consequences are measured per employee and per year. Each affected employee gets $500 in monetary relief for each calendar year the violation was in effect, plus restoration of the leave hours they should have accrued.10NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Notice of Adoption – Earned Safe and Sick Time Act Rules Multiple years count as separate violations. An employer with 50 affected employees over three years is looking at $75,000 in mandatory monetary relief alone, before any civil penalties under the Administrative Code.
If your employer refuses to provide leave, retaliates against you for using it, or otherwise violates the law, you can file a complaint through DCWP’s online portal.11NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. File Workplace Complaint The department reviews the complaint and may try mediation first. If that doesn’t resolve things, a formal investigation can follow, with DCWP examining payroll records and company policies. Resolution timelines depend on how complex the case is and how cooperative the employer is.
Paid Prenatal Leave Is Separate
Since January 2025, New York State requires all private employers to provide 20 hours of paid leave specifically for prenatal care or any pregnancy-related medical need.12New York State. New York State Paid Prenatal Leave This is an additional entitlement, not a replacement. A pregnant employee at a company with 100 or more workers could have access to 56 hours of paid safe and sick time, 32 hours of unpaid protected time, and 20 hours of paid prenatal leave in the same year. Prenatal leave complaints go through the same DCWP process.
How This Fits with State and Federal Laws
The NYC law runs alongside New York State’s own paid sick leave law, which has the same accrual rate and employer-size tiers. When one law provides a greater benefit than the other, the employer must follow whichever is more generous. The NYC law often reaches further because it includes safe time for domestic violence and similar situations, which the state law does not cover.
For employees eligible for federal FMLA leave, the two can run at the same time. If your employer is covered by the FMLA and your absence qualifies under both, the employer may count your safe and sick hours against your FMLA allotment at the same time. Where federal or state law requires something the NYC law does not, the employer may also request more detailed medical information than the NYC law alone would allow.