If you work in New York City, your right to take time off comes from four separate laws stacked on top of each other: the city’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act, New York State Paid Family Leave, New York State short-term disability, and the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. NYC leave of absence laws overlap in ways that matter, because your employer can require some of them to run at the same time. Knowing what each program covers on its own is the only way to figure out what you’re actually owed.
The Four Programs at a Glance
Each law answers a different question. Safe and sick leave handles short absences for illness, medical appointments, or dealing with domestic violence and related situations. Paid Family Leave covers longer absences to care for someone else or bond with a new child. State disability covers your own off-the-job illness or injury. FMLA adds federal job protection, including for your own serious health condition, which PFL does not cover.
- NYC safe and sick leave: up to 56 hours per year, paid at most employers, usable in short increments.
- NY Paid Family Leave: up to 12 weeks per 52-week period, partially paid, job-protected.
- NY short-term disability: up to 26 weeks per 52-week period, partially paid, for non-work injuries and illness.
- Federal FMLA: up to 12 weeks per year, unpaid, job-protected, for larger employers only.
Paid Safe and Sick Leave
The Earned Safe and Sick Time Act sits in Title 20, Chapter 8 of the NYC Administrative Code. You accrue one hour of leave for every 30 hours worked. How much you can bank depends on your employer’s size:
- 100 or more employees: up to 56 hours of paid leave per calendar year.
- 5 to 99 employees: up to 40 hours of paid leave per calendar year.
- 4 or fewer employees with net income of $1 million or less: up to 40 hours of unpaid leave per calendar year.
- 4 or fewer employees with net income above $1 million: up to 40 hours of paid leave per calendar year.1NY.gov. New York Paid Sick Leave
Accrued time is available as soon as it’s earned. Unused hours carry over, though your employer doesn’t have to let you use more than the annual cap in any one year.
Sick use covers your own physical or mental illness, preventive care, diagnosis, or treatment, and the same for a family member. Safe use is what makes the city law broader than the state version: you can use it if you or a family member is a victim of domestic violence, unwanted sexual contact, stalking, human trafficking, or workplace violence. That includes time to relocate, meet with an attorney, file a police report, enroll children in a new school, or seek services from a crisis center. You don’t need to prove a crime occurred or was reported.2NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Protected Time Off Law FAQs
Paid Family Leave
Paid Family Leave gives you up to 12 weeks of job-protected, partially paid time off in any 52-week period for three kinds of events: bonding with a newborn, newly adopted, or newly fostered child within the first 12 months; caring for a family member with a serious health condition; and assisting loved ones when a spouse, domestic partner, child, or parent is deployed abroad on active military service.3Paid Family Leave. New York State Paid Family Leave
Who Qualifies
If you work 20 or more hours per week, you qualify after 26 consecutive weeks with the same employer. If you work fewer than 20 hours per week, you qualify after 175 days of work, which don’t need to be consecutive.4Paid Family Leave. Eligibility Almost all private-sector employees in the state are covered. The program is funded through small payroll deductions; for 2026, the employee contribution rate is 0.432% of gross wages per pay period, capped at $411.91 for the year.
How Much You Get Paid
The benefit is 67% of your average weekly wage, capped at 67% of the statewide average weekly wage. For 2026, the maximum weekly benefit is $1,228.53. If you earn less than the statewide average, the calculation runs against your own wage.
PFL’s definition of “family member” is wider than most people expect. It covers your spouse, domestic partner, child or stepchild, parent or stepparent, parent-in-law, grandparent, grandchild, and sibling.5Paid Family Leave. Paid Family Leave for Family Care Domestic partners qualify regardless of gender, and legal registration isn’t required. Evidence of the relationship can include shared property, common householding, children in common, or shared finances.
PFL benefits are taxable federal income. You’ll get a 1099-G or 1099-MISC from the insurance carrier.6New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. New York State Paid Family Leave Nothing is withheld automatically unless you ask.
Short-Term Disability
Short-term disability under Article 9 of the Workers’ Compensation Law covers injuries and illnesses that happen off the job, plus pregnancy-related conditions. If you’re hurt or ill because of your work, you’d file for workers’ compensation instead.7New York State Workers’ Compensation Board. Disability Benefits and Paid Family Leave Insurance
Most employees are eligible after four consecutive weeks of covered employment. Once you’re disabled, there’s a seven-day unpaid waiting period, and payments start on the eighth consecutive day.8New York State Workers’ Compensation Board. Introduction to the Disability Benefits Law The benefit is 50% of your average weekly wage, but the ceiling is $170 per week. That cap has been fixed at $170 since 1989 and has never been adjusted for inflation, so it works as a minimal safety net rather than real income replacement. Benefits last up to 26 weeks within a 52-week period. If you become disabled within four weeks of losing a job, your former employer’s carrier still covers you.
How FMLA Fits In
FMLA gives eligible workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year. To qualify, you must have worked for your employer at least 12 months, logged at least 1,250 hours in those months, and work at a location where the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles.9U.S. Department of Labor. Family and Medical Leave Act Those thresholds are stricter than PFL’s, so some NYC workers qualify for PFL but not FMLA.
FMLA covers your own serious health condition. PFL does not. If you’re the one who’s sick or recovering from surgery, PFL won’t apply, though FMLA and state disability may both be available.
When a single event triggers both FMLA and PFL, your employer can require them to run concurrently instead of back to back. The employer has to notify you that the leave qualifies under both laws and will be designated as concurrent.10Paid Family Leave. PFL and Other Benefits Without that notice, the leaves may run separately, potentially giving you more total time off.
FMLA also protects your health insurance. During FMLA leave, your employer must maintain your group health plan on the same terms as if you were still working, keeping up its share of the premiums while you continue paying yours. Family coverage, dental, vision, and mental health benefits all continue if they were part of your plan.11eCFR. 29 CFR 825.209 – Maintenance of Employee Benefits This protection is tied to FMLA specifically, so if you’re on PFL or state disability without an FMLA designation, ask HR what happens to your benefits.
Pregnancy Accommodations
Leave isn’t the only tool for pregnancy. NYC’s Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, added to the NYC Human Rights Law in 2013, requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions unless they can show undue hardship. Common accommodations include temporary schedule modifications, temporary job or shift reassignments, additional breaks, permission to sit during shifts, and temporary unpaid leave. The law also requires a private, non-bathroom lactation space with an outlet, chair, work surface, refrigerator, and access to running water.12NYC Commission on Human Rights. Pregnancy Legal Guidance
When Your Leave Runs Out
If you’ve used all your FMLA, PFL, and disability time and still can’t come back, the Americans with Disabilities Act may cover additional unpaid leave as a reasonable accommodation. The EEOC has stated that unpaid leave itself can be a form of reasonable accommodation.13U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship Under the ADA
This isn’t unlimited. An employer can deny the request for undue hardship. But employers often make the mistake of terminating people automatically once statutory leave ends, without engaging in the interactive process the ADA requires. That failure can itself be a violation. If you’re near the end of your leave and still have a qualifying condition, put the request for more time or a modified schedule in writing and keep the exchange.
Filing Your Leave Request
Each program has its own paperwork. Mixing them up is a common cause of delay.
Paid Family Leave
Start with Form PFL-1. You complete Part A and give it to your employer, who fills out Part B and must return it to you within three business days.14New York State Workers’ Compensation Board. Paid Family Leave Instructions Submit the combined form to your employer’s PFL insurance carrier, along with the required supporting documentation for your reason for leave (bonding, family care, or a military qualifying event).15Paid Family Leave. Form Package for Bonding
Short-Term Disability
For state disability, use Form DB-450. Part A is your information, including a description of the disability and your average gross weekly wage. Part B is completed by your health care provider, who must return it within seven days. File the completed claim within 30 calendar days of your first day of disability or you risk losing benefits.16New York State Workers’ Compensation Board. Notice and Proof of Claim for Disability Benefits
Notice and Decision Timelines
For foreseeable events like a planned surgery, an expected birth, or a scheduled adoption, give your employer at least 30 days’ notice.17New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. 12 CRR-NY 380-3.1 – Employee Notice Requirements for Paid Family Leave For emergencies, notify as soon as practicable. Late notice on foreseeable leave can push back the start of your benefits.
Once the insurer has a complete PFL request with all documentation, it must pay or deny within 18 calendar days, or by the first day of leave, whichever is later.18Legal Information Institute. 12 NYCRR 380-5.4 – Acceptance or Denial of Paid Family Leave Claims Incomplete paperwork pauses that clock until the carrier has everything.
If Your Claim Is Denied
A denial isn’t final. For PFL, the carrier must give you a reason and information about arbitration. PFL disputes go through National Arbitration and Mediation, not the courts, and you can also request arbitration for other problems like late payment.19Paid Family Leave. Handling Requests Disability disputes go through the Workers’ Compensation Board. In either case, keep copies of every form you submitted, every communication with your employer and carrier, and any medical documentation. Denials often come down to incomplete paperwork rather than ineligibility.
Retaliation and Job Restoration
Both city and state law prohibit employers from retaliating against you for requesting or using protected leave. Under the safe and sick leave law, an employer cannot fire, threaten, penalize, or otherwise discriminate against you for using accrued time or requesting a temporary schedule change.2NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Protected Time Off Law FAQs PFL protects your job and health benefits for the duration of approved leave and requires restoration to the same or a comparable position. FMLA provides the same restoration guarantee at the federal level.
If you believe your employer retaliated, file a complaint with the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection for safe and sick leave issues, or with the Workers’ Compensation Board for PFL and disability. Keep a written record of any adverse actions during or after your leave, including changes to your schedule, responsibilities, or pay.