NYC Sick Leave Law: Accrual, Family Use, and Penalties

The NYC sick leave law, formally the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act, entitles most people who work in New York City to paid or unpaid time off for their own health, a family member’s health, or safety needs tied to domestic violence, stalking, sexual offenses, or human trafficking. Employees accrue one hour of leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 or 56 hours a year depending on employer size, and every covered worker also gets 32 hours of unpaid leave available immediately, on top of the accrual bank.

Who the Law Covers

You are covered if you work for hire in New York City and put in more than 80 hours in a calendar year. Full-time, part-time, temporary, seasonal, and domestic workers all qualify once they cross that threshold.¹

Federal, state, and city government employees are excluded, as are workers in other municipalities covered by certain civil service provisions.¹ Independent contractors are not covered. If you think you were classified as a contractor to keep you off the books for benefits like this, that misclassification may itself be a violation.

How Many Hours You Get

The size and revenue of your employer set the ceiling on annual leave:

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 more than $1 million in net income: up to 40 hours of paid leave per calendar year.
4 or fewer employees with $1 million or less in net income: up to 40 hours of unpaid leave per calendar year.²

Everyone on payroll in a given week counts toward the headcount, whatever their schedule. If the number fluctuates, the employer can use the prior year’s weekly average.¹

The 32 Unpaid Hours Most People Miss

Separate from the accrual bank, NYC gives every covered worker 32 hours of immediately available unpaid leave. It sits in its own bucket and does not require you to build up time first.³ A new hire at a mid-sized NYC company can draw on those 32 hours from day one, then use paid hours as they accrue. The state sick leave law does not include this extra bank. It does not carry over into the next year.

Accrual, Frontloading, and Carryover

Accrual begins on your first day of employment at the rate of one hour for every 30 worked, and you can use hours as soon as you earn them. There is no waiting period.¹

An employer can skip accrual tracking by frontloading the full annual amount (40 or 56 hours) plus the 32 immediately available unpaid hours at the start of each calendar year.³

Unused accrued hours carry into the next year: up to 40 hours for workers at companies with 99 or fewer employees, up to 56 hours for those at larger companies.¹ The carryover doesn’t raise your annual usage cap; it just means you start the year with a balance. Employers can avoid carryover by paying out unused hours at year end and frontloading the new allotment on January 1.³

Pay During Leave

Paid leave hours must be paid at your regular rate or the applicable minimum wage, whichever is higher.⁴ For tipped or commissioned workers, the regular rate calculation gets more complicated, but the floor is the minimum wage.

What You Can Use the Time For

Sick and safe hours come out of the same pool. You can use them for your own physical or mental health, including diagnosis, treatment, and preventive care, and for the same needs of a family member. You do not need a confirmed diagnosis to use sick time.¹ Time off is also allowed when a public official closes your workplace, or your child’s school or daycare, because of a public health emergency.

Safe time covers absences tied to domestic violence, sexual offenses, stalking, or human trafficking affecting you or a family member. That includes shelter or crisis center services, meeting with an attorney, filing a police report, safety planning, relocating, or enrolling your children in a new school.¹

Who Counts as Family

The definition is broad. Children, spouses, domestic partners, parents, grandparents, grandchildren, and siblings are all family. So is any blood relative, and so is anyone whose close association with you is the equivalent of a family relationship.³ An employer cannot deny leave on the ground that the person you are caring for is “just a friend.” If you treat them as family, so does the law.

What Your Employer Can Ask For

Documentation is only allowed when you use more than three consecutive workdays of leave, and only when the employer has a written policy that told you about the requirement in advance. The policy has to spell out what counts as acceptable documentation, how to submit it, and how you get reimbursed for any cost.³

For health leave, a signed note from a licensed health care provider, social worker, or mental health counselor is reasonable. For safe time, a letter from a services provider, a police report, a court record, or a notarized letter you write yourself all qualify.³

You get at least seven days after returning to work to produce anything the employer asks for. They cannot demand it before you’re back, and they must reimburse any fee you pay to get the documentation.³

Retaliation and What Counts as It

Your employer cannot punish you for using leave, filing a complaint, discussing your rights with coworkers, or taking part in an investigation. The definition of retaliation is wide: threats, discipline, demotion, suspension, reduced hours or pay, termination, harassment, blacklisting, and reporting your immigration status to another employer.³

Absence-control policies are the trap many employers fall into. If a “points” system counts a protected sick day as an unexcused absence, or your protected leave contributes to discipline, that violates the law even though the day itself was approved. You do not have to name the statute to be protected, and the protections still apply if you assert a right in good faith that you turn out not to have.

Where State and Federal Laws Fit In

Both the NYC law and New York State’s Paid Sick Leave Law (Labor Law § 196-b) apply to city workers at the same time, and hours worked in NYC count under both. When they differ, the more protective rule controls. The employer size tiers and accrual rate are the same, so the hours you earn don’t change. The NYC law is broader on what you can use leave for, and it alone provides the 32 immediately available unpaid hours.³

For longer or more serious absences, federal laws may layer on. The Family and Medical Leave Act gives eligible workers at employers with 50 or more employees within 75 miles up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave a year for a serious health condition, the birth or adoption of a child, or care of a family member with a serious condition, provided you have worked at least 1,250 hours in the preceding 12 months.⁵ Your employer can require FMLA leave to run at the same time as your NYC sick hours, so the two do not necessarily stack. If you have a disability, the Americans with Disabilities Act may also require additional unpaid leave as a reasonable accommodation from employers with 15 or more employees, when the leave would let you return to work and would not impose an undue hardship.⁶

How to File a Complaint

If you are denied leave, retaliated against, or otherwise shortchanged, you can file with the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection or go directly to court. Filing with DCWP first is not required.³

DCWP takes complaints through its online portal. Have the employer’s business name, work address, and contact information ready, along with specific dates: when you asked for leave, when it was denied, and the pay and hours at stake.⁷ The agency treats what you share as confidential and will not disclose it without your permission unless required by law. Your employer is required to give you a written notice of your rights when you start a job, in English and in your primary language if DCWP has published a translation. If they never gave you one and later argue you broke their documentation rules, that failure to notify cuts in your favor.¹

What Employers Have to Pay

Two tracks of money can flow from a violation: civil penalties to the city and relief to you.

Civil penalties are up to $500 for a first violation, up to $750 for a second within two years, and up to $1,000 for each additional violation in that window, assessed per employee.¹

Relief paid to you is where the amounts grow:

Sick time taken but unpaid: three times the wages owed, or $250, whichever is greater.
Leave requested but denied: $500 per instance.
Retaliation short of firing: full lost wages and benefits, plus $500 per violation.
Retaliatory termination: full lost wages and benefits, plus $2,500, plus reinstatement where appropriate.¹

When DCWP finds an employer had a policy or practice of refusing leave, the agency can order the employer to credit each affected worker’s leave balance, pay each worker $500 for every calendar year the practice was in effect, and pay civil penalties on top.³ A court action over a pattern or practice of violations can reach $15,000.¹

1
NYC.gov. NYC Admin Code Title 20 Chapter 8 – Earned Safe and Sick Time Act
2
The State of New York. New York Paid Sick Leave
3
Consumer and Worker Protection. Protected Time Off Law FAQs
4
New York State Senate. New York Labor Code 196-B – Sick Leave Requirements
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet – The Family and Medical Leave Act
6
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Employer-Provided Leave and the Americans with Disabilities Act
7
NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. File Workplace Complaint