NYS Sick Leave Policy: Accrual, Carryover, and Retaliation

New York’s paid sick leave policy, set out in Labor Law Section 196-b, covers every private-sector employee in the state from the first day on the job. Workers earn one hour of leave for every 30 hours worked, up to either 40 or 56 hours a year depending on the size of the employer, and can use that time for their own health, a family member’s health, or safety needs tied to domestic violence or similar situations. Government employees are the main group the law does not reach.¹

How Much Leave You Get

The annual amount depends on how many people your employer has on staff, and for the smallest businesses, on income as well.²

Employers with 4 or fewer employees and net income of $1 million or less: up to 40 hours of unpaid sick leave per year.
Employers with 4 or fewer employees and net income above $1 million: up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per year.
Employers with 5 to 99 employees: up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per year.
Employers with 100 or more employees: up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per year.

Employee count is based on the calendar year running January 1 through December 31. If a business crosses a threshold mid-year, it moves into the higher tier for that year. Part-time workers, overtime-exempt workers, and employees of nonprofits, private schools, and charter schools all count and all qualify.¹

How You Earn It

Accrual starts on your first day. You earn one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, regardless of which employer-size tier you fall into. The only thing the tier changes is the annual cap on usage.²

Employers may skip the hour-by-hour tracking and simply frontload the full annual allotment at the start of the calendar year. A business with 100 or more employees could credit all 56 hours on January 1. Once leave is frontloaded, the employer cannot claw any of it back based on how many hours you actually end up working.³

What You Can Use It For

Section 196-b covers two broad categories of absence: health and safety.

Health Reasons

You can use accrued leave for the diagnosis, care, or treatment of a mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition, and for preventive care such as checkups, screenings, and vaccinations. The leave applies both to your own health and to a family member’s.¹

“Family member” is defined broadly. It includes your child, spouse, domestic partner, parent, sibling, grandchild, or grandparent, plus the child or parent of your spouse or domestic partner. The definitions of “parent” and “child” extend to biological, foster, step, and adoptive relationships, legal guardians, and anyone who stood in a parental role.²

Safe Leave

The same hours can be used when you or a family member has been a victim of domestic violence, a family offense, a sexual offense, stalking, or human trafficking. Qualifying activities include getting help from a shelter or crisis center, safety planning, relocating, meeting with an attorney, filing a police report, enrolling children in a new school, and taking other steps to protect yourself or your family.²

What You Get Paid

Paid sick leave must be compensated at your regular hourly rate or the applicable minimum wage, whichever is higher.² For tipped workers and employees in training on a reduced base rate, this matters: your pay for leave hours cannot drop below full minimum wage, and employers cannot reduce your rate because the hours were sick hours rather than worked hours.

Requesting Leave and Using It in Small Increments

You can request leave orally or in writing. The state does not require a set amount of advance notice, though following your workplace’s normal call-out procedures helps avoid friction.

Employers may set a minimum increment for using leave to keep scheduling manageable, but that minimum cannot exceed four hours.¹ An employer that forces you to burn a full eight-hour day for a two-hour appointment is violating the law.

Documentation Your Employer Can Ask For

Employers cannot require medical documentation or any other verification for absences shorter than three consecutive scheduled workdays or shifts.⁴ For absences of three days or longer, your employer can ask for documentation confirming the leave was for a qualifying reason, but with limits.

You cannot be required to disclose confidential details about a medical condition or a domestic violence situation.² And your employer cannot make you pay the cost of obtaining the documentation it requested.⁴

Carryover and Leaving the Job

Unused sick leave carries over to the following calendar year.² Carryover does not raise the amount you can actually use in any given year, however. Employers under 100 employees can still cap annual usage at 40 hours; employers at 100 or above can cap it at 56. Carryover mainly spares you from starting at zero every January.

When you leave a job for any reason, your employer does not have to pay out your unused sick leave balance.² If you are rehired within the same calendar year, though, any previously accrued and unused leave must be reinstated.

Retaliation and Return to Your Job

Retaliation for requesting or using sick leave is prohibited. Your employer cannot fire, threaten, discipline, or otherwise discriminate against you for exercising rights under the law, including filing a complaint with the Department of Labor.²

When your leave ends, your employer must return you to the same position with the same pay and conditions you had before.² A demotion, pay cut, or punitive shift reassignment on your return is not permitted.

If Your Employer Violates the Law

Sick leave violations are treated as wage violations under New York Labor Law. If you file a claim and win, your employer owes the full underpayment plus liquidated damages of up to 100 percent of that amount, essentially doubling what you are owed, along with reasonable attorney’s fees and prejudgment interest. The employer can avoid the liquidated damages portion only by proving a good-faith belief that it was complying with the law.⁵

Complaints go to the New York State Department of Labor. You complete the Labor Standards Complaint form (LS 223) and submit it online or by mail to the Division of Labor Standards in Albany. The filing deadline is three years from when the wages or benefits became due.⁶

What the Law Does Not Cover

Federal, state, and local government employees are not covered by Section 196-b. Public-sector workers may have separate leave benefits through their employment agreements or civil service rules, but the state’s sick leave law does not apply to them.¹

If You Work in New York City

NYC’s Protected Time Off Law (formerly the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act) layers on top of the state law. It adds 32 hours of immediately available unpaid protected time off beyond what the state requires, and it expands qualifying reasons to include care for a child or care recipient, attendance at legal or public-benefit proceedings, and staying home during a public health emergency. Employers in the city must comply with both laws, and where the two differ, the more generous rule applies.⁷

How This Fits With FMLA and Union Contracts

Federal FMLA leave and New York sick leave are separate. FMLA applies only at employers with 50 or more employees and requires 12 months and 1,250 hours of work to qualify; it then provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for serious health conditions and certain family situations.⁸ Because FMLA is unpaid, an employer can require you to use accrued New York paid sick leave at the same time, so the two run concurrently and your sick leave balance shrinks while FMLA runs. New York’s law, by contrast, has no minimum employer size, no minimum tenure, and no hours-worked requirement.

For unionized workers, a collective bargaining agreement entered into after September 30, 2020 can substitute alternative leave benefits for those required by Section 196-b, but only if the CBA specifically references the statute by name and provides comparable benefits. A general reference to “sick leave” in a contract is not enough to waive the statutory protections.

1
The State of New York. New York Paid Sick Leave
2
New York State Senate. New York Code LAB 196-B – Sick Leave Requirements
3
The State of New York. New York State Paid Sick Leave – For Employers
4
Legal Information Institute. 12 NYCRR 196-1.3 – Documentation
5
New York State Senate. New York Code LAB 198 – Costs, Remedies
6
New York State Department of Labor. Unpaid/Withheld Wages and Wage Supplements
7
City of New York. Protected Time Off Law FAQs
8
U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Frequently Asked Questions