NYS Sick Time Law: Accrual, Usage, and Filing a Complaint

New York’s sick time law gives nearly every private-sector worker in the state the right to earn job-protected sick leave, with the amount and whether it’s paid depending on the size and income of the employer. The rules sit in Labor Law Section 196-b, took effect for accrual on September 30, 2020, and became usable on January 1, 2021.¹

Who the Law Covers

Every private employer in New York is covered, no matter the industry. Part-time workers, seasonal staff, nonprofit employees, and workers at private and charter schools all qualify. Accrual starts on your first day; there is no waiting period and no minimum-hours threshold.¹

Federal, state, and local government employees are not covered.² Workers under a collective bargaining agreement can be covered by a different arrangement, but only if the agreement provides comparable paid days off and explicitly references Section 196-b.¹

How Much Sick Leave You Get

Your annual allotment depends on company size, and for the smallest employers, on net income from the prior tax year. Headcount is measured over the January 1 through December 31 calendar year.¹

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

When leave is paid, the rate is your regular pay or the applicable minimum wage, whichever is higher.²

How You Earn the Hours

You accrue one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, starting the day you begin the job. There is no cap on accrual.¹

Instead of accrual, an employer can front-load the full annual allotment at the start of a calendar year or a 12-month period of the employer’s choosing. If your employer front-loads, the hours are available immediately; you don’t wait to earn them.²

What You Can Use Sick Leave For

Qualifying reasons fall into two groups. The first is health: a mental or physical illness, injury, or condition affecting you or a family member, whether or not it has been diagnosed and whether or not it needs immediate care. Preventive appointments, ongoing treatment, and newly diagnosed conditions all count.¹

“Family member” is defined broadly. It covers your child, spouse, domestic partner, parent, sibling, grandchild, or grandparent, plus the child or parent of your spouse or domestic partner. Stepchildren and in-laws are included.¹

The second group is safe leave. If you or a family member is a victim of domestic violence, a sexual offense, stalking, or human trafficking, you can use sick time to get help from a shelter or crisis center, meet with a lawyer, file a police report, go to court, relocate for safety, or enroll children in a new school. The absence has to connect to the underlying offense.¹

Notice and Documentation

You must tell your employer before using leave, verbally or in writing. The employer cannot require you to find someone to cover your shift.²

For absences shorter than three consecutive scheduled workdays, the employer cannot require any medical documentation. If you are out three or more consecutive scheduled workdays, the employer may ask for documentation that you qualify for leave, but cannot require you to disclose the nature of an illness, its prognosis, or treatment details. For safe leave, the employer cannot demand details about the underlying event; a signed employee attestation is enough.³ If a note is requested, the cost cannot be passed on to you.

Carryover and What Happens When You Leave the Job

Unused hours carry over to the next calendar year. Your employer can still cap actual usage in a single year at the statutory maximum (40 or 56 hours depending on employer size), so your balance may show more than you’re allowed to spend in a given year.¹

One point worth knowing before you resign: the law does not require your employer to pay out unused sick leave at separation. If you quit, retire, or are terminated with hours still in the bank, there is no statutory right to cash for them. A payout only exists if your employer’s own policy or your contract provides one.¹

Checking Your Balance

You have the right to ask for a written summary of your accrued and used sick leave for the current year or any prior year. The request can be verbal or in writing, and your employer must deliver the summary within three business days.¹

Retaliation Is Prohibited

Your employer cannot fire, threaten, penalize, or otherwise retaliate against you for requesting or using sick leave. The protection reaches individual officers, agents, and managers, not just the company as an entity.¹

Retaliation isn’t limited to termination. Cutting your hours, denying a promotion, assigning attendance points, or any similar action meant to punish protected leave can qualify.

Filing a Complaint

If your employer refuses required leave, retaliates against you for using it, or otherwise breaks the law, file a complaint with the New York State Department of Labor’s Division of Labor Standards. The form is LS 223, which has a dedicated section for unpaid sick leave claims. You will need the period during which leave accrued, the dates you used or tried to use it, your regular pay rate, and the amount owed.⁴

Keep your own records too. Save leave requests, any written denials, and pay stubs showing your balance. That paper trail matters if the employer disputes the facts.

Paid Prenatal Leave Is Separate

Since January 1, 2025, every employer must also provide 20 hours of paid prenatal personal leave in any 52-week period. This is a separate bank; it does not reduce your 40- or 56-hour sick leave allotment. The anti-retaliation rules cover prenatal leave as well.⁵

How This Fits With Other Leave Laws

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for eligible workers at employers with 50 or more employees. When a situation qualifies under both FMLA and NYS sick leave, your employer can generally run them concurrently, so the 40 or 56 hours of state leave can count against your FMLA allotment at the same time. FMLA itself is unpaid; state sick leave is paid for most workers. Federal law cannot shrink stronger state protections.⁶

New York Paid Family Leave is a separate insurance-funded program covering bonding with a new child, caring for a family member with a serious health condition, or needs arising from a family member’s military deployment. It pays partial wages for up to 12 weeks. It does not cover your own illness, so it complements rather than overlaps your sick leave rights.

If you work in New York City, the city’s Paid Safe and Sick Time Act applies alongside the state law. The leave amounts match (40 or 56 hours by employer size), but the city adds pay-stub disclosure and employee notice obligations.⁷ Where the city rule is more generous, the city rule wins.

1
New York State Senate. New York Labor Code 196-B – Sick Leave Requirements
2
The State of New York. New York Paid Sick Leave
3
Legal Information Institute. 12 NYCRR 196-1.3 – Documentation
4
New York State Department of Labor. Labor Standards Complaint Form (LS 223)
5
New York State Senate. New York Consolidated Laws, Labor Law LAB 196-b – Sick Leave Requirements
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Family and Medical Leave Act
7
NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. NYC’s Protected Time Off Law