New Amendments to NYC’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act Rules Address Paid Prenatal Leave, by Keith J. Gutstein, Esq. and Jennifer E. Sherven, Esq., 7-1-2025

Effective July 2, 2025, NYC employers must ensure they are complying with new amendments to New York City’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (“ESSTA”) concerning paid prenatal leave.

The amendments, which were recently adopted by the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (“DCWP”), offer certain enhanced protections that NYC employers must abide by in addition to their obligations under NYS law (NYS Paid Prenatal Personal Leave Law (“PPPL”)).

Background

On January 1, 2025, NYS became the first state to mandate paid prenatal leave with the enactment of the PPPL, requiring employers to provide employees with 20 hours of paid prenatal personal leave for pregnancy-related healthcare during any 52-week calendar period. This paid prenatal personal leave, an amendment to New York Labor Law 196-b (New York Paid Sick Leave Law), is separate from the 40 or 56 hours (depending upon employer size) of paid sick leave per calendar year employers are already required to provide to employees. For more background on this, check out KD’s previous alert.

NYC’s recent amendments “integrate the additional paid prenatal leave requirements into the current compliance framework for accrued safe/sick time and clarify for employers what their compliance obligations are under ESSTA,” according to the adopted rule. Although the amendments do not require NYC employers to offer more paid prenatal leave than what is mandated by state law, they do introduce some new administrative and recordkeeping requirements for employers, and incorporate by reference the PPPL.

Amendments to ESSTA:

• Pay Stub Documentation: For each pay period that an employee uses paid prenatal leave, the employer must inform the employee of the amount of paid prenatal leave used during the relevant pay period and the total balance of paid prenatal leave available for use. This is similar to existing paystub ESSTA reporting requirements.
• Written Policy Provisions: ESSTA’s written policy requirements are now expanded to include paid prenatal leave. This includes the obligation that every employer must distribute its written safe/sick time and paid prenatal leave policies to employees personally upon commencement of employment, within 14 days of the effective date of any changes to the policy, and upon request by the employee.

• Clear Enforcement and Retaliation Protections: The amendments also clarify the penalties and remedies that DCWP may order for violations of the paid prenatal leave requirements. This includes, but is not limited to, liquidated damages up to one hundred percent of the total amount of wages found to be due, unless the employer proves a good faith basis for believing that its underpayment of wages was in compliance with the law. There are additional penalties for employers for unlawful retaliation including the potential of being liable for “all appropriate relief, including injunctive relief, liquidated damages not more than twenty thousand dollars, rehiring or reinstatement to a former position or an equivalent position, and an award of lost compensation or an award of front pay in lieu of reinstatement and an award of lost compensation.”

Also of note, the DCWP has issued an updated Notice of Employee Rights for Safe and Sick Leave that now includes paid prenatal leave. This notice must be distributed to new hires and current employees when their rights change, in addition to being posted in employee areas.

Action for Employers to Consider:

• Review and update policies to comply with the revised rules, including notice and recordkeeping practices.
• Train HR and managers on the new standards, especially those concerning documentation, retaliation, and leave usage.
• Distribute updated notices and ensure employees receive and acknowledge them.

Authors: Keith J. Gutstein, Chair of KD’s Labor and Employment Law Practice Group and Co-Managing Partner of the Long Island Office and Partner Jennifer E. Sherven