NYC Expands Earned Safe and Sick Time Act

Effective February 22, 2026, New York City employers are required under the amended Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (“ESSTA”) to provide all covered employees working in New York City with a bank of 32 hours of unpaid safe/sick time immediately upon hire and each subsequent calendar year. The amendment also expands the covered reasons for safe/sick time use, requires changes to pay statements and raises collective bargaining considerations.

Key features of the new 32-hour unpaid safe/sick leave bank include:

This benefit is in addition to both paid ESSTA sick/safe leave and the 20 hours of paid prenatal leave implemented last year.
The 32-hour entitlement is front-loaded upon hire and at the start of each subsequent calendar year. All 32 hours may be used immediately after they are loaded.
Any unused unpaid safe/sick hours do not carry over to the following calendar year.
The balance of unpaid safe/sick hours must be tracked and reflected on employee pay statements or another form of written documentation provided to employees during each pay period.
When an employee requests leave for a covered purpose, employers must allow the employee to first use accrued paid safe/sick time. Employees may use their unpaid safe/sick time if paid safe/sick time is not available, or they may choose to use their unpaid safe/sick time instead of paid safe/sick time. For employers who pay out unused paid safe/sick time at the end of the year, this means that employees can choose to prioritize using unpaid safe/sick time to maximize their end of year payout.

The amendments also expand the covered reasons for safe/sick time use, so that the time may be used:

To provide care as the caregiver for a minor child or a care recipient (a care recipient includes a person with a disability who is a family member or resides in the caregiver’s household and depends on the caregiver for medical care or daily living needs);
To initiate, attend, or prepare for a legal proceeding or hearing related to subsistence benefits or housing to which the employee, the employee’s family member, or the employee’s care recipient is a party, or to take actions necessary to apply for, maintain, or restore subsistence benefits or shelter for the employee or their family member or care recipient;
To respond to a public disaster, including where, due to a public disaster, an employee’s workplace has closed, the employee must care for a child whose school or childcare provider has closed, or a public official has directed the employee to remain indoors or limit travel thereby preventing the employee from reporting to work; and
To respond to workplace violence experienced by an employee or their family member.

Collective Bargaining Agreement Considerations

The amendments allow for the unpaid safe/sick bank to be waived under collective bargaining agreements (“CBA”) where the CBA expressly waives the ESSTA provisions, and the benefits provided are comparable to or better than those required by the statute. Comparable benefits can include time off under various categories such as vacation time, personal time, safe/sick time, and holidays; however, unpaid time alone cannot satisfy paid safe/sick time or paid prenatal leave entitlements.

What Employers Should Be Doing Now

Employers should:

Implement and track the 32-hour unpaid safe/sick time bank.
Update their payroll systems to separately account for paid and unpaid protected time banks and ensure the balances appear on paystubs or other written documentation to be provided during each pay period.
Work with counsel to update leave policies and employee handbooks to account for the various leaves under the ESSTA, including paid safe/sick time, paid prenatal leave and unpaid safe/sick time.
Employers with consolidated PTO policies should review those programs to ensure adequate leave is available and that the policies are properly administered.
Train HR and management personnel on expanded leave policies.
Review CBAs to ensure adequate banks of time are available and consider proposals for proper waiver language.

The attorneys at Clifton Budd & DeMaria are available to discuss these issues.