In April 2024, New York passed amendments to the New York Paid Sick Leave Law becoming the first state to provide paid prenatal personal leave to eligible pregnant employees, effective Jan. 1, 2025. New York passed this benefit days after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued its final rule implementing the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), which went into effect June 18, 2024. The introduction of both New York's first-of-its-kind prenatal paid leave and the EEOC's rule implementing the PWFA signals to employers nationwide the need to strengthen workplace accommodations for their pregnant employees and the importance of understanding the implications of this evolving area of the law.

New York's Amended Paid Sick Leave Law

Under New York's newly amended law, employers will be required to provide pregnant employees with 20 hours of paid prenatal personal leave during any 52-week calendar period. Significantly, this leave is separate from the 40 to 56 hours (depending on the size of the employer) of paid sick leave per calendar year that employers are already required to provide. Eligible employees may elect to take this leave for health care services during their pregnancy or related to pregnancy. Leave may be taken in hourly increments and benefits must be paid in hourly installments. Employers must pay this leave at the employees' regular hourly rate, or the applicable minimum wage, whichever is greater. Employers may not require the employee to disclose confidential information as a prerequisite to providing the paid prenatal leave (akin to when employees take paid sick leave). Notably, the text of the law suggests that this leave must be made immediately available to pregnant employees rather than accruing. The leave also does not appear to apply to partners of pregnant employees. Employers are not required to pay employees for unused paid prenatal personal leave upon employees' separation of employment.