New York City Council Passes Bill That Would Expand Safe and Sick Leave Requirements

Quick Hits

• On September 25, 2025, the New York City Council passed a bill that would amend the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA) to incorporate the requirements under New York City’s Temporary Schedule Change Law.
• The amendments would expand covered reasons to take ESSTA.
• The amendments would add a separate bank of thirty-two hours of unpaid ESSTA in addition to the forty or fifty-six hours already provided under the ESSTA.

Overview of the ESSTA

The ESSTA requires employers to provide safe and sick leave to employees working in New York City for the care and treatment of themselves or a family member; to seek legal and social services assistance or take other safety measures if the employee or a family member may be the victim of any act or threat of domestic violence or unwanted sexual contact, stalking, or human trafficking; or due to closure of employees’ place of business or employees’ need to care for a child whose school or childcare provider has been closed by order of a public official due to a public health emergency.

The amount of safe and sick leave is dependent on employer size:

• Employers with one hundred or more employees must provide up to fifty-six hours of paid leave each calendar year.
• Employers with five to ninety-nine employees must provide up to forty hours of paid leave each calendar year.
• Employers with four or fewer employees and a net income of $1 million or more must provide up to forty hours of paid leave each calendar year.
• Employers with four or fewer employees and a net income of less than $1 million must provide up to forty hours of unpaid leave each calendar year.

Overview of the New York City Temporary Schedule Change Law

Under the Temporary Schedule Change Law, which went into effect on July 18, 2018, employers are required to allow employees to make two temporary schedule changes per calendar year for certain personal events. The law covers employees who have been employed for 120 days or more and work at least eighty hours in New York City during the calendar year. Under the law, personal events include:

(1) to provide care to a minor child or to a person living in the caregiver’s household with a disability who relies on the caregiver for medical care or the needs of daily living;

(2) to “attend a legal proceeding or hearing for subsistence benefits to which the employee, a family member or the employee’s care recipient is a party”; or

(3) to attend to “any circumstance that would constitute a basis for permissible use of safe time or sick time” under the ESSTA.

Temporary changes include “a limited alteration in the hours or times that or locations where an employee is expected to work, including, but not limited to, using paid time off, working remotely, swapping or shifting work hours and using short-term unpaid leave.” Under the law, employers are required to allow temporary changes two times per calendar year for up to one business day per request or up to two business days for one request. If an employee requests the latter, employers are not required to grant a second request for a temporary schedule change.

Overview of the Amendments to the ESSTA

Notable provisions of the amendments include those that would expand covered reasons to use ESSTA to include:

• the personal events covered under the Temporary Schedule Change Law;
• closure of employees’ place of business or employees’ need to care for a child whose school or childcare provider has been closed due to a public disaster, including a fire, explosion, terrorist attack, or severe weather conditions that is declared a public emergency;
• public official directives to stay indoors or avoid travel during a public disaster which would prevent employees from reporting to work; and
• to seek legal and social services assistance or take other safety measures if the employee or a family member is a victim of workplace violence.

In addition, Int. No. 0780-2024 would add a separate bank of thirty-two hours of unpaid safe and sick leave which is available immediately upon hire and can be used immediately. According to the bill summary, the thirty-two hours of unpaid leave would replace the two days that employers were required to provide under the temporary schedule change law. However, employees would still be able to request temporary schedule changes to their work schedule subject to employer approval.

Next Steps

Employers in New York City or that have employees in New York City may wish to review their current policies and make any necessary revisions based on the amendment. Employers may also want to review with and train supervisors and human resources professionals to ensure compliance and update existing practices to align with the above amendments.

Ogletree Deakins’ New York office and Leaves of Absence/Reasonable Accommodation Practice Group will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Leaves of Absence and New York blogs.

Jamie Haar is of counsel in the New York office of Ogletree Deakins.

Emily A. Hall is a 2025 graduate of the Cardozo School of Law and is currently awaiting admission to the state bar of New York.

Follow and Subscribe
LinkedIn | Instagram | Webinars | Podcasts