New York Roundup: What Employers Need to Know about Legal Compliance Changes in 2025 and Beyond

Quick Hits

• New York State and New York City enacted several laws in 2025 with which certain employers need to comply.
• These laws concern time off for prenatal care and other health and safety needs, new protections for retail and fashion workers, and among other things.
• In addition, the New York State Legislature delivered several bills to the governor on December 8, 2025, which, if enacted, will also impact the landscape for employers.

The following are some of the new employment laws that were enacted or took effect in New York State and New York City in 2025:

• Statewide Paid Leave for Prenatal Care: A new state law requires employers to provide twenty hours of paid leave per year as a stand-alone leave benefit for pregnant employees. This law took effect on January 1, 2025. The New York Department of Labor released guidance in the form of answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) on this topic.
• New York City’s Paid Leave for Prenatal Care: On June 3, 2025, New York City adopted the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection’s (DCWP) proposed amended paid prenatal leave rules, which took effect on July 2, 2025. New York City’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act’s amended rules impose additional requirements beyond the state Paid Prenatal Leave Law, such as a required written policy, balance notification, and recordkeeping.
• Expanded Reasons for Sick and Safe Leave: On October 25, 2025, New York City adopted Int. No. 0780-2024 to amend the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA) to incorporate the requirements under the New York City Temporary Schedule Change Law, expand covered reasons to take ESSTA, and 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. The law will take effect on February 22, 2026.
• Anti-discrimination Coordinators for Colleges: On August 26, 2025, Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law Senate Bill 4559B,which requires every college campus in the state to have a dedicated coordinator to address and prevent discrimination under Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. It will take effect on August 26, 2026.
• Protections for Retail Workers: The New York Retail Worker Safety Act took effect on June 2, 2025. It establishes new rules for workplace violence prevention in retail settings. The New York State Department of Labor released guidance on some key issues under the law, as well as a model policy and training program.
• Protections for Fashion Workers: On December 21, 2024, Governor Hochul signed the New York State Fashion Workers Act, which regulates model management companies and their clients, including retail stores, fashion designers, advertising agencies, photographers, and publishing companies, and provides enhanced protections for fashion models. The law imposes requirements for model agency contracts, payment practices, and workplace safety. It took effect on June 19, 2025. The New York State Department of Labor published FAQs and guidance to help employers comply with this new law.
• New Pay Data Reporting Obligations: On December 4, 2025, the New York City Council overrode a mayoral veto to enact two new pay data reporting laws, Int. 0982-2024-A and Int. 0984-2024-A. They will require private employers with more than 200 employees working in New York City to submit annual reports with pay data by race, ethnicity, and sex, modeled after the former federal EEO-1 Component 2 reports, and permit the city to perform annual pay equity audits based on the information submitted.

On December 8, 2025, the legislature delivered several bills to the governor, which, if enacted, will impact employers.

• Stay-Or-Pay Clauses: On June 12, 2025, the state legislature passed the “Trapped at Work Act” (Assembly Bill 584C) to nullify promissory notes that require employees to repay employers for certain costs, such as training expenses, if they leave their jobs within a set time period.

• Disparate Impact Discrimination: State legislators passed S8338, which establishes “disparate impact” as a valid ground for employment-discrimination claims under state law even without showing an intent to discriminate. Disparate impact is defined as a “discriminatory effect where it actually or predictably results in” a disproportionate effect on a group of people because of their membership in a legally protected class.
• Remedies for Labor Law Violations: State legislators passed S7388, which requires courts to interpret Labor Law protections broadly in favor of workers to accomplish appropriate remedies for legal violations. This specifically includes rules concerning minimum wage, equal pay for equal work, retaliation, and unfair competition.

Next Steps

Staying abreast of changes in state and city laws will help employers to avoid lawsuits alleging wage and hour violations, discrimination, or other matters. Employers may wish to review their employee handbooks, training materials, and policies to ensure they are up-to-date and legally compliant.

Ogletree Deakins’ Buffalo and New York offices will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Higher Education, Leaves of Absence, New York, Pay Equity, Retail, Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets, Wage and Hour, and Workplace Violence Prevention blogs as new information becomes available.

Richard A. Braden is a shareholder in Ogletree Deakins’ Buffalo office.

Patrick M. Collins is a shareholder in Ogletree Deakins’ New York City office.

Simone R.D. Francis is a shareholder in Ogletree Deakins’ New York City and St. Thomas offices.

This article was co-authored by Leah J. Shepherd, who is a writer in Ogletree Deakins’ Washington, D.C., office.

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