New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time Act Updates for 2026

On October 25, 2025, New York City amended the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (“ESSTA”) to expand employee leave entitlements, clarify covered uses of leave, formally incorporate paid prenatal leave, and modify obligations related to temporary schedule changes (the “Amendment”).[i] The Amendment takes effect on February 22, 2026.

Call to Action: What Employers Should Do Now

• Add 32 Hours of Unpaid ESSTA Leave: Update policies to provide an additional 32 hours of unpaid safe/sick time immediately upon hire and annually; implement separate tracking and reporting for paid vs. unpaid balances.
• Revise Leave Policies for Expanded Uses: Incorporate new covered purposes, including caregiver-related leave, benefits/housing proceedings, workplace violence, and public health/disaster-related closures.
• Integrate Paid Prenatal Leave: Ensure availability of 20 hours of paid prenatal leave on a separate balance with clear eligibility and request procedures.
• Align Temporary Schedule Change Practices: Remove references to mandatory temporary schedule change entitlements and maintain a process to review requests without a granting mandate.
• Train Human Resources and Managers: Provide training on when ESSTA must be applied, minimum increments, expanded covered uses, and separate tracking for paid, unpaid, and prenatal leave.
• Target Effective Date: Complete updates before February 22, 2026.

Unpaid Leave Entitlements

Currently the ESSTA requires employers to provide safe and sick time to employees working in New York City (“NYC”). Depending on employer size and revenue, this number could range from forty (40) hours to fifty-six (56) hours.

The Amendment requires employers to provide employees with an additional thirty-two (32) hours of unpaid safe/sick time immediately upon hire and at the start of each calendar year.  An employer shall not be required to carry over any unused unpaid safe/sick time to the next calendar year pursuant to this Amendment.

Employers may set a reasonable minimum increment for the use of such safe/sick time of up to four (4) hours per day and must separately track and report both paid and unpaid time balances to comply with ESSTA’s notice and recordkeeping requirements.

Expanded Use of ESSTA Leave

The Amendment expands the covered purposes for which employees may use ESSTA leave. Covered uses now include leave taken:

• By an employee who is a “caregiver,” defined as a person who provides direct and ongoing care for a minor child or a care recipient.
• To attend or prepare for legal proceedings or take necessary actions related to applying for, maintaining, or reinstating subsistence benefits or housing for the employee, a family member, or a care recipient.
• When the employee or the employee’s family member has been the victim of workplace violence.
• When a public official orders closure of the employee’s place of business due to a public health emergency or public disaster, or when the employee needs to care for a child whose school or childcare provider has been closed or has restricted in-person operations by order of a public official due to a public health emergency or public disaster.

When an employee requests time off for an ESSTA-covered purpose, employers must apply available ESSTA leave unless the employee has no ESSTA leave remaining or affirmatively elects to use other available leave.

Incorporation of Paid Prenatal Leave

The Amendment formally incorporates into NYC law the previously enacted paid prenatal leave benefit that took effect January 1, 2025. Eligible employees are entitled to 20 hours of paid prenatal leave during a rolling 52-week period, separate from ESSTA’s safe and sick time entitlements. Employers should ensure their written policies clearly describe eligibility, accrual/availability, and request procedures for paid prenatal leave, and that payroll systems separately track prenatal leave balances.

Temporary Schedule Change Law

In 2018, New York City enacted a law providing employees up to two temporary schedule changes per year for covered personal events.[ii] The Amendment modifies ESSTA to effectively replace those mandatory temporary schedule change entitlements. While employees may still request temporary schedule changes, employers are no longer required to grant such requests under ESSTA. Employers should review any existing policies that reference mandatory temporary schedule changes and revise them to align with the Amendment.

Next Steps

Before February 22, 2026, employers with NYC employees should update employee handbooks, written ESSTA policies, payroll/HRIS tracking, and required notices to reflect the addition of 32 hours of unpaid ESSTA time, expanded covered uses, the paid prenatal leave entitlement, and changes regarding temporary schedule changes. Employers should also train HR and managers on the application of ESSTA leave, including rules for minimum increments, application of ESSTA leave to covered purposes, and separate tracking of paid and unpaid balances.

Should you have any questions about this legal alert or the ESSTA in general, please feel free to contact Brian Selchick via email at bselchick@cullenllp.com, or Ryan Goldberg via email at rgoldberg@cullenllp.com.

This advisory provides a brief overview of the most significant changes in the law and does not constitute legal advice. Nothing herein creates an attorney-client relationship between the sender and recipient.

Footnotes

[i] New York City Council, Aligning the requirements of the earned safe and sick time act and then temporary schedule change act, Int. No. 0780-2024 (enacted Oct. 25, 2025), NYC Council Legistar (accessed Nov. 19, 2025). 

[ii] N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 20-1262 (2018) (“Required temporary changes and other requests for changes to a work schedule”).