Pursuant to New York state’s inaugural Sick Leave Law, effective September 30, 2020, employees of all New York employers may begin accruing sick leave. In turn, employees may begin using such accrued sick leave, effective January 1, 2021. Specifically, subject to certain conditions, as of January 1, 2021, New York employers with (i) between 5 and 99 employees, or (ii) 4 or fewer employees and a net income greater than $1 million, must provide their employees with at least 40 hours of paid sick leave annually. Significantly, employers with 100 or more employees must provide their employees with at least 56 hours of paid sick leave annually. Employers with 4 or fewer employees and a net income less than $1 million must provide their employees with at least 40 hours of unpaid sick leave annually. While employers may opt to front-load sick leave time rather than implement an accrual system, all accrual systems must allow employees to accrue at least 1 hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked. All the foregoing sick leave is job-protected and employers must return employees who have taken sick leave to their pre-leave position with the same pay and other terms and conditions of employment.

Effective September 30, 2020, New York employers will also become bound by amendments to the Wage Theft Prevention Act. Among other provisions, including certain industry-specific mandates, the amendments require all employers to maintain for six years records of the “amount of sick leave provided to each employee.”

Employers must promptly take steps to comply with these forthcoming changes, including updating and disseminating their sick leave policies and procedures and addressing their recordkeeping protocols, as appropriate.

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