Effective February 22, 2026, amendments to NYC’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA) expand leave benefits available to NYC employees. At the same time, employers’ obligations under the Temporary Schedule Change Act (TSCA) have been scaled back. Employers with NYC-based employees should review these changes carefully to ensure full compliance with the updated requirements.
New Unpaid Safe and Sick Time Bank
Currently, the ESSTA requires NYC employers to provide employees with either 40 or 56 hours of paid safe/sick time per calendar year (defined as any regular and consecutive 12-month period determined by the employer), depending on the employer’s size and net income. Employers with four or fewer employees and less than $1 million net income are currently required to provide 40 hours of unpaid safe/sick time per calendar year.
Under the amended ESSTA, beginning February 22, 2026, all employers, regardless of size, must also frontload 32 hours of unpaid safe/sick time to employees upon hire and at the start of each calendar year. Employees may use this unpaid leave immediately. When an employee requests safe/sick time for an ESSTA-covered reason, the employer must provide any available paid safe/sick time before using the unpaid bank, unless the employee has not yet accrued paid safe/sick time, has exhausted their paid safe/sick time, or chooses to use unpaid safe/sick time instead of their available paid time.
Although employers may not impose a waiting period for the use of unpaid safe/sick time, they may require a minimum usage increment of up to 4 hours per day.
Employers are not required to carry over the new unused unpaid safe/sick time from one calendar year into the next. However, like with requirements for paid safe/sick time, employers must track and include unpaid safe/sick time balances on employees’ paystubs (or other form of written documentation) each pay period.
Expanded Uses of Paid and Unpaid Safe and Sick Time
The amendments also broaden the qualifying reasons for which employees may use paid or unpaid safe/sick time, including the following new categories:
- caregiving responsibilities, such as providing care for a minor child or a care recipient;
- participating in legal proceedings or hearings related to subsistence benefits or housing or taking actions necessary to apply for, maintain, or restore such benefits or housing for themselves, a family member, or a care recipient;
- obtaining legal, social, or protective services for themselves or a family member who has been a victim of workplace violence; and
- public disaster-related circumstances, such as (i) workplace closures, (ii) directives from public officials to remain indoors or avoid travel, or (iii) the need to care for a child whose school or childcare provider has closed or restricted in-person operations.
Paid Prenatal Leave Now Codified Under the ESSTA
Moreover, to providing paid and unpaid safe and sick time, employers of any size must also provide employees with 20 hours of paid prenatal leave in a 52-week period. This change brings NYC law into alignment with State law, which began requiring paid prenatal leave in 2025. We previously discussed the requirements for State-mandated paid prenatal leave in our employment note, available here.
In addition, for each pay period in which an employee uses paid prenatal leave, employers must track the amount of paid prenatal leave used during the pay period and the total amount of paid prenatal leave still available for use on the employee’s paystub (or other form of written documentation).
Updates to the Temporary Schedule Change Act
As of February 22, 2026, employers are no longer required to granttwo temporary schedule changes to an employee’s work schedule. Instead, employers may now approve, deny, or propose alternatives to an employee’s request for a temporary change in schedule, so long as the employer responds to the request as soon as practicable.
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NYC employers should closely review and update leave-related policies and processes and ensure that managers and human resources and payroll personnel understand these changes, including so they can appropriately respond to employee leave or scheduling requests.
* This article was developed with the assistance of Paralegal Amelia Foster.
