NYC’s Amended ESSTA: Expanded Employee Time Off Rights Businesses Need to Know

Takeaways

• Amendments to New York City’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act expanded employee leave rights effective 02.22.26 by adding new qualifying reasons for leave, codifying up to 20 hours of paid prenatal leave, and generally requiring an additional 32 hours of unpaid leave available immediately for those employed as of 02.22.26 (or upon hire) and at the start of each calendar year. 
• The Temporary Schedule Change Act has been scaled back as of 02.22.26. Employers no longer need to grant a specific number of temporary schedule changes per year but must still respond to employee requests by approving, denying, or proposing alternatives.
• The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection issued updated FAQs, released new model forms and published a new Notice of Employee Rights (in many languages) that employers must distribute or redistribute and post. 
• There are proposed rules that remain under review as part of the notice and comment process, including a hearing on 03.02.26.

Related links

• NYC Employer Obligation Changes: Amendments to Increase Earned Safe and Sick Time Act + Reduce Temporary Schedule Change Act Requirements
• Protected Time Off: Frequently Asked Questions
• Notice of Employee Rights: Protected Time Off
• Protected Time Off: Notice of Employee Rights in Different Languages (DCWP)
• Rules for Protected Time Off Policies

Article

Amendments to New York City’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA) and Temporary Schedule Change Act (TSCA) took effect on Feb. 22, 2026. The amendments expand employee rights, increase employers’ safe and sick time compliance obligations, and scale back employers’ obligations relating to temporary schedule changes.

The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) issued updated FAQs and other guidance clarifying the additional protections and requirements. At the same time, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced renewed enforcement efforts targeting employers that fail to comply with municipal worker protection laws, including the ESSTA. So far, more than 56,000 warning letters on violations reportedly have been sent to employers across the city.

The administration’s apparent intent to pursue compliance aggressively makes compliance with applicable law and the updated guidance more important than ever.

This article summarizes the updated guidance and its practical impact on New York City employers.

Amendments to TSCA

The TSCA has been significantly scaled back effective Feb. 22, 2026, presumably due to the additional unpaid safe and sick time now available to employees and the expansion of qualifying reasons for leave under the ESSTA. Employers no longer need to provide a specific amount of temporary schedule changes per year for qualifying personal events, but they must still respond to requests for temporary schedule changes by approving, denying, or proposing an alternative to such a request.

Amendments to ESSTA

The ESSTA already required employers to provide paid safe and sick time to employees working in New York City for specific, statutorily defined reasons. Depending on employer size, covered employees were entitled to accrue and use 40 hours or 56 hours of leave per year. Additionally, the DCWP had amended its rules to align the ESSTA with the state’s paid prenatal leave requirements, incorporating the prenatal leave requirements of the state sick leave law effective as of Jan. 1, 2025.

Effective Feb. 22, 2026, the ESSTA has been amended as follows:

• Qualifying reasons for leave include caregiving; pursuing substantive benefits or housing; workplace violence; and “public disasters,” defined as fires, explosions, terrorist attacks, severe weather, or emergencies declared by the U.S. president, New York governor, or New York City mayor.
   
• Covered employees have 32 hours of unpaid safe and sick time immediately upon hire or at the start of each calendar year. This is a separate bank from the 40 hours to 56 hours of paid leave already required. A setoff can apply if sufficient time is frontloaded in excess of the standard ESSTA paid time requirements.
   
• Officially provides covered employees with 20 hours of paid prenatal leave during a rolling 52-week period.

The DCWP has published updated FAQs and Notice of Employee Rights. The Notice is available in multiple languages.

FAQs

Key takeaways from the updated FAQs include:

1.  Prenatal leave: Consistent with state law, employees can use paid prenatal leave to receive healthcare during their pregnancy or related to their pregnancy. Employees may only use paid prenatal leave for medical care they themselves are receiving.

2.  General terminology: The DCWP refers to the ESSTA as the “Protected Time Off Law” and generally uses the term “protected time off” (instead of “safe and sick leave/time,” although the statute still uses “safe and sick time”).

3.  Unpaid protected time off: An additional 32 hours of unpaid protected time off must be provided on Feb. 22, 2026, for current employees and at the time of hire for those hired thereafter, irrespective of start date. Unused, unpaid protected time off need not be carried over from year to year, but employees must be provided an additional 32 hours of unpaid protected time off at the start of each year. Employers that provide at least 32 hours more than the required 40 hours or 56 hours of paid protected time off need not provide the additional 32 hours of unpaid protected time off, so long as they frontload 32 paid hours at hire and at the start of each calendar year (separate from standard ESSTA paid time off accruals). 

4.  Expanded list of permitted reasons for use: Covered employees may use protected time off for:

• Health needs – Applies to an employee’s or a family member’s health needs (including illness, injury, diagnosis, treatment, preventive care). “Family member” broadly includes individuals related by blood or individuals “whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.” Employers may not ask an employee to specify the type of health need.
   
• Safety measures – Uses related to seeking safety from domestic violence (or to help a family member experiencing domestic violence), unwanted sexual contact, stalking, human trafficking, or workplace violence. Protected time off can be used to move homes or shelters, get divorced, enroll a child in school, apply for public benefits, meet an attorney or social worker, and file a police report. 
   
• Child care or family care – Care of a child or a family or household member with a disability (including temporary disabilities). This reason includes using time off when a minor child or care recipient needs to be watched during school holidays, daycare closures for any reason, or babysitter cancellations. 
   
• Applying for benefits – To attend housing or public benefits-related appointments or hearings.
   
• Public disasters or emergencies – To stay home when a public disaster or emergency is declared because of severe weather events (such as snowstorms or hurricanes) and public disasters like fires, explosions, or terrorist attacks that cause a state of emergency or a public disaster declared by the U.S. president, New York State governor, or the New York City mayor. 
   
• The guidance categorizes permitted reasons as “health” and “other protected” needs, even though the statute still uses “sick” and “safe.”

5.    Policy updates: Employers must modify their current policy to comply with the amendments and distribute the revised policy to all new hires and current employees by March 8, 2026. If the policy uses terms other than “protected time off,” “safe/sick time,” or “safe and sick leave” to describe ESSTA time off (such as “paid time off”), then a statement that employees may use the leave for protected time off purposes without any conditions prohibited by the ESSTA must be included.

6.  Notice of rights: Employers must distribute and post the DCWP’s updated notice of rights. They must physically post the notice at the workplace in English and every language spoken by at least five percent of the employees in the workplace and personally distribute notice to new hires and to current employees by March 8, 2026. Employers must keep records showing when each employee received the notice and proof of receipt. Posting and providing the Notice of Employee Rights as required will not satisfy the written policy requirements discussed above or vice versa.

7.  Usage and balance information: Employers must inform employees through their pay statements (pay stubs or other documentation provided to employees each pay period) how much protected time off they have accrued, used, and have available for use immediately and within the calendar year. This applies to paid and unpaid leave. This is slightly different from the information required for paid prenatal leave, which requires employers to detail in pay statements or in separate written documentation for each pay period in which an employee uses prenatal leave (i) the amount of paid prenatal leave used during a pay period and (ii) the total balance of remaining prenatal leave available for use in the 52-week period.

8.  Employees covered by a valid collective bargaining agreement (CBA): For CBAs entered into, extended, or renewed after April 1, 2014, the ESSTA applies unless the agreement expressly waives the law’s provisions and provides a “comparable benefit.” “Comparable benefit” must include 40 hours or 56 hours of paid time off depending on employer size, an additional 32 hours of paid or unpaid time off immediately available, 20 hours of paid prenatal leave, protection for the use of time off for all reasons covered under the law (including family care), and protection from discipline for using such leave. However, for employees in the construction or grocery industries, the law does not apply if the CBA expressly waives its provisions. (All private sector employees in New York State are covered by the state’s Paid Sick Leave Law as of Sept. 30, 2020, and unionized employees should refer to state guidance for how this law interacts with their rights under the CBA and municipal law.)

Model Forms

Along with the FAQs and the Notice of Employee Rights, the DCWP has released model forms to help employers comply with the updated recordkeeping requirements. Employers should consult with their counsel before implementing these forms as they may conflict with state law.

Pending Rulemaking

The DCWP has published proposed updates to its rules interpreting the law, as amended. The proposed rules, inter alia, define the term “protected time off” to have the same meaning as “safe/sick time,” incorporate the amendments, provide guidance to employers regarding the amendments (including on which bank of protected time off to draw from when employees have time off available for use), and clarify the remedies (including civil penalties and employee relief if an employer is found to have violated the law).

A public hearing on the proposed rules is scheduled for March 2, 2026, at 11:00 a.m., as part of the notice and comment process. Contingent on the receipt and review of public comments, including any raised at the hearing, the DCWP may further revise the proposed rules. Jackson Lewis attorneys will provide additional guidance once the final rules are published.

Next Steps

Compliance with ESSTA is both mandatory and complex. By understanding your obligations, maintaining clear and compliant policies, and fostering a supportive workplace culture, employers can minimize legal risk while supporting employee well being.

The attorneys at Jackson Lewis are available to assist with questions regarding these amendments and relevant DCWP guidance and advise on best practices to ensure compliance.