New York City Council Expands Safe and Sick Leave Laws

Effective February 22, 2026, employers can expect new unpaid sick and safe leave obligations, expanded reasons for use of sick and safe time, and narrowed temporary schedule change obligations.

Key Changes

Additional Sick/Safe Time

Employers must provide at least 32 hours of unpaid sick and safe leave in addition to existing paid sick and safe time. Under existing ESSTA requirements, employers must provide 40 or 56 hours of paid sick and safe time per year to employees in New York City depending on employer size. Employees can use time under ESSTA as “sick time” for absences for illness, preventive care, care of a family member, or certain closures during a public health emergency, or as “safe time” for absences related to domestic violence, sexual offenses, stalking, or human trafficking.

The amended ESSTA adds a separate 32 hours of unpaid sick and safe time available immediately at hire and at the start of each calendar year. Employees may use this unpaid leave for all existing ESSTA purposes as well as the newly expanded ESSTA purposes discussed below.

When employees request time off for covered ESSTA purposes, employers must first apply available paid time. The 32 hours of unpaid time will be applied only if the employee has no paid ESSTA time remaining or the employee specifically elects to use other leave instead of paid ESSTA time.

Expansion of Permissible Uses

The amended ESSTA also broadens qualifying reasons for sick and safe time to now include:

• Closure of the employee’s place of business by order of a public official due to a public disaster (defined to include events such as a fire, terrorist attack, or severe weather conditions).

• To care for an employee’s child whose school or childcare provider has restricted in-person operations or is closed due to a public disaster or public health emergency.

• Where a public official directs people to remain indoors or avoid travel during a public disaster which prevents an employee from reporting to their work location.

• Where an employee or their covered family member has been the victim of workplace violence (defined as “any act or threat of violence against an employee that occurs in a place of employment”).

• Absences for employees acting as caregivers to provide care to a minor child or care recipient (defined as “a person with a disability, including a temporary disability, who (i) is the caregiver’s family member or resides in the caregiver’s household and (ii) relies on the caregiver for medical care or to meet the needs of daily living”).

• Time needed to initiate, attend, or prepare for legal proceedings related to subsistence benefits or housing, or to take steps to apply for, maintain, or restore those benefits or shelter for themselves, a family member, or a care recipient.

Narrowed Schedule Change Obligations

The amendments also seek to harmonize the ESSTA with the TSCA. In particular, the prior requirement — mandating employers to grant up to two temporary schedule changes per year for personal events — has been replaced with a right-to-request framework. When employees request temporary schedule changes, employers must respond as soon as practicable. Employers may grant or deny requests and may offer alternatives, but employees are not required to accept alternatives.

Employer Takeaways

Prior to February 2026, New York City employers should:

• Update policies, notices, and human resources and accounting systems to reflect two distinct sick and safe leave entitlements:

  • Existing ESSTA paid sick and safe time.

  • A new 32-hour unpaid sick and safe bank available at hire and each January 1 thereafter.

• Offer training to handle expanded qualifying reasons for sick and safe time and to respond “as soon as practicable” to TSCA schedule-change requests, recognizing that employees need not accept alternatives.