New York PTO and Sick Leave Laws Explained 2026

Ask an HR manager in New York what keeps them up at night and paid leave compliance is usually near the top of the list. New York doesn't have one paid leave law — it has several, stacked on top of each other, with New York City adding its own layer on top of the state. Getting it right requires understanding all of them.

This guide untangles the major New York paid leave laws for 2026, explains what employees are actually entitled to, and clarifies the rules around PTO payout when leaving a job.

The Basics: New York Is Not California

The first thing to understand about New York PTO law is what it doesn't require. Unlike California, where vacation vests as it is earned and can never be forfeited, New York lets an employer take earned vacation away. But the default runs the other way: the New York Department of Labor's position is that if you have earned vacation and there is no written forfeiture policy, the employer must pay you for it when you leave. Forfeiture — at separation or under a use-it-or-lose-it rule — works only if the employer told you, in writing, the conditions under which you lose the time. And once vacation pay is owed, a statute stands behind it, as the payout section below explains.

What New York does require is honesty and consistency. Under New York Labor Law Section 195, employers must notify employees in writing of their PTO policies, including what happens to unused time when an employee leaves. If your employer's written policy says accrued PTO will be paid out, they must honor it. If it says the time is forfeited, that condition binds you only if it was put in writing and given to you. The policy document you were given at hire matters a lot — and so does its absence.

New York State Paid Sick Leave (Labor Law § 196-b)

New York's statewide paid sick leave law, Labor Law § 196-b, took effect September 30, 2020. Because it covers "safe" leave for domestic violence and related situations as well as illness, it is often called the paid sick and safe time (PSST) law. It created statewide mandatory sick leave for the first time in New York history. Employees accrue 1 hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, beginning on their first day, and the annual entitlement depends on two things: how many employees the employer has, and, for the smallest employers only, the employer's net income in the previous tax year.

Employers may cap use at the annual entitlement (40 or 56 hours) and may cap accrual at the same figure, but they may not set a lower cap and may always choose to be more generous. Employees do not have to wait for a probationary period to end before using accrued time, and employers cannot require them to find a replacement worker. Employers must also provide, on request, a written summary of the sick leave an employee has accrued and used in the current or any prior calendar year.

The law covers a broad range of uses: employee or family member illness, mental health care, domestic violence situations, and more. Employers cannot retaliate against employees for using PSST leave, and they cannot require employees to find a replacement or disclose medical details beyond a general reason.

PSST Rollover Rules

Unused PSST leave carries over from year to year, up to the applicable annual cap. However — and this is a common point of confusion — employers do not have to allow employees to use more than their annual cap each year, even if they've rolled over a balance. Rolled-over hours can be used the following year only up to the annual usage cap.

Paid Prenatal Leave — New York's Newest Entitlement

On January 1, 2025 New York became the first state in the country to require paid prenatal leave, and it remains the least-known item on this page. Labor Law § 196-b(4-a) provides that "every employer shall be required to provide to its employees twenty hours of paid prenatal personal leave during any fifty-two week calendar period." If you were pregnant in New York during 2025 or 2026 and nobody mentioned this to you, you are not unusual.

What sets it apart from every other leave on this page is how few conditions attach:

• No employer-size threshold. Every private-sector employer owes it — a two-person shop exactly as much as a 5,000-person one. Nonprofit employees are covered; federal, state and local government employees are not.
• No accrual, no waiting period. NYSDOL is explicit: "Newly hired employees are entitled to 20 hours of paid prenatal leave as soon as they are hired." There is no minimum number of hours you must work first.
• It sits on top of sick leave, not inside it. The 20 hours come "in addition to any other leave options available to you, including New York State Sick Leave" — and if you ask for prenatal leave, your employer cannot make you use a different leave type instead.
• Hourly increments. Take one hour for an appointment and work the rest of the day.
• Paid at your regular rate, or the applicable minimum wage for your occupation if that is higher. Tipped workers must be paid the full regional minimum wage, not the tipped rate.
• No documentation. You need not describe the appointment or produce medical records, and your employer cannot ask for either.

The limits are worth knowing too. The leave belongs to the pregnant person receiving care — a spouse, partner or other support person attending the same appointment cannot use it. And it covers care during pregnancy (physical examinations, medical procedures, monitoring, testing, discussions with a provider, end-of-pregnancy care and fertility treatment), not postpartum care, which is where NY PFL bonding leave takes over.

New York City's Separate Rules

If you work in New York City, you have additional protections under the NYC Earned Safe and Sick Time Act. NYC's law predates the state law (it's been in effect since 2014) and in several ways is more generous:

• Small employers (5–99 employees): 40 hours of paid sick leave per year
• Large employers (100+ employees): 56 hours of paid sick leave per year
• Very small employers (4 or fewer employees): 40 hours paid if the employer's net income was over $1 million in the prior tax year; otherwise 40 hours unpaid — since NYC's 2020 amendments, its hour tiers mirror the state's

Where NYC still goes further is on process rather than hours: NYC employers must give employees a written safe and sick leave policy, show accrued, used, and remaining balances on each pay statement or a separate document each pay period, and answer to the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, which enforces the law and can order back pay and penalties.

When NYC rules and state rules differ, employees get whichever benefit is more generous. Employers don't have to provide both separately — they just have to meet the higher standard.

New York State Paid Family Leave (NY PFL)

Separate from sick leave, New York has one of the most robust paid family leave programs in the country. In 2026, eligible employees can take up to 12 weeks of paid leave for qualifying reasons at 67% of their own average weekly wage, capped at 67% of the New York State Average Weekly Wage (NYSAWW) of $1,833.63 — a maximum of $1,228.53 per week, or $14,742.36 across the full 12 weeks.

NY PFL covers:

• Bonding with a newly born, adopted, or fostered child
• Caring for a family member with a serious health condition
• Qualifying exigencies arising from a family member's military deployment

NY PFL is funded through small employee payroll deductions — employers don't pay for it directly. In 2026, the employee contribution rate is 0.432% of gross wages, capped at $411.91 for the year. Most employees barely notice it in their paycheck.

There is one place this used to look murky. Section 380-6.2(c) lets an FMLA-covered employer running FMLA concurrently with PFL "charge an employee's accrued paid time off in accordance with the provisions of the FMLA," which reads like a back door to compelled substitution. The U.S. Department of Labor closed it. In Opinion Letter FMLA2025-01-A (January 14, 2025), the DOL concluded that where an employee on FMLA leave "receives compensation from a state or local family or medical leave program, the FMLA substitution provision does not apply to the portion of leave that is compensated," and therefore "neither the employee nor the employer may use the FMLA substitution provision to unilaterally require the concurrent use of employer-provided paid leave" during that stretch. Substitution returns only once PFL benefits are exhausted and the remaining FMLA leave becomes unpaid.

What both sides can still do is agree. Where the employer offers it, you and your employer may arrange for accrued PTO to supplement the state benefit up to — but not beyond — your full wages. The distinction that matters is consent: a negotiated top-up is permitted, a unilateral order to drain your vacation balance is not.

PTO Payout When Leaving a New York Job

Whether you get paid for banked PTO turns on your employer's written policy — but in New York the default favours you. The Department of Labor puts it as a simple rule: if you have earned vacation time and there is no written forfeit policy, the employer must pay you for it. An agreement can say that accrued vacation is lost under certain conditions (the courts upheld such a clause in Glenville Gage Co. v. Industrial Board of Appeals, 1979, affirmed by the Court of Appeals in 1980), but "to be valid, the employer must have told employees, in writing, of the conditions that nullify the benefit." Labor Law § 195(5) separately requires employers to give employees their vacation policy in writing or post it. And "the policy decides" is not the same as "the law is silent," which is where New York is routinely undersold. Labor Law § 198-c defines "benefits or wage supplements" to include "vacation, separation or holiday pay," and makes it a misdemeanor for an employer to fail to pay an agreed supplement within thirty days of when it is due — with corporate officers individually liable. New York does not force a payout past a clear, written forfeiture clause; but where vacation pay is owed — because the policy promises it, or because nothing in writing takes it away — a statute stands behind it. (Section 198-c does not reach bona fide executive, administrative or professional employees earning more than $1,300 a week.)

If the policy is silent, the Department of Labor's rule is that earned vacation must be paid; if it is ambiguous, or the forfeiture condition was never given to you in writing, the dispute tends to go the employee's way. The safest position: know your policy — and whether you were ever given it in writing — before you give notice.

When the Final Paycheck Has to Arrive

Separately from what goes into it, there is a deadline on the check itself — one this guide previously left out. Labor Law § 191(3) is a single sentence: "If employment is terminated, the employer shall pay the wages not later than the regular pay day for the pay period during which the termination occurred." The deadline is the same whether you quit or were fired; New York sets no faster clock for discharge, unlike Massachusetts or Colorado. If you request it, the employer must mail the wages to you.

When wages go unpaid — including a vacation payout your employer's policy promised — Labor Law § 198(1-a) lets you recover the unpaid amount plus attorney's fees, prejudgment interest, and liquidated damages of up to 100% of the wages owed. The liquidated damages are not automatic: the employer can defeat them by proving "a good faith basis for believing that its underpayment of wages was in compliance with the law." Claims can be filed with the NYS Department of Labor or brought in court.

For Employers: Navigating Multi-Law Complexity

If you employ people in New York — especially New York City — you're operating under at least three overlapping legal frameworks simultaneously: state labor law, the statewide Paid Sick Leave law (Labor Law § 196-b), and (if applicable) NYC's ESST Act, plus NY PFL. Add federal FMLA for employers with 50+ employees and the complexity compounds quickly.

Common compliance pitfalls for New York employers:

• Not updating written policies to reflect what actually happens at termination — ambiguous policies create liability
• Failing to track PSST accrual separately from vacation PTO in payroll systems
• Applying the state PSST rules to NYC employees when NYC's rules are more generous
• Not providing required written notices to employees about their sick leave rights
• Requiring employees to burn accrued PTO during a paid PFL week — neither 12 NYCRR § 380-6.2 nor the FMLA permits it, and it is the single most common New York leave error
• Overlooking paid prenatal leave entirely, or treating it as part of the sick leave bank instead of a separate 20 hours owed by every private employer
• Mishandling concurrent NY PFL and FMLA leave tracking

HR software with New York-specific compliance modules — including Gusto, Rippling, and BambooHR — can automate much of this tracking and reduce the risk of inadvertent violations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does New York require employers to pay out unused vacation when I quit?

By default, yes. The New York Department of Labor's rule is that if you have earned vacation time and there is no written forfeiture policy, your employer must pay you for it — whether you quit or were fired. An employer can avoid payout, but only by telling employees in writing, in advance, the conditions under which accrued vacation is lost; a clear written forfeiture clause is generally enforceable. If the policy promises payout, the employer must honor it, and Labor Law § 198-c treats vacation pay as a wage supplement.

How much sick leave am I entitled to in New York?

It depends on your employer's size. Under New York Labor Law § 196-b, employers with 100 or more employees must provide up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per calendar year; employers with 5 to 99 employees must provide up to 40 hours paid; employers with 4 or fewer employees must provide up to 40 hours paid if their net income was over $1 million in the previous tax year, or up to 40 hours unpaid if it was $1 million or less. Leave accrues at 1 hour per 30 hours worked. If you work in New York City, the NYC Earned Safe and Sick Time Act also applies and you get whichever rule is more protective.

Can my New York employer have a use-it-or-lose-it vacation policy?

Yes. Unlike California, New York permits use-it-or-lose-it vacation policies. The employer must clearly state this in the written PTO policy and apply it consistently. Sick leave under Labor Law § 196-b, however, must carry over year to year up to the applicable cap.

What is the New York statewide average weekly wage in 2026?

For 2026 the New York State Average Weekly Wage (NYSAWW) is $1,833.63, which sets the maximum weekly PFL benefit at $1,228.53 — 67% of the NYSAWW. The employee contribution rate is 0.432% of gross wages, capped at $411.91 for the year. New York resets these figures every January 1; check paidfamilyleave.ny.gov for the current year.

Can my employer make me use vacation days during Paid Family Leave?

No. Charging PTO to Paid Family Leave is the employee's election, not the employer's. Under 12 NYCRR § 380-6.2(a) the arrangement exists only where "an employer offers, and the eligible employee exercises" the option to charge family leave time to unused accruals, and New York's PFL guidance states that "an employee can only choose to use paid time off during Paid Family Leave if the employer allows it." Your employer may decline to offer the option, but it cannot compel you to take it. The FMLA does not change this while PFL benefits are being paid: DOL Opinion Letter FMLA2025-01-A (January 14, 2025) holds that the FMLA substitution provision does not apply to leave compensated by a state paid leave program, so neither side may unilaterally require concurrent use of employer-provided paid leave.

Does New York require paid prenatal leave?

Yes. Since January 1, 2025, Labor Law § 196-b(4-a) entitles every private-sector employee in New York to 20 hours of paid prenatal personal leave per 52-week period, on top of paid sick leave. There is no employer-size threshold and no accrual period — new hires have the full 20 hours immediately. It may be taken in hourly increments, is paid at your regular rate (or the applicable minimum wage if that is higher), and requires no medical documentation. It covers health care received during pregnancy only, is available only to the pregnant person rather than a partner attending with them, and unused hours are not paid out when you leave the job.

How soon must my final paycheck arrive in New York?

By the next regular payday for the pay period in which your employment ended, under Labor Law § 191(3) — the same deadline whether you resigned or were fired. If you ask, the employer must mail it. If wages or a promised vacation payout go unpaid, § 198(1-a) allows recovery of the unpaid wages plus attorney's fees, interest, and liquidated damages of up to 100% of the amount owed, unless the employer proves a good faith basis for believing it was complying with the law.

Does NYC sick leave apply to remote workers based outside NYC?

NYC's ESST Act generally applies to employees who work in NYC, meaning those who physically perform work within the five boroughs. Remote workers based outside NYC but working for a NYC employer are typically covered by state law rather than the city ordinance, but this depends on where the work is actually performed.

Can my employer require a doctor's note for sick leave in New York?

Only once the absence reaches three consecutive previously scheduled workdays or shifts. Under 12 NYCRR § 196-1.3 an employer may not require medical or other verification for sick leave of less than three such workdays — so three days is the point at which documentation becomes permissible, not the point at which it becomes exempt. Even then the employer may ask only for an attestation from a licensed medical provider, or from you, confirming your eligibility for the leave. It cannot make you pay the cost of the documentation, and it cannot require you or your provider to disclose the reason for the leave or any confidential health information.

Sources

• New York State — Paid Sick Leave program page (employer-size tiers, accrual, permitted uses)
• New York Labor Law § 196-b — Sick leave requirements (statutory text)
• NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection — Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law
• New York State Paid Family Leave — 2026 contribution rate, NYSAWW and benefit caps
• New York Labor Law § 191(3) — Final wages due the next regular payday (statutory text)
• New York Labor Law § 198-c — Vacation and separation pay as "benefits or wage supplements"
• NYSDOL — Wages and Hours FAQ: accrued vacation must be paid where there is no written forfeit policy
• 12 NYCRR § 380-6.2 — Use of accruals during Paid Family Leave (the employee's election)
• U.S. DOL Opinion Letter FMLA2025-01-A (January 14, 2025) — FMLA substitution and state paid leave benefits
• NYSDOL — Paid Prenatal Leave Law, employee fact sheet (P695)
• 12 NYCRR § 196-1.3 — Sick leave documentation threshold