August 17, 2026

Alert for New York Employers: New State Laws Under Consideration

In their legislative session ending in June 2026, the New York State Legislature passed several bills that, if signed by Governor Hochul, could affect how employers in New York hire and fire employees and impose new recordkeeping and reporting duties. 

Here, we summarize five bills.  To date, they have not been delivered to the Governor.

• Mandatory Disclosures in Job Advertisements.
  Bill S08877 would require employers to include in job postings whether the posting is for a current vacancy and, if so, approximately when the employer intends to fill the vacancy, and to remove job postings within 2 weeks after the position is filled.
  
  
• Anti-Waiver of Employment Rights Act. 
  Bill S4424A would invalidate pre-dispute and post-dispute agreements to waive or limit employees’ rights, remedies, or claims under the NYS Labor Law and Human Rights Law, such as an agreement to shorten the limitations period to bring such claims. The bill would allow post-dispute waivers made as part of a settlement or severance agreement.
  
  
• Access to Personnel Records. 
  Bill S3460 would require employers to notify employees when placing negative information in their personnel file, and allow employees to submit a written response to be added to the file.  The bill would allow employees to review their personnel file no more than twice each calendar year, allow employers and employees to mutually agree to correct or remove information in the employee’s personnel file, and require employers to maintain an employee’s personnel file for three years after termination of employment.
  
  
• No Severance Ultimatums Act. 
  Bill S372A would require employers who offer severance agreements to notify employees of their right to consult an attorney regarding the agreements and to provide employees with 21 calendar days to consider a severance agreement and 7 days to revoke their agreement.
  
  
• Artificial Intelligence Impact Assessments.
  Bill A9581B would require any business in New York State that employs more than 50 employees or is a publicly traded entity to report annually to the NYS Department of Labor regarding the impact of artificial intelligence on its hiring and how the business uses artificial intelligence.
  

The NYS Senate also passed Bill S09759, which would limit employers’ ability to include non-compete agreements in employment contracts.

Book Law LLP will continue to track these bills and update our clients, through this newsletter, our website blog posts, and our LinkedIn posts.

For more information about pending bills or employment laws applicable to New York State employers, please reach out to any Book Law attorney (bookadmin@booklawllp.com).