New York State Employers Must Provide Paid Prenatal Leave Next Year
Starting January 1, 2025, New York State will require private employers to provide employees with twenty (20) hours of paid prenatal personal leave during any fifty-two-week calendar period.
The 20 hours of paid prenatal leave are in addition to leave time that employers must provide employees under New York State’s sick leave law, NYS Labor Law § 196-b.
Employers must pay employees for prenatal leave at the greater of employee’s regular rate of pay or the applicable minimum wage, and, after the leave, restore employees to their positions with the same pay and other terms and conditions of employment.
The law does not require employers to pay an employee for unused paid prenatal leave upon the employee’s separation from employment.
Employers may not require employees to disclose confidential information as a condition of providing paid prenatal personal leave and may not discriminate or retaliate against employees who use paid prenatal leave.
To prepare for the new requirements, employers should review and revise their policies including any handbook policies, and procedures regarding pregnancy, sick leave, and prenatal leave, and train their supervisors and managers on the new law.
