The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) recently amended its Earned Safe and Sick Time Act rules to incorporate the paid prenatal leave requirements of the New York Labor Law. DCWP’s amended rules took effect on July 2, 2025, and place certain additional obligations on NYC employers with respect to paid prenatal leave.
To be clear, DCWP’s amended rules do not create a new leave of absence, but rather incorporate by reference the New York State Paid Prenatal Leave Law, which took effect on January 1, 2025. As we described in detail here, New York State’s Paid Prenatal Leave Law (set forth in NYLL § 196-b) requires employers to provide employees with up to 20 hours of paid time off per 52-week period for health care services received by the employee during or related to the employee’s pregnancy. With DCWP’s amended rules, NYC employers are now subject to additional requirements for paid prenatal leave, which include, for example:
- For each pay period that an employee uses paid prenatal leave, NYC employers must inform the employee of the amount of paid prenatal leave that was taken in that pay period and the remaining balance of paid prenatal leave available for use in the 52-week period. Employers may provide this information on the employee’s paystub or in another form of written documentation given to the employee each pay period.
- NYC employers must keep records of the date, time, and amount paid to employees for each instance an employee uses paid prenatal leave.
- NYC employers must implement and distribute to employees a paid prenatal leave policy upon commencement of employment, within 14 days of any changes to the policy, and upon an employee’s request.
- NYC employers must provide employees with the updated Notice of Employee Rights: Safe and Sick Leave form, which now addresses paid prenatal leave – links to which can be found here.
