AbsentEase
New York sick leave law & call-off rules
New York mandates paid sick leave for every private employer — tiered at 40 or 56 hours by company size — plus, since 2025, a separate 20-hour paid prenatal leave bank for every employee. New York City layers its own stricter Earned Safe and Sick Time Act on top. The state DOL has been explicit that no-fault attendance-points policies can't charge occurrences for protected sick leave, so the attendance program and the sick-leave ledger have to talk to each other. Here is what applies in 2026.
New York at a glance
| Paid sick leave mandate | Yes — 40 or 56 hours by employer size (Labor Law § 196-b); 0–4 employees & ≤$1M income get 40h unpaid |
|---|---|
| Paid prenatal leave | 20 hours per 52 weeks, all employers, separate bank (since 2025) |
| Attendance points on sick time | Prohibited — occurrences for protected sick leave are retaliation per NYS DOL |
| Local ordinances | NYC ESSTA (stricter enforcement); Westchester safe-time law for DV victims |
| Employment relationship | At-will, but § 215 retaliation exposure for sick-leave-linked discipline |
| PTO payout at termination | Vacation payout required unless a written forfeiture policy says otherwise; sick leave never requires payout |
| Final paycheck deadline | Next regular payday, fired or quit |
Is paid sick leave required in New York?
Yes. Labor Law § 196-b requires every private employer in New York to provide sick leave, accrued at 1 hour per 30 hours worked from day one: 40 hours unpaid for employers with 0–4 employees and net income of $1M or less; 40 hours paid for 0–4 employees with net income over $1M and for all employers with 5–99 employees; and 56 hours paid at 100+. On top of that, all private employers owe 20 hours of paid prenatal leave per 52 weeks — a separate bank that cannot be drawn from sick leave. NYC's ESSTA mirrors the tiers but adds written-policy distribution, pay-statement balance disclosures, and per-violation penalties.
How New York's sick leave law works
| Accrual rate | 1 hour per 30 hours worked, from hire, usable as accrued — no new-hire waiting period |
|---|---|
| Size tiers | 0–4 employees & ≤$1M net income: 40h unpaid · 0–4 & >$1M: 40h paid · 5–99: 40h paid · 100+: 56h paid |
| Carryover | Required even if you front-load the annual amount (unlike most states) — though annual use can still be capped at your tier's 40/56 hours |
| Prenatal leave | Since 1/1/2025: 20 hours paid per 52 weeks, all employers, separate from the sick bank |
| Covered uses | Illness, injury, or health condition of the employee or family member (no advance diagnosis needed), preventive care, and safe leave for victims of violence or trafficking |
| Doctor's notes | Prohibited for absences under 3 consecutive scheduled workdays; even at 3+, limited to an attestation of need and duration — never the nature of the illness, and never at the employee's expense |
The anti-retaliation rule: per NYS DOL guidance, charging protected sick leave as an occurrence under a no-fault attendance-points policy is unlawful retaliation under Labor Law §§ 196-b and 215, and employees must be restored to their position when they return. In NYC, ESSTA adds per-employee civil penalties for the same conduct.
The federal floor that still applies
FMLA
Employers with 50+ employees within 75 miles must give eligible employees (12+ months tenure, 1,250+ hours in the past year) up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for a serious health condition — their own or a close family member's. FMLA-protected absences can't accrue attendance points, and a call-off that mentions an ongoing condition can be notice enough to trigger your FMLA obligations, even if the employee never says "FMLA."
ADA
For employers with 15+ employees, the ADA can require modified attendance expectations or unpaid leave as a reasonable accommodation for a disability. An attendance policy applied "no exceptions" is exactly the kind that loses ADA cases — build an accommodation carve-out into the policy itself.
Call-offs, no-call no-shows, and firing in New York
New York is at-will, and attendance discipline — including for a true no-call no-show — remains lawful. What the state DOL polices is the intersection with § 196-b: occurrences, points, or write-ups for absences that were protected sick leave are retaliation, and in NYC each instance can carry its own penalty under ESSTA. Two facts make the call-off record decisive here. First, documentation demands are flatly illegal for absences under 3 consecutive scheduled days, so for the typical one-day call-off the employee's own report is all the evidence that will ever exist. Second, the prenatal-leave bank is separate — a prenatal appointment charged to sick leave (or pointed) is its own violation. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off system that captures each absence reason verbatim, with a timestamp, is what lets you classify correctly and prove it later to the NYS Department of Labor.
PTO payout and final paychecks
| Scenario | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employee is fired or laid off | Wages due by the regular payday for the final pay period; by mail on request | NY Labor Law § 191 |
| Employee quits | Same — next regular payday for the final pay period | NY Labor Law § 191 |
| Unused vacation / PTO | Payout required unless a written policy, communicated in advance, expressly provides for forfeiture — the written policy controls | NY Labor Law § 198-c |
| Unused sick leave | No payout required at year end or separation | Labor Law § 196-b |
New York honors written forfeiture policies for vacation — but only written, only if communicated before the fact. An unwritten "we don't pay out" practice loses. See how PTO accrual works.
Leave New York employers must (and must not) provide
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Paid sick leave | Yes | Per the tiers above; NYC ESSTA adds stricter enforcement |
| Prenatal leave | Yes — paid | 20 hours per 52 weeks, separate from sick leave |
| Meal periods | Yes | 30-minute noonday meal for most workers; 60 for factory workers; extra 20 minutes for long shifts into the evening |
| Voting | Yes — paid | Up to 2 hours if the employee lacks 4 consecutive off-duty hours while polls are open; 2–10 working days' notice |
| Jury duty | Yes — partly paid | Employers with more than 10 employees pay the first $72/day for the first 3 days (rate current as of mid-2026) |
The New York employer's attendance playbook
- Put it in writing. A written policy — call-off deadline and channel, points or steps, the no-call no-show rule, and carve-outs for legally protected absences — is what makes discipline defensible. Our attendance policy guide walks through it.
- Give call-offs one channel. "Tell whoever answers" is how records get lost. One number every employee texts or calls makes the record automatic.
- Log everything with timestamps. Unemployment hearings and discrimination charges are won on contemporaneous records, not recollections.
- Enforce consistently. Uneven enforcement converts a lawful termination into a discrimination claim.
- Screen call-offs for protected reasons before applying points — sickness that could be state-protected sick time or FMLA/ADA territory gets a different track than an overslept alarm.
Comparing states? See all published guides on the state sick leave laws hub.