New York State and New York City Both Now Require Paid Prenatal Leave for Employees

In our last newsletter, we reported that New York State as of January 1, 2025, requires employers of any size to provide paid prenatal leave to its employees working in the State of New York.  Not to be outdone, New York City passed its own requirement for paid prenatal leave, which went into effect on July 2, 2025, and is applicable to employers of any size for employees working in NYC.  Both laws require 20 hours of paid prenatal leave, separate from paid sick leave, and both prenatal leave laws require an automatic allotment of 20 hours of prenatal leave every 52 weeks, starting with the first day that the employee uses prenatal leave.  In that regard, prenatal leave does not accrue with hours worked like sick leave accrues.  If the employee is working in NYC, then the 20 hours of NYC prenatal leave will automatically offset the 20 hours required by the State (therefore, NYC employees do not get a compounded 40 hours), but not vice versa meaning that for example an employee working in Rochester will get 20 hours of State prenatal leave which doesn’t impact their NYC balance (which they aren’t eligible for unless they work in NYC).  If prenatal leave is exhausted within the 52 weeks, the employee can still use any New York sick leave, NYC sick leave, or any other leave she has available.  

Only female employees are eligible for the prenatal leave, which can only be used for their own prenatal medical care, including fertility treatment and termination of pregnancy medical care.  Prenatal leave cannot be used after the pregnancy ends.  

Employers cannot ask employees to disclose confidential information about their health condition as a requirement to request or use prenatal leave.  

Lastly, while the State prenatal law does not have a notice of rights distribution requirement nor an available balance paystub printing requirement, the NYC version of the law does.  The State’s FAQs about the State law are available here, while the City’s FAQs about its law are available here.