Effective January 1, 2025, all private sector employers in New York State are required to provide paid prenatal leave for employees to attend prenatal appointments or obtain health care services during or related to their pregnancy (“Paid Prenatal Leave”).
The New York State Department of Labor has issued informal guidance about this Paid Prenatal Leave benefit, including a Frequently Asked Questions page, to inform employees and employers about these new rights and obligations. We summarize a few important points below:
All employers in New York State, regardless of size, are required to provide Paid Prenatal Leave to their employees.
All employees, regardless of full- or part-time status and overtime exempt or non-exempt status, are eligible to take Paid Prenatal Leave. However, Paid Prenatal Leave may only be used by the employee directly receiving prenatal health care services; it may not be used by spouses, partners, or other employees who wish to attend prenatal appointments with a pregnant person.
- What is the Paid Prenatal Leave benefit?
Employees are eligible to take up to 20 hours of Paid Prenatal Leave per 52-week period. Paid Prenatal Leave does not accrue and there is no minimum service requirement before an employee can take Paid Prenatal Leave.
Paid Prenatal Leave covers health care services received by an employee during their pregnancy or related to such pregnancy, including physical examinations, medical procedures, monitoring and testing, discussions with a health care provider related to the pregnancy, fertility treatment and care appointments, and end-of-pregnancy care appointments. However, it does not cover post-natal or postpartum appointments.
- How does this interact with other leaves, such as the New York State Sick Leave Law or employer-provided paid time off?
Paid Prenatal Leave is a separate employee benefit from New York State Sick Leave or any other available leave options. To the extent an employee’s need for leave qualifies under other leave entitlements, an employer cannot require an employee to choose one leave type over another or require an employee to exhaust one type of leave before using Paid Prenatal Leave.
- How do employees request Paid Prenatal Leave? Is medical documentation required?
As with any other time off, employees should request time off using existing notification/request procedures within their workplaces. Notably, unlike with New York State Sick Leave, employees are not required to submit medical records or documents to their employer to use Paid Prenatal Leave, and employers cannot ask employees to disclose confidential information about their health condition(s) as a condition of requesting to use Paid Prenatal Leave.
Employers in New York State and should familiarize themselves with these new Paid Prenatal Leave requirements and State guidance to ensure compliance and update applicable policies as necessary.
