The New York State Budget was finally concluded on April 20, after 6 extensions. The Budget brings about some important changes to employment laws.
1.NY Finally Sunsets the COVID Sick Pay Law, but not Until July 2025
The Budget includes a measure to repeal New York’s COVID-19 related sick leave requirements. As our readers know, since 2020, New York employers have been required to provide paid time off for employees who are under a mandatory quarantine or isolation order due to COVID-19. This leave obligation will end on July 31, 2025, not on July 31, 2024, as had been originally proposed. Employers need to follow the CDC guidelines and, as applicable, the DOH guidelines about when mandatory quarantine or isolation is required (and, thus, pay obligations apply).
2.Prenatal Leave for Pregnant Employees
Effective January 1, 2025, employers will be required to provide employees with 20 hours of paid prenatal leave each year. This leave can be taken during pregnancy or for related medical appointments, procedures, tests, and discussions with healthcare providers. This leave is separate from the existing 40 or 56 hours of paid sick leave (depending on employer size) mandated by state law and can be used in hourly increments. Employees must receive their regular rate of pay when using this leave.
3.Paid Leave for Nursing Mothers
Starting on June 19, 2024, nursing mothers will have the right to paid break time to express breast milk during the workday, receiving 30-minute breaks for this purpose. Currently, New York law grants employees reasonable unpaid break time for this purpose, at least every 3 hours or as otherwise reasonably requested by the employee. The law goes further to ensure paid leave during these 30-minute breaks, but it is not clear how many paid 30-minute breaks per workday must be granted. The law does clearly state that employees can utilize existing paid break time or mealtime for any period exceeding 30 minutes.
Some important employment proposals did NOT make it into the final budget:
1.No Limit on Liquidated Damages for “Frequency of Pay” Violations
Initial budget proposals aimed to eliminate liquidated damages for late wage payments to manual workers. As we have previously written about in Forework’s newsletters, in 2019, an appellate court ruling affirmed a worker’s right to sue and recover approximately half their wages as liquidated damages under the labor law. This decision led to a surge of individual and class-action lawsuits, exposing employers to significant financial risks for alleged untimely payment when manual workers were paid bi-weekly or semi-monthly. In a separate case earlier this year, a different appellate court rejected a private right for workers to sue for such claims. Governor Hochul introduced legislation within the state budget to eliminate liquidated damages if employees were paid at least semi-monthly. However, lawmakers rejected this proposal.
2.Seizure of Employer Assets by the NY DOL
The initial budget would have given the New York Department of Labor the ability to seize employer assets to satisfy wage debts owed to employees for certain violations of wage payment regulations. This measure did not make it into the final budget.
3.Increasing Disability Protections and Benefits
Currently, New York employees are eligible to receive statutory short-term disability benefits when they are unable to work due to a non-work-related illness or injury. These benefits offer only wage replacement without guaranteeing any leave from work (but remember that employees may be eligible for leave protections under law such as the FMLA or ADA). The wage replacement benefits cap at $170 per week, a figure that has been in place for 35 years. Initial budget proposals would have provided job protected leave for DBL and increased this wage replacement amount from $170. Neither measure was ultimately implemented in the final law.