What it means for you
From March 2020 to July 2025, New York workers under a COVID-19 quarantine or isolation order kept their jobs and got sick leave, which was paid at most employers. Workers at big employers and public agencies got 14 paid days.
Who benefits: New York workers placed under a mandatory or precautionary COVID-19 quarantine or isolation order who couldn't work from home.
If a COVID-19 quarantine or isolation order kept you home and you couldn’t work remotely, this law protected your job and, at most employers, your pay. Employers with 100 or more workers, and every public employer, had to give at least 14 paid sick days. Employers with 11 to 99 workers, and the smallest ones with more than $1 million in net income, had to give at least 5 paid days. The smallest employers had to give unpaid leave. Paid family leave and disability benefits helped cover the time that wasn’t paid, starting on the first day. You also had to get the same job and pay back when you returned, and your employer couldn’t punish you for taking the leave.
You didn’t apply to the state for the sick days. Your employer owed them. Any federal COVID leave you got reduced the state benefit.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed the bill. Sen. Jessica Ramos and Assembly Member Catherine Nolan carried it. Both chambers passed it on March 18, 2020, the Senate 50–6 and the Assembly 132–3, and Cuomo signed it that day. Lawmakers took out a permanent paid sick leave plan that Cuomo had included.
The law had no end date at first. Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed ending it in July 2024. The final 2024 budget pushed that back a year, and the leave ended July 31, 2025.
Work and wagesHealth care
Where it stands, and how we know
Behind the effort to end it: Kathy Hochul (D).
Source for this status, checked November 11, 2026.
Sources
- S8091, relates to employee benefits during a COVID-19 quarantine or isolation orderNew York State Senate, March 18, 2020
- S08091 floor votesNew York State Assembly, March 18, 2020
- New York Governor Enacts Emergency Paid Sick Leave Bill to Address CoronavirusNational Law Review, March 19, 2020
- Enacted New York State Budget Includes First-in-Nation Statewide Paid Prenatal Leave, but Other Proposals Are Left on the TableProskauer Rose, April 24, 2024
- The Last One Standing: The Sun Finally Sets on COVID Leave in New YorkEpstein Becker Green, July 25, 2025
- New York COVID-19 Paid Sick Leave ExpiresMintz, August 1, 2025
How we checked this
Drafted by Claude Opus 5.5 (Anthropic) on November 11, 2026. Checked against its sources by GPT-5.6-sol (OpenAI) on November 11, 2026, with no problems found. Confirmed the benefit tiers, eligibility, sponsors, enactment date, both roll-call totals, federal offset, and 2025 expiration. Current New York agency guidance confirms the law remains repealed as of July 31, 2025.
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