NYC workers get 32 more hours of protected time off each year

If you work for a private, nonprofit, or household employer covered by New York City’s law, your employer must now give you 32 hours of protected time off each year on top of the 40 or 56 paid sick hours most workers already earn. You get the full 32 hours on your first day and again at the start of your employer’s chosen 12-month calendar year. The time is unpaid unless your employer chooses to pay for it, but you can’t be disciplined for using it, even after your paid hours run out.

You can also use protected time for more reasons than before. Those include caring for a child when school is closed or child care falls through, caring for a family or household member with a disability who relies on you for care, going to a benefits or housing hearing, staying home during a declared emergency like a snowstorm, and dealing with workplace violence. Your employer may ask you to confirm that the time was used for an allowed purpose, but you don’t have to disclose the underlying details. Third-party documentation can be required only after more than three workdays in a row. The new hours replace the two guaranteed schedule-change days workers had under an older city law.

Council Member Sandy Nurse introduced the bill in April 2024 with 20 cosponsors, and the City Council passed it in September 2025. Mayor Eric Adams didn’t sign it, and it became law without his signature on Oct. 25, 2025. Under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection wrote the rules. It sent compliance letters to more than 56,000 employers and now flags businesses whose records show unusually low sick-time use.