As you know, Section 196-b of the New York state Labor Law was amended in 2024 to require, on and after January 1, 2025, that every employer provide its employees twenty hours of paid prenatal personal leave during any fifty-two-week calendar period.
New York City has now incorporated paid prenatal leave into its Earned Safe and Sick Time Act, effective July 2, 2025. The rule amendments make explicit that employers must provide a separate benefit of 20 hours of paid prenatal leave during any fifty-two-week calendar period in addition to the up to 40 or 56 hours of safe/sick time employers must provide each calendar year.
Paid prenatal leave means the same as it does under state law, i.e., leave taken for the health care services received by an employee during their pregnancy or related to such pregnancy, including physical examinations, medical procedures, monitoring and testing, and discussions with a health care provider related to the pregnancy.
As with safe and sick time, for each pay period that an employee uses paid prenatal leave, the employer must inform the employee of the amount of paid prenatal leave used during the relevant pay period and the total balance of paid prenatal leave available for use, either on the pay statement or other form of written documentation required by section 20-919(c) or in separate written documentation.