Reminder for New York employers: 2025 changes and updates

As is typical in New York State, a few changes are coming our way this year, which will undoubtedly impact your business. As such, please keep the following key dates in mind as they pertain to employee leave and benefit entitlements:

Paid Prenatal Leave 

• New York employers will be required to provide up to 20 hours of paid prenatal leave to pregnant employees during any 52-week period. Such leave may be used for an employee to receive health care services received by an employee during their pregnancy or related to such pregnancy, including physical examinations, hospitalizations, medical procedures, monitoring and testing, and discussions with a health care provider related to the pregnancy. This leave is a separate provision, in addition to any other existing leave entitlements such as leave under the Earned Sick and Safe Time Act and leave under the Paid Family Leave law. Please note the following as it pertains to Prenatal Leave. 

  • The leave may only be used by the employee directly receiving the prenatal healthcare services, and it does not accrue. Instead, employees automatically receive 20 hours of leave per year. 

  • Employees may take paid prenatal leave in hourly increments at their regular rate of pay or the applicable minimum wage, whichever is greater.

  • Fertility care and treatment, as well as end-of-pregnancy care appointments, are qualifying reasons for paid prenatal leave, but post-natal or postpartum appointments are not.

    • Basically, an employee must be pregnant or trying to get pregnant in order to use this leave. 

·       Employers cannot require an employee to choose one leave type over another or exhaust one type of leave before using paid prenatal leave. In addition, employers cannot ask employees for details about their prenatal appointments, require corroborating documentation, or require employees to disclose confidential information as a condition of requesting leave.

·       More information pertaining to the prenatal leave law can be found here https://www.ny.gov/new-york-state-paid-prenatal-leave/frequently-asked-questions

New York Workers’ Compensation Law 

• Effective January 1, 2025, New York’s Workers’ Compensation Law will be expanded to allow workers to file claims for mental injury based on extraordinary work-related stress. This expansion now permits all workers to file claims for mental injury premised upon extraordinary work-related stress. 

• Understanding that this expansion calls for an in-depth case-by-case analysis, the question of whether a causal relationship exists between a work activity and the mental injury is an issue of fact for the Workers’ Compensation Board and will be decided on a case-by-case basis until the law is amended/modified to include clearer eligibility guidelines. 

Paid Family Leave Law 

• Effective January 1, 2025, the employee contribution rate and benefit amounts under New York Paid Family Leave will increase. The employee contribution rate will increase from .373 percent to .388 percent, and the maximum weekly benefit amount will increase from $1,151.16 per week to $1,177.32 per week.

Covid-19 Paid Quarantine Law 

• New York’s COVID-19 paid quarantine leave expires. Currently, New York law provides job protection and benefits to certain employees quarantined or isolated due to exposure to and/or infection with COVID-19 in addition to other leave entitlements. After the law expires, employees may still use sick leave for COVID-19-related absences in line with New York state and city sick leave laws; however, the COVID-19 specific provisions and protections will be eliminated.

Minimum Wage Increase

·       The minimum wage has increased to $16.50 per hour in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County and to $15.50 per hour in the rest of the state. 

Retail Worker Safety Act

·  Effective March 4, 2025, the Retail Worker Safety Act will require all employers to adopt workplace violence prevention policies and provide workplace violence prevention training to their employees. This law is aimed at curbing/controlling violence/threats of violence in retail settings. 

We implore you to ensure that your policies and practices reflect these updates. Likewise, it is important to notify any and all human resources personnel and supervisors about these changes. If you have any questions or concerns about these changes, feel free to reach out to us and book a free consultation. We are happy to help you navigate through these changes.