New York’s Paid Prenatal Leave Law Takes Effect on January 1, 2025

As part of New York's Fiscal Year 2025 budget, the Paid Sick and Safe Leave Law (PSL) was updated to include the nation's first statewide paid prenatal leave mandate for private employers.

Starting January 1, 2025, employers must provide pregnant workers with 20 hours of paid prenatal leave within a 52-week period. Employees may take prenatal leave in hourly increments for physical exams, medical procedures, monitoring, testing and consultations with healthcare providers related to pregnancy.

Key takeaways for employers include:

Employers must provide a separate bank of paid prenatal leave, in addition to any existing paid leave benefits like those under New York’s Paid Sick Leave Law, the New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time Act and the New York Paid Family Leave Law.

Employers should prepare for PSL’s prenatal leave provision by crafting policies for distribution to employees prior to January 1, 2025, and ensure that payroll programming accounts for its implementation. 

Paid prenatal leave is funded solely by employers, not by employee payroll contributions like Paid Family Leave.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published final regulations in April 2024 for the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act, making clear that employers must provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers, including time off for prenatal or postnatal appointments.

Our Labor & Employment team is available to assist employers with compliance with all New York Labor Laws concerning employee time and leave benefits, including updating employee handbooks and policy implementation.

Read more in our Client Alert below.