New York DOL Issues Paid Prenatal Leave FAQs

Effective January 1, 2025, all private sector employers in New York state are required to provide employees with 20 hours of paid prenatal leave in a 52-week period for medical appointments related to their pregnancy.  

The FAQs at ny.gov/prenatal, just released by the New York Department of Labor (DOL), clarify several questions, including that the leave does not accrue.  Rather, all employees, including new hires, automatically have 20 hours of Paid Prenatal Leave per year on January 1, 2025.  The FAQs state that the 52-week period begins each year the first time the employee uses Paid Prenatal Leave, explaining that the triggering date is the date that the leave is first recorded on an employee’s timesheet.  

Pregnancy-related health care includes physical examinations, medical procedures, monitoring, testing, and discussions with a health care provider related to the pregnancy.  While the FAQs provide that the leave covers fertility treatments, such as in vitro fertilization, and end-of-pregnancy care appointments, the law does not apply to post-natal or postpartum appointments. The FAQs clarify that this leave may only be used by the employee directly receiving prenatal health care services, and not spouses, partners or other support persons attending prenatal appointments. 

Not surprisingly, the FAQs remind employers that they cannot ask employees to disclose confidential information about their health conditions as a condition of requesting Paid Prenatal Leave. However, the DOL encourages employees to give employers advanced notice of leave requests and encourages employers to communicate how to request leave to their employees. In this regard, the DOL advises employees that they should request time off like any other time off by using existing notification/request procedures within their workplace.

This paid personal leave time may be taken in hourly increments throughout a 52-week period until the 20 hours are exhausted and will be paid at the employee’s regular rate of pay or the applicable minimum wage, whichever is greater. Employers are not required to pay an employee for unused prenatal personal leave at the time of separation from employment.

This paid prenatal leave is in addition to paid sick and safe leave (40 or 56 hours, depending on the size of the employer) provided by the NYS Sick Leave Law §196-b and the NYC Paid Sick and Safe Leave Law.  Even if the prenatal health care appointments are covered by other sick leave laws, or an existing employer’s leave policy, the FAQs instruct that an employer cannot require an employee to choose one leave type over another or require an employee to exhaust one type of leave before using Paid Prenatal Leave. 

While the law does not specifically require recordkeeping on paystubs, the DOL advises that it is a best practice to maintain clear records of available types of leave and amounts of types of leave used in a manner accessible to both the employer and employee.

Finally, the DOL reminds employers they cannot retaliate against employees for requesting paid prenatal leave.