Immigrant Workers Resource Guide

Know Your Rights

Leave Options

Under New York City’s Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law, workers have the right to use safe and sick leave for the following reasons:

  • For the care and treatment of themselves or a family member due to illness or preventative medical care;
  • To seek legal assistance, social services assistance, or take other safety measures if the worker or the worker’s family member is a victim or under threat of domestic violence, unwanted sexual contact, stalking, or human trafficking.

Who is covered?

Most full-time employees, part-time employees, domestic workers, transitional jobs program employees, employees who are family members but not owners of a given business, and employees who live outside of New York City but work in New York City are covered by New York City’s Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law.[2]

How does it work?

Unpaid Leave

If you work full-time or part-time at a business, company, or organization with one to four employees and your employer generates less than $1 million in income in a calendar year, you are entitled to a minimum of 40 hours of unpaid safe and sick leave.

  • If you work full-time or part-time for a business, company, or organization with one to four employees and your employer generates more than $1 million in income in a calendar year, you are entitled to a minimum of 40 hours of paid safe and sick leave.
  • If you work at a business, company, or organization with more than 5 but fewer than 100 employees, then you are entitled to a minimum of 40 hours of paid safe and sick leave regardless of the amount of income generated by your employer.
  • Finally, if you work full time or part time for a business, company, organization or household as a domestic worker, and your employer has 100 or more employees, then you are entitled to a minimum of 56 hours of paid safe and sick leave.
Note! It is illegal for an employer to fire, demote, or discipline you for asking about your safe and sick leave rights or using your earned safe and sick leave hours. This is true even for workers whose employers are only required to provide unpaid leave.

Paid safe and sick time accrues at a rate of 1 hour for every 30 hours worked. Alternatively, your employer may “front load” your sick time; in other words, make the time available at the beginning of your employment.

For more information on safe and sick leave, visit the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection’s website DCWP – Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law FAQs (nyc.gov).

How can I request sick leave?

Your employer is allowed to request notification up to seven days in advance for a scheduled appointment, such as an upcoming surgery. In the case of an unexpected medical emergency, your employer may request notification as soon as reasonably possible. Your employer may also require documentation (e.g., a doctor’s note) if you request more than three consecutive days of safe and sick leave.

Remember! Keep a record of conversations that happen via email, text messages, or voice messages. It is always good practice to follow up with your employer in writing. Keep track of your employer’s information by using the tracking template at the back of this guide!

What do I do if my employer violates my paid safe and sick leave rights?

If you believe your employer has violated your rights to safe and sick leave, contact the Department of Consumer and Worker Protections (DCWP) via their online complaint form or by calling 311 

For more information on Paid Safe and Sick Leave protections, visit DCWP’s website: DCWP – Workers – Workers Rights – Know Your Rights (nyc.gov)

Temporary Schedule Change

New York City’s for Temporary Schedule Change Law requires employers to accommodate for certain events and situations, known as “personal events,” that may require a schedule change. These include:

  • Care for a minor child or a household family member with a disability for whom you provide direct and ongoing care;
  • Attend a legal proceeding or hearing for public benefits for yourself, a family member, a minor child, or a care recipient;
  • Acceptable reasons covered under New York City’s Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law[3]

Who is covered?

Employees who work at least 80 hours in a calendar year and have been working for the employer for 120 days or more.[4]

How do I request a temporary schedule change from my employer?

Be proactive! As soon as you know that you will need a temporary schedule change, make your request in writing. If the request is made verbally, workers must submit the written request within two days after returning to work.

The request must include the following:

  • Date of the temporary schedule change
  • The change is due to a personal event
  • Proposed type of temporary change (work remotely, swap a shift, leave without pay)

What do I do if my employer isn’t following this law?

If you believe your employer may be violating your right to a temporary schedule change, contact the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection via this online form or by calling 311.

New York State Paid Family Leave provides eligible employees job-protected, paid time off to bond with a newly born, adopted or fostered child, care for a family member with a serious health condition, or assist loved ones when a spouse, domestic partner, child or parent is deployed abroad on active military service.

Paid Family Leave provides up to 12 weeks of job-protected time off at 67 percent of your average weekly wage. Generally, your average weekly wage is the average of your last eight weeks of wages prior to taking paid family leave.

Who is covered?

Employees working for most private employers who have worked for at least 26 consecutive weeks for at least 20 hours a week. or part-time workers who regularly work less than 20 hours a week and have worked for least 175 consecutive or non-consecutive days.

Visit the New York State Department of Labor to review more information on who is eligible to paid family leave: Eligibility | Paid Family Leave (ny.gov).

How does it work?

Employers must have an insurance policy or be self-insured to cover for paid family leave payments. You can use the Department of Labor tool to estimate how much you may be paid: 2024 Wage Benefit Calculator | Paid Family Leave (ny.gov)

Further, under the law:

  • You are entitled to return to the same job, or a comparable one, after returning from Paid Family Leave.
  • You can keep your health insurance while on Paid Family Leave on the same terms as if you continued to work.
  • You cannot be discriminated against for requesting or taking Paid Family Leave. Your employer is prohibited from retaliating against you for asserting your rights.

What do I do if my employer does not provide me with paid family leave?

If you have questions concerning your paid family leave protections, you can call the Paid Family Leave helpline Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 4:30pm ET at (844) 337-6303.

Family and Medical Leave Act

The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons. The difference between the FMLA and the New York State Paid Family Leave mentioned above is that FMLA is a federal law, which means it applies to workers in every state. New York State Paid Family Leave only applies to workers in New York.

Employees are entitled to be covered by their usual group health insurance under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave. Eligible employees are entitled to twelve work weeks of leave in a 12-month period for:

  • The birth of a child and to care for the newborn child within one year of birth;
  • The care of a newly adopted or foster care child within one year of placement;
  • Caring for the employee’s spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition;
  • Caring for serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job;
  • Any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a covered military member on “covered active duty;” or
  • Twenty-six work weeks of leave during a single 12-month period to care for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness if the eligible employee is the servicemember’s spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin (military caregiver leave).

Who is covered?

Employees who work for an employer that has more than 50 employees, public agency, elementary, or secondary school, and have worked for that employer for 12 months or more and have worked for that employer 1250 hours or more in a year are covered by the law.

Review the Frequently Asked Questions Document from the U.S. Department of Labor to learn more about FMLA: FMLA Frequently Asked Questions | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov)

What do I do if I believe that my employer is wrongfully denying my FMLA protections?

If you have questions, or you think that your rights under the FMLA may have been violated, you can contact the US Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division by calling 1-866-487-9243.

[1] See the section on Paid Safe and Sick Leave of the Workers’ Bill of Rights on the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection’s website: DCWP – Workers – Worker Rights – Paid Safe and Sick Leave (nyc.gov).

[2] See the Frequently Asked Questions section of the Workers’ Bill of Rights available on the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection’s website: DCWP – Paid Safe and Sick Leave Law FAQs (nyc.gov)

[3] See page 3 of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection’s Temporary Schedule Change Law: Frequently Asked Questions: FAQs Temporary Schedule Change Law (nyc.gov).

[4] See the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection’s one pager: Temporary Schedule Change Notice – English (nyc.gov).

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