Paid Sick Leave in New York
New York (NY) · Paid sick leave · Last reviewed September 2026
State mandate
Yes
Typical accrual
1 hr per 30 worked
Does New York Require Paid Sick Leave?
New York has a statewide paid sick leave requirement. A common standard is that employees accrue one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked, often with an annual cap, though the exact accrual rate, caps, and carryover rules vary. Check the official rules for current details.
How Accrual Usually Works
Where sick leave is required, employers typically choose between accrual (employees earn time as they work, e.g., 1 hour per 30 worked) and front-loading (granting a lump sum at the start of the year). A time and attendance system makes either method easy by tracking hours worked and balances automatically.
Recordkeeping
Track accrued and used sick time per employee, show balances on pay stubs where required, and keep the records for the retention period your state specifies.
Paid Sick Leave in New York, in Practice
New York requires employers to provide paid sick leave. The common design is accrual based, typically around one hour earned for every 30 hours worked, with a cap on how much can be accrued or used in a year and rules about carrying a balance into the next.
There is no federal paid-sick-leave requirement for private employers, which is why this is one of the widest gaps between states. An employer operating across a state line can owe accrual to one crew and nothing to another doing identical work.
Tracking matters more than the policy. Accrual is calculated from hours worked, so it depends on an accurate record of those hours, and a balance nobody can evidence tends to be resolved in the employee's favor.
New York Labor-Law Snapshot
New York mandates paid sick leave (typically ~1 hour earned per 30 worked). Separately, the New York minimum wage is $16.00/hour (about $8.75 above the federal $7.25) (higher in New York City and Long Island/Westchester counties ($17.00, a higher rate set by state law)), overtime is about $24.00/hour, and a final paycheck is due by the next regular payday on discharge.
For New York employers these rules interact with timekeeping: accurate, audit-logged hours drive overtime, sick-leave accrual, final pay, and break records. New York requires meal breaks on longer shifts and does not mandate paid rest breaks; a final paycheck is due by the next regular payday when an employee resigns. Confirm current New York figures with the state labor office before relying on any single number.
What New York Employers Should Keep on File
Federal law requires employers to keep payroll records for at least three years, and the records used to calculate pay, such as time cards and work schedules, for at least two. Several states require longer. The practical standard is simple: if a former employee filed a claim tomorrow, could you evidence every hour you paid and every hour you did not?
The records that matter are the daily start and end times, the total hours for each workweek, the regular rate and any premium, all additions and deductions, and the pay period the payment covers. Keeping the underlying punches matters more than keeping the summary, because a total nobody can trace back is not evidence.
Where the record is missing or unreliable, the employee's reasonable recollection is generally accepted, and the employer carries the burden of disproving it. That is the single strongest argument for an automatic time clock over a paper sheet reconstructed at the end of the week.
How New York Compares with the States Next Door
New York borders 5 states, and goes beyond the federal floor here. Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Vermont mandate paid sick leave; Pennsylvania has no statewide mandate.
Minimum wage across the line: Connecticut $16.94, Massachusetts $15.00, New Jersey $15.92, Pennsylvania $7.25, Vermont $14.42. New York is at $16.00.
If you employ people on both sides of the New York border, the stricter of the two states usually governs each worker, based on where the work is actually performed rather than where your business is registered.
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Official Sources
More New York Guides
Paid Sick Leave in Other States
New York Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions
Is paid sick leave required in New York?
Yes, New York has a statewide paid sick leave law, commonly accruing one hour for every 30 hours worked, often with an annual cap.
How much sick leave do employees earn?
Where required, a common standard is one hour of paid sick time per 30 hours worked, subject to caps and carryover rules that vary, check the current rules.
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