Enacted New York State Budget Includes First-In-Nation Statewide Paid Prenatal Leave (But Other Proposals Are Left On The Table) – Employee Benefits & Compensation

On April 20, 2024, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into
law New York State’s Budget for fiscal year
2025. The enacted Budget includes appropriation bills and other
legislation required to carry out the budget for the coming fiscal
year. Among hundreds of new initiatives, the Budget includes
several bills that impact New York employers and employees
alike.

Paid Leave for Prenatal Appointments

The enacted Budget expands the New York State Paid Sick Leave
Law to include additional paid time off for prenatal appointments.
Under the enacted proposal, New York is now the first
state in the nation to require employers to provide up to 20 hours
of paid leave during any 52-week period specifically for employees
to attend prenatal appointments or obtain health care services
during their pregnancy or related to such pregnancy, including
physical examinations, medical procedures, monitoring and testing,
and discussions with a health care provider related to the
pregnancy. The prenatal leave time does not accrue, but instead is
available in a single bank and may be taken in hourly increments.
Prenatal leave time does not impact or reduce other paid sick time
available to an employee under the New York Paid Sick Leave Law.
The prenatal leave provision takes effect on January 1, 2025.

Paid Lactation Breaks

The enacted Budget amends the New York Labor Law to require
employers to provide employees with paid break time for breast milk
expression. Presently, employers are required only to provide
reasonable unpaid break time or permit an employee to use
existing paid break or mealtime to express breast milk during the
workday for up to three years following child birth. Under the enacted proposal, employers will now be
required to provide 30 minutes of paid break time for
breast milk expression, and to permit the employee to use existing
paid break time or meal time for lactation time needed in excess of
thirty minutes. This is an increase from the 20-minute paid break
time provision initially included in the proposed budget. The paid
lactation break provision takes effect on June 19, 2024 (60 days
following enactment).

Sunset of COVID-19 Paid Leave

The enacted Budget will bring an end to the requirement that
employers provide paid sick time—above and beyond what is
required under the New York Paid Sick Leave Law—for employees
who are under a mandatory order of quarantine or isolation because
of COVID-19. Under the enacted proposal, the COVID leave requirement
will sunset on July 31, 2025 (extended by a year from the sunset
date of July 31, 2024 initially included in the proposed
budget).

Excluded Budget Proposals

Some of Governor Hochul’s original proposals did not make
the cut in the final enacted Budget. Employment-related exclusions
included a significant overhaul of disability leave protections and
an increase of maximum short term disability benefits, as well as
the expansion of the New York Department of Labor’s enforcement
power to aid in recovery methods for violations of certain wage
payment provisions (discussed in more detail in our blog on the proposed budget).

Also noticeably missing was Governor Hochul’s proposal to
eliminate liquidated damages for some pay frequency violations. As
reported in January, this proposal would have
amended the New York Labor Law to confirm that liquidated damages
are not available as a remedy for a violation of Labor Law § 191(1)(a)(1), which
requires—absent a waiver from the Commission of
Labor—that for-profit employes pay “manual workers”
on a weekly basis. The longstanding enforcement mechanism for this
provision was a civil penalty, but a 2019 Appellate Division, First
Department decision in Vega v. CM Assoc. Constr. Mgt LLC,
held, for the first time in the 130-year history of New York’s
weekly pay law, that a private right of action exists for a
violation of Section 191(1) and permitted plaintiffs to seek
liquidated damages equal to the amount of the late paid wages.
However, on January 17, 2024, the Appellate Division, Second
Department held the opposite, concluding that no such private
right remedy exists under the plain language and legislative
history of the Labor Law.

Governor Hochul’s proposal to expressly exclude liquidated
damages as a remedy was clearly designed to revise what the
Governor perceived as an unintended judicial interpretation of the
Labor Law in Vega, and in doing so would have resolved the
split in appellate authority. However now, unless new legislation
addressing the issue is introduced prior to June, New York
State’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, will be set to
resolve the appellate split.

What’s Next?

We will continue to report on any key developments involving the
enacted Budget proposals as they move toward implementation, as
well as the Court of Appeals consideration of Vega or any
further legislative action regarding New York’s pay frequency
provisions. Employers are advised to review their existing
policies and make any necessary changes to account for the enacted
Budget provisions.

Enacted New York State Budget Includes
First-in-Nation Statewide Paid Prenatal Leave (But Other Proposals
Are Left On The Table)

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