New New York City Rules for Paid Prenatal Leave to Take Effect in July 2025

On the heels of New York State’s amendment of its Paid Sick Leave Law to create a first-in-the-nation paid prenatal personal leave (PPPL) entitlement, the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) has amended its interpretive rules for the New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA) to incorporate PPPL. While the state PPPL law became effective January 1, 2025, the city’s amended rules take effect imminently, on July 2, 2025.

The DCWP’s amended rules do not create an independent leave requirement, but are intended to “incorporate by reference” the state law entitling employees to PPPL. At this time, it remains unclear whether the DCWP has the legal authority to make changes to ESSTA’s rules to incorporate new leave entitlements that are not related to sick or safe time and fall outside the scope of the ESSTA, in the absence of any legislative amendment to ESSTA itself by the New York City Council. 

Inconsistencies With State PPPL Law and Guidance 

Although the DCWP sought to incorporate the state’s PPPL obligations, some provisions of the DCWP’s amended rules are inconsistent with the state law, rules, and guidance concerning PPPL. For example:

• DCWP’s amended rules allow an employer to request documentation supporting an employee’s use of PPPL after the employee has been absent more than three consecutive workdays. However, state guidance on PPPL says employees are not required to submit medical records or documents to their employer when using this leave, and employers may not ask them to disclose confidential information about their condition as a condition to use PPPL. Employers requesting documentation supporting the use of PPPL run the risk of being found in violation of state law.
• DCWP’s amended rules allow an employer to require an employee to provide reasonable notice of the need to use safe/sick time or PPPL for “foreseeable” absences. Yet state law and guidance does not distinguish between “foreseeable” or “unforeseeable” absences or give employers greater notice rights for “foreseeable” PPPL; state guidance merely says that employees should use regular procedures for time off requests. Employers should not impose notice requirements for PPPL in excess of that required for other types of leave. 
  
  DCWP’s amended rules permit an employer to set a minimum increment of PPPL at “one hour per day,” but state law appears to require employers to set a minimum increment of one hour, stating “[p]aid prenatal personal leave may be taken in hourly increments” and not offering any alternatives.¹

New Reporting Requirements

One significant and completely new requirement in the DCWP’s amended PPPL rules is that employers must report information regarding the employee’s available PPPL balance. Specifically, for each pay period in which an employee uses PPPL, the employer must inform the employee in writing of the amount of PPPL used during the relevant pay period and the total balance of PPPL available for use, either on the employee’s pay statement following the use or in another form of written documentation provided to an employee. 

This reporting requirement will likely be administratively burdensome for employers and will require coordination between employers and their payroll provider should an employer want to include the required information on an employee’s paystub. Part of the difficulty lies in the fact that the 52-week period for PPPL is not the calendar year, but rather the first time an employee uses the benefit. Employers may need to monitor all potentially eligible employees’ timesheets for their first such use, and initiate the start and end date of a different PPPL “year”/rolling 52-week period for each employee to accurately track PPPL use and balances. Importantly, PPPL is only available to an employee who is pregnant or is seeking to become pregnant, not to a partner, so identifying the potentially eligible employee population may be challenging.

With only weeks left until DCWP’s amended rules take effect, New York City employers should review their implementation plans and employee-facing policies, and consult with counsel on how to navigate their PPPL requirements under the new DCWP rules and state law.