New York Mandates Paid Leave for Prenatal Medical Appointments and Paid Breaks for Breast Milk Expression

Last month, New York State passed its budget for fiscal year 2025. The budget expanded New York State’s Paid Sick and Safe Leave Law to require that employers provide 20 hours of paid leave to employees for prenatal medical care, and amended the New York Labor Law to require that employers provide paid break time for employees to express breast milk following childbirth. 

Paid Prenatal Medical Care Leave

Under the current New York State Sick and Safe Leave Law, most employers are required to provide up to 40 hours (or 56 hours for employers with at least 100 employees) of paid sick and safe leave per year to employees.  Beginning on January 1, 2025, employers will also be required to provide employees 20 hours of “paid prenatal personal leave” during any fifty-two week period.  The law broadly defines paid prenatal personal leave as “leave taken for the health care services received by an employee 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.” Paid prenatal personal leave can be used by employees in hourly increments.

The budget specifies that paid prenatal personal leave is in addition to the sick and safe leave already required under the law.  As a result, employers will likely need to create a separate, additional pool of 20 paid hours for pregnant employees to utilize for prenatal personal leave. We will continue to monitor for guidance from the state regarding the implementation of this new leave entitlement.    

Paid Break Time for Breast Milk Expression

Under the current New York Labor Law, employers are required to provide reasonable, unpaid break time to permit an employee to express breast milk for a nursing child for up to three years following a child’s birth.  Effective June 19, 2024, New York employers will be required to provide employees with paid 30-minute breaks for this purpose, and permit employees to use existing paid break time or meal time when the employee needs more time. The law does not limit the quantity of these breaks.

Next Steps

New York employers should review and revise their leave and break time policies to incorporate paid prenatal personal leave and paid breaks to express breast milk.  Employers with questions about the new leave and break requirements or revisions to their policies should contact John Culhane at jculhane@fglawllc.com or any attorney at the firm.

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