As New Yorkers celebrated the arrival of 2025, they became citizens of the first state in the nation to receive paid time off for prenatal care. As of January 1, 2025, Governor Hochul ensured that pregnant workers would have the necessary time for prenatal healthcare.

Applicable to all employees working for private-sector employers, regardless of size,  the New York State Paid Prenatal Leave Law requires, every employer “to provide to its employees twenty hours of paid prenatal personal leave during any fifty-two week calendar period.”

In addition to existing leave policies, the new law does not require employees to accrue Paid Prenatal Leave or work for a minimum time before accessing the benefit. Instead, employees receive 20 hours of Paid Prenatal Leave measured from the first time they use it and for 52 weeks thereafter. Employees can take Paid Prenatal Leave in hourly increments. Unused hours do not carry over from year to year and employers are not required to compensate employees for unused hours.

Only the employee directly receiving prenatal health care may use Paid Prenatal Leave. The new entitlement does not cover spouses, partners, or other support persons attending prenatal appointments with the pregnant person.

Covered prenatal health care appointments include physical examinations and discussions regarding the health of the pregnancy, monitoring/testing, fertility treatments and end of pregnancy care. Post-pregnancy health care appointments are excluded.

In order to provide further clarity, the New York Department of Labor has issued additional guidance.  It includes record-keeping recommendations for employers and the process by which an individual may file a complaint or report a violation of New York State’s Paid Prenatal Leave Law.

(This blog, prepared by Campanella Law Office, is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to convey specific legal advice, nor is it intended to create or constitute an attorney-client relationship.)