Expanded Protections for Nursing and Pregnant Employees in New York

New York and New York City have recently passed laws expanding benefits for pregnant and postpartum employees. These laws provide for additional paid time off for prenatal care and paid lactation breaks in the workplace.

Paid Prenatal Leave, Effective Jan. 1, 2025: Bill No. A08805C

Effective Jan. 1, 2025, New York employers are required to provide 20 hours of paid time off, in addition to employees’ existing Paid Sick and Safe Leave, to employees for prenatal care or any medical care related to pregnancy every 52-week period, making New York the first state in the nation to offer paid leave for these purposes. All employees working for private-sector employers are covered by the Paid Prenatal Leave law, regardless of part-time status.

The law amends N.Y. Labor Law Section 196-b, New York’s Paid Sick and Safe Leave law, and allows employees to take up to twenty (20) hours of paid time off for “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.” N.Y. Labor Law § 196-b(4-a). The FAQs clarify that fertility treatment or care appointments, including in vitro fertilization, as well as end-of-pregnancy care appointments, are also covered health care services under the law. While Paid Prenatal Leave cannot be taken for postnatal or postpartum appointments, employees can use existing Paid Sick and Safe Leave for those purposes.

Employers should be aware of key differences between the 20-hour Paid Prenatal Leave requirement and employee benefits under the existing Paid Sick and Safe Leave law, such as accrual versus automatic entitlement to the benefits, carryover of unused leave time, increments of use, recordkeeping requirements and measurement of the “benefit year.”

Employers should review and amend their existing paid leave policies as necessary to ensure compliance with the Paid Prenatal Leave law’s requirements.

Paid Lactation Breaks, Effective June 19, 2024: Bill No. A08806C

Effective June 19, 2024, New York employers are required to “provide paid break time for thirty minutes, and permit an employee to use existing paid break time or meal time for time in excess of thirty minutes, to allow an employee to express breast milk for such employee’s nursing child each time such employee has reasonable need to express breast milk for up to three years following child birth.” Employers are also prohibited from discriminating against employees who choose to express breast milk in the workplace.

In effect, the amendment to N.Y. Labor Law Section 206-c requires employers to provide 30-minute paid breaks to nursing employees to express breast milk per occurrence (i.e., as often as a nursing employee reasonably needs to express breast milk). The change will have the most impact on hourly, nonexempt employees who need to express breast milk and are otherwise not entitled to paid meal breaks under New York labor law.

In light of these changes, the New York Department of Labor (NYSDOL) updated its Policy on the Rights of Employees to Express Breast Milk in the Workplace (the “Policy”), which employers are required to provide to employees (1) upon hire, (2) annually thereafter and (3) as soon as they return to work after the birth of a child.

Employers should review and amend their existing written lactation policies to ensure compliance with these changes.

New York City Amendment to Lactation Room Accommodation Policies, Effective March 9, 2025: Int. No. 892-A

On Nov. 9, 2024, the New York City Council passed an amendment to Section 8-107(22)(c) of the administrative code, governing employer lactation room accommodation policies, aligning the city law with the requirements under state law. Like the recent amendment to New York State law discussed above, employers in New York City are required to provide thirty (30) minutes of paid break time and permit employees to use existing paid break time or meal time for time in excess of thirty (30) minutes to express breast milk. Prior to this change, employers were required to provide “reasonable break time” for an employee to express breast milk.

In addition to employers’ existing obligation to distribute a written lactation policy to employees upon hiring, the amendment requires that employers post the policy in an area accessible to employees and/or electronically on the employer’s intranet, if one exists.

While the state and city laws are nearly identical, as discussed in our prior alert, the state law applies to all employers regardless of size, whereas the city law applies only to employers with four or more employees. Employer obligations under state and city law also differ when providing a designated lactation room would impose an undue hardship on the employer. Unlike state law, which requires an employer to make “reasonable efforts” to provide a nursing location, city employers are specifically required to engage in a cooperative dialogue to determine what, if any, accommodations may be available, and to provide the employee with a written notice regarding whether any accommodation was ultimately granted or denied.

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For questions or concerns regarding any of the issues raised in this alert, please contact a member of Kramer Levin’s Employment Law Department.