Just two business days before amendments to the city’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA) took effect on February 22, 2026, New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) released updated Frequently Asked Questions and a Notice of Employee Rights.

Further, DCWP will hold a public hearing on March 2, 2026, regarding proposed revisions to ESSTA’s implementing rules. The majority of the proposed revisions, published in a Notice of Public Hearing and Opportunity to Comment, implement the now-effective ESSTA amendments and answer some employer questions regarding these changes.

What You Need to Know:

• Expanded Leave and Uses: The proposed rules reflect the expanded scope of the amended ESSTA, which provides an additional 32 hours of unpaid leave for all employees (including new hires) annually, starting now, and adds authorized uses for protected time off.
• Clarification on More Generous Policies: Employers with more generous policies can satisfy the new unpaid leave requirement by frontloading at least 32 hours of paid leave instead of providing unpaid leave.
• Policy and Paystub Requirements: Employers need to update written policies to specify the amount of unpaid leave available and update paystubs to show the balance, accruals, and use of both paid and unpaid time off.

A Quick Refresher

As discussed in our prior Insight, late last year, the New York City Council approved amendments to ESSTA that granted an additional 32 hours of unpaid leave to...

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