NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A4996
SPONSOR: Bronson TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the labor law, in relation to sick leave for domestic
workers
PURPOSE::
This bill would extend paid sick leave to include domestic workers at
the state level, reflecting New York City and Westchester County law.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS::
Section one would amend Section 196-b of the Labor Law by removing
domestic workers from the group of workers excepted from employers to
provide paid sick leave.
Section two would establish the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION::
The New York Paid Sick Leave law guaranteeing most workers in New York
State access to paid sick leave passed the NY legislature and was signed
into law in 2020 and began providing workers with paid sick leave on
January 1, 2021. The law presently gives all New Yorkers who work for
employers who employ 5 or more employees access to paid sick leave.
Workers for employers of fewer than 5 employees receive only unpaid sick
leave unless their employer had a net income of more than $1 million in
the previous tax year. The paid sick leave law, coming as it did during
the COVID-19 pandemic has been a lifeline for millions of New Yorkers.
The New York Paid Sick Leave law in its current form excludes most
domestic workers who are not in New York City or Westchester County from
paid sick time. The current wording of the state-wide paid sick leave
statute does not cover domestic workers in private homes for paid sick
leave purposes, only for unpaid sick leave due to the exclusion from
paid sick leave for workers who work for employers with fewer than 5
employees and a net income of $1 million or less in the previous tax
year. Both New York City and Westchester County have passed coverage to
explicitly include 40 hours of paid sick leave for domestic workers,
which this proposal will reflect at the state level.
There is an unfortunate history of excluding domestic workers from
important labor law coverage. Much of that has been rectified but the
exclusion of this workforce from the New York State Paid Sick Leave law
is an artifact of the prejudice against including domestic workers as
real employees. Coverage of domestic workers under our labor laws is a
matter of basic equity and inclusion. Nationwide, over 90 percent of
domestic workers are women, and a majority are immigrants, Black, and
other women of color.
According to the Fiscal Policy Institute, there are 328,000 domestic
workers in New York. These workers perform essential work caring for
children, elderly loved ones, and homes, and helping people with disa-
bilities live independent lives. They are home care workers, nannies,
and house cleaners, and they comprise a large and growing workforce.
Throughout the coronavirus crisis, domestic workers have been placed
under double pressure. Already underpaid, many have lost their jobs; or
lost hours on the job, putting them under added financial stress. Even
when on the job, however, domestic workers find themselves under added
physical and psychological stress, acting as essential workers during a
pandemic at some risk to their own health as they protect the health of
others. These workers need and deserve paid sick leave.
This important revision to the New York State Paid Sick Leave law will
remedy the exclusion of domestic workers from the entitlement to paid
sick leave throughout New York State in the same way these workers have
been covered in New York City and Westchester.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY::
2024: A8933 (Bronson) - Referred to Labor
2023: A1129 - Referred to Labor; enacting clause stricken
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS::
None to the State.
EFFECTIVE DATE::
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
4996
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 10, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BRONSON, GALLAGHER, SHIMSKY, ZINERMAN, TAPIA,
BURDICK, GONZALEZ-ROJAS, LEVENBERG, GLICK -- read once and referred to
the Committee on Labor
AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to sick leave for domestic
workers
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 196-b of the labor law, as added
2 by section 1 of part J of chapter 56 of the laws of 2020, is amended to
3 read as follows:
4 1. Every employer shall be required to provide its employees with sick
5 leave as follows:
6 a. [For] Except as provided in paragraph b of this subdivision, for
7 employers with four or fewer employees in any calendar year, each
8 employee shall be provided with up to forty hours of unpaid sick leave
9 in each calendar year; provided, however, an employer that employs four
10 or fewer employees in any calendar year and that has a net income of
11 greater than one million dollars in the previous tax year shall provide
12 each employee with up to forty hours of paid sick leave pursuant to this
13 section;
14 b. For employers with between five and ninety-nine employees in any
15 calendar year and all employers of one or more domestic workers, each
16 employee shall be provided with up to forty hours of paid sick leave in
17 each calendar year. For purposes of this subdivision, "domestic worker"
18 shall mean any domestic worker as such term is defined in subdivision
19 sixteen of section two of this chapter; and
20 c. For employers with one hundred or more employees in any calendar
21 year, each employee shall be provided with up to fifty-six hours of paid
22 sick leave each calendar year.
23 For purposes of determining the number of employees pursuant to this
24 subdivision, a calendar year shall mean the twelve-month period from
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08766-01-5
A. 4996 2
1 January first through December thirty-first. For all other purposes, a
2 calendar year shall either mean the twelve-month period from January
3 first through December thirty-first, or a regular and consecutive
4 twelve-month period, as determined by an employer.
5 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
