•  Summary 
  •  
  •  Actions 
  •  
  •  Committee Votes 
  •  
  •  Floor Votes 
  •  
  •  Memo 
  •  
  •  Text 
  •  
  •  LFIN 
  •  
  •  Chamber Video/Transcript 

A04996 Summary:

BILL NOA04996
 
SAME ASSAME AS S04515
 
SPONSORBronson
 
COSPNSRGallagher, Shimsky, Zinerman, Tapia, Burdick, Gonzalez-Rojas, Levenberg, Glick
 
MLTSPNSR
 
Amd §196-b, Lab L
 
Requires employers of domestic workers to provide annual sick leave to such workers.
Go to top    

A04996 Actions:

BILL NOA04996
 
02/10/2025referred to labor
Go to top

A04996 Memo:

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.
Go to top

A04996 Text:



 
                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.
Go to top