From rulemaking to reality: NYC’s finalized employer ESSTA obligations take effect July 23

Following enactment of Local Law 145 of 2025, the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) recently finalized amendments to the rules implementing the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA). The final amended rules largely adopt the regulatory framework proposed in January 2026, but they provide additional guidance on employer administration of the law’s expanded leave requirements and impose several new compliance obligations. The rules become effective July 23, 2026.

Final rules largely track proposed rules

The amended ESSTA significantly expands employees’ protected time-off rights by adding new qualifying reasons for leave, creating an immediately available separate annual bank of 32 hours of unpaid protected time off, and codifying up to 20 hours of paid prenatal leave. The final rules primarily focus on how employers must administer those new entitlements.

Most of the final rules mirror the provisions DCWP originally proposed. Among other changes, the rules:

• Replace many references to “safe/sick time” with the broader term “protected time off”;

• Incorporate the new authorized uses of leave established by Local Law 145;

• Address administration of the new 32-hour unpaid protected time off entitlement available on an employee’s first day of employment and the first day of each calendar year; and

• Update recordkeeping, notice, payroll, and policy requirements to reflect the expanded law.