NYC To Provide Municipal Employees With Six Weeks of Paid Maternity, Paternity, Adoption And Foster-Care Leave As of January 1, 2016

On December 22, 2015, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he will sign an Executive Order granting municipal managers and non-unionized workers up to 6 weeks of paid maternity, paternity, adoption and foster-care leaves.  Starting on January 1, 2016, New York City employees are eligible to take the 6 weeks of paid leave at 100 percent of salary and it can also be combined with accrued sick leave and/or accrued vacation – so that employees will be able to take up to 12 weeks maternity, paternity, adoption, or foster care leave without losing pay.

To cover the $15 million cost, all non-union employees will see their vacation time reduced by two days, from 27 to 25 and the City will be repurposing the existing managerial raise of 0.47 percent scheduled for July 2017. The City’s unionized workers are not covered, unless a deal is reached with their representatives through collective bargaining. The new policy puts New York City at the forefront of city and state policies around the country.  New York City joins Portland, San Francisco and Cincinnati which have also recently approved paid parental leave policies.  In the private sector, companies such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Twitter and Netflix have also joined the growing trend to provide workers with paid paternal leave.

For more information regarding how your business can implement paid sick leave, please Dina M. Mastellone, Esq., Director of the firm’s Human Resources Practice Group, at dmastellone@genovaburns.com or 973-533-0777.