Enforcement and Penalties.
6 RCNY § 7-213
in effect§ 7-213 Enforcement and Penalties.
(a) A finding that an employer has an official or unofficial policy or practice of not providing or refusing to allow the use of protected time off or paid prenatal leave as required under the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act constitutes a violation of § 20-913 of the Administrative Code for each and every employee affected by the policy and will be subject to penalties as provided in § 20-924 e. of the Code.
(b) For the purpose of § 20-924 d.(v) of the Administrative Code, an employee shall be considered "covered by an employer's official or unofficial policy or practice of not providing or refusing to allow the use of safe/sick time or paid prenatal leave in violation of § 20-913 if they were employed by the employer during the time period that the official or unofficial policy or practice that violated § 20-913 was in effect. As used in § 20-924 d.(v) of the Administrative Code, "safe/sick time" has the same meaning as "protected time off". If the unlawful policy or practice was in effect for multiple calendar years, a separate violation of § 20-913 shall be considered to have occurred for each calendar year the policy or practice remained in effect.
(c) There shall be a reasonable inference that the employer, as a matter of official or unofficial policy or practice, does not provide or refuses to allow the use of protected time off or paid prenatal leave in violation of § 20-913 of the Administrative Code, if an employer:
(1) Fails to maintain or distribute a written protected time off policy or written paid prenatal leave policy as required by 6 RCNY § 7-211; and
(2) Fails to maintain adequate records of employees' protected time off or paid prenatal leave use and balances as required under 6 RCNY § 7-212.
(d) Additional evidence that an employer maintains a policy or practice of not providing or refusing to allow the use of protected time off or paid prenatal leave may include, but is not limited to:
(1) Unlawful barriers to employees' use of protected time off or paid prenatal leave, whether written or unwritten, such as requirements that workers find replacement workers to cover shifts missed due to protected time off or paid prenatal leave, unreasonable notice requirements, requirements that workers provide documentation of absences of three consecutive days or fewer, or other unlawful limits on use;
(2) Probation periods, waiting periods, blackout days, or other measures that prevent employees from using protected time off or paid prenatal leave;
(3) Prohibitions on use of protected time off or paid prenatal leave for purposes authorized by law, whether written or unwritten, such as prohibitions on use of protected time off for leave to care for a family member pursuant to § 20-914 a.1.(b) of the Administrative Code;
(4) Failure to pay employees entitled to paid protected time off or paid prenatal leave for time off;
(5) Failure to provide for the accrual of protected time off at the rate required by § 20-913 b. of the Administrative Code;
(6) Failure to properly carry over protected time off hours at the end of an employer's calendar year, if the employer does not properly utilize a frontloading system;
(7) Official or unofficial absence control policies that penalize the use of protected time off or paid prenatal leave, such as points systems that do not differentiate between protected time off or paid prenatal leave absences and other absences; or
(8) Failure to inform employees that protected time off is available.
Example 1: An employer with 83 employees does not maintain or distribute a written protected time off policy and does not provide employees with paystubs or other written documentation showing their protected time off accruals and balances. Employees may take time off due to illness on an ad hoc basis and are paid for this time off at their supervisors' discretion. As a result, some employees are paid for sick time and others are not. The employer has a policy or practice of not providing or refusing to allow the use of protected time off in violation of § 20-913 of the Administrative Code. Each employee is entitled to relief in the amount of $500 per calendar year the unlawful policy or practice remains in effect under § 20-924 d.(v) of the Administrative Code.
Example 2: An employer with 10 employees maintains a written protected time off policy that provides that covered employees will have " 72 hours of sick leave available at the beginning of a given year". However, the policy is not distributed to all employees. The employer does not provide employees with paystubs or other written documentation showing their protected time off accruals and balances. Employees are generally only paid for sick leave if they provide medical documentation of the reason for their absence, regardless of the length of the absence. This employer has a policy or practice of not providing or refusing to allow the use of protected time off in violation of § 20-913 of the Administrative Code, and each employee is entitled to relief in the amount of $500 per calendar year the unlawful policy or practice remains in effect under § 20-924 d.(v) of the Code.
(e) If an employer, as a matter of official or unofficial policy or practice, does not provide or refuses to allow the use of protected time off in violation of section 20-913 of the Administrative Code, the relief granted to each and every employee affected by the policy or practice must include:
(1) application of the number of hours of protected time off the employee should have accrued to the employee's balance of protected time off provided pursuant to § 20-913 b. of the Administrative Code, provided that such balance does not exceed two times the maximum number of hours available for use in a calendar year;
(2) application of 32 hours of unpaid protected time off to the employee's balance of protected time off provided pursuant to § 20-913 k. of the Administrative Code; and (3) monetary relief in the amount of $500 per employee per calendar year the policy or practice was in effect, as provided in § 20-924 d.(v). If an employer, as a matter of official or unofficial policy or practice, does not provide or refuses to allow the use of paid prenatal leave in violation of § 20-913 of the Administrative Code, the relief granted to each and every employee affected by the policy or practice must include (1) application of 20 hours of paid prenatal leave to the employee's paid prenatal leave balance; and (2) monetary relief in the amount of $500 per employee per calendar year the policy or practice was in effect, as provided in § 20-924 d.(v).
(f) For the purposes of this section, an employer's calendar year shall be the 12-month period from January 1 through December 31, unless the employer has determined a different calendar year, uses this calendar year in its administration of its protected time off policy, and has communicated this to employees in its written policy and in the notice required by § 20-919 of the Administrative Code.
(Amended City Record 2/3/2016, eff. 3/4/2016; amended City Record 8/21/2018, eff. 9/20/2018; amended City Record 9/15/2023, eff. 10/15/2023; amended City Record 6/2/2025, eff. 7/2/2025; amended City Record 6/23/2026, eff. 7/23/2026)
Source: City of New York, Charter, Administrative Code and Rules (American Legal Publishing XML export, codelibrary.amlegal.com)URL: https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/newyorkcity/latest/NYCrules/0-0-0-20627Fetched: 10/24/2026