Add the New York City patch to the patchwork of paid sick leave laws developing around the country. We wrote about this development in an earlier post.

The NYC law, called the Earned Sick Time Act, was passed June 27, 2013, when the New York City Council overrode the mayor’s veto of the bill. NYC joins Portland, OR, Seattle, San Francisco, the District of Columbia and Connecticut in requiring private sector employers to provide paid sick leave.

The Earned Sick Time Act goes into effect on April 1, 2014 and requires private sector employers with 20 or more employees to allow employees to earn an hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked, to a maximum of 40 hours per year.  Effective October 1, 2015, an employer with at least 15 employees must provide paid sick leave. Employers who do not have sufficient employees to be required to provide paid sick leave must provide unpaid sick time.

Employees may use accrued sick time to care for their own health conditions or those of a spouse, parent, child, domestic partner, parent in law, or parent of a domestic partner.

For additional information about the provisions of the  Earned Sick Time Act, click here.