The New York State 2024-2025 budget includes a section for a new type of prenatal leave for pregnant employees. This leave is slated to provide employees with up to 20 hours of prenatal leave annually. Employers of all sizes will have to provide this leave to both full-time and part-time employees.

An employee may use this leave for the following situations:

- Monitoring the status of the unborn child with a health care professional;

- Medical testing and procedures related to prenatal care;

- Routine prenatal physical examinations;

- Discussions related to pregnancy with a healthcare professional

This leave will be paid at an employee’s regular rate of pay. This leave will be in addition to the 40/56 hours of paid leave granted by the state’s Paid Sick Leave. Leave under this policy may be used in hourly increments. Unused leave under this policy will not be paid out upon termination.

As this leave is a novel concept, there are no existing frameworks to derive from. This means that there will likely be much more information as the January 1, 2025 effective date nears. FNA Insurance Services, Inc. will update this document as more information on this new leave becomes available.