Can I take time off for my own medical condition in New York?

Which of these laws apply to me?

Sources: Labor Law § 196-b(1), (3), (10); Admin. Code § 20-913(k); 29 U.S.C. §§ 2611(2), (4), 2612(a)(1)(D), 2614(a), (c); Workers’ Comp. Law §§ 201(4)–(6), 204(2)(b), 205(1)(a); 42 U.S.C. § 12111(5); Exec. Law § 292(5); Admin. Code § 8-102. The sick-leave laws, the FMLA and disability benefits have their own rules for government employers, which this page does not cover.

How does New York sick leave work?

• How much. You earn at least one hour for every 30 hours worked. Employers with 100 or more employees must allow up to 56 paid hours a year. Employers with 5 to 99 must allow 40 paid hours. Employers with 4 or fewer must allow 40 hours, paid if the employer’s net income was more than $1 million the year before, otherwise unpaid (Labor Law § 196-b(1), (3)).
• What for. Your own “mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition,” “regardless of whether such illness, injury, or health condition has been diagnosed or requires medical care,” and diagnosis, treatment and preventive care (§ 196-b(4)(a)(i), (ii)). You can ask orally or in writing (§ 196-b(4)(a)).
• Privacy. Your employer may not make you disclose confidential information about your condition as a condition of giving you sick leave (§ 196-b(5)(a)).
• Your job. When you come back you must be restored to your position “with the same pay and other terms and conditions of employment” (§ 196-b(10)).
• In New York City. Private employers must also give you at least 32 hours of unpaid safe/sick time each year, available as soon as you are hired and on the first day of each year (Admin. Code § 20-913(k), effective February 22, 2026). The employer may ask for documentation only if you are out for more than three consecutive workdays, the documentation does not have to say what your condition is, and the employer must pay any fee your provider charges for it (§ 20-914(a)(2)).

When does the FMLA protect my job?

If you are eligible (see the table), you may take up to 12 weeks in a 12-month period “[b]ecause of a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the functions of the position” (29 U.S.C. § 2612(a)(1)(D)). A serious health condition is one that involves inpatient care or “continuing treatment by a health care provider” (§ 2611(11)).

• It can be taken in pieces. When medically necessary, you can take the leave intermittently or work a reduced schedule (§ 2612(b)(1)).
• Your job is held. You get your job, or an equivalent one, back, and your group health insurance continues on the same terms while you are out (§ 2614(a)(1), (c)(1)). A narrow exception lets an employer refuse to restore certain of its highest-paid employees (§ 2614(b)). The leave does not give you more than you would have had without it, so a layoff that would have reached you anyway is not an FMLA violation (§ 2614(a)(3)(B)); the employer has to be able to show that you would not otherwise have been employed when you asked to come back (29 C.F.R. § 825.216(a)).
• It is unpaid, but paid leave can run with it. You may choose, or your employer may require you, to use accrued paid vacation, personal or sick leave during FMLA leave (§ 2612(d)(2)(B)).
• Working from home is not FMLA leave. The FMLA protects time off; it “does not entitle employees to work remotely,” though remote work “may be another form of accommodation” under the disability laws. An employer that discourages you from taking FMLA leave can violate the FMLA even if it approves the leave (Kemp v. Regeneron Pharms., Inc., 117 F.4th 63, 68–70 (2d Cir. 2024), affirming summary judgment for the employer on timeliness grounds).
• Notice. If the treatment is planned, you must try to schedule it so it does not unduly disrupt the employer, and give 30 days’ notice, or as much as is practicable (§ 2612(e)(2)).
• Surgery and its follow-up visits count together. A condition that needs “multiple treatments” can be a serious health condition, and routine follow-up visits after surgery, to change the dressing and remove the stitches, are part of the treatment. A hospital clerk fired for missing work after surgery to remove a painful, growing mass on her foot could press her FMLA claim; her own testimony and her doctor’s were enough to raise a question whether the condition would have kept her out of work for more than three days if left untreated (Pollard v. N.Y. Methodist Hosp., 861 F.3d 374, 379–81 (2d Cir. 2017), vacating summary judgment for the employer and sending back whether her notice was adequate). The same court held that an employer does not lose the right to dispute your doctor’s certification just because it did not get a second opinion (id. at 381–82).
• Medical certification. Your employer may ask for a certification from your provider. It has to tell you what it needs and give you a fair chance to provide it: an employer that made vague demands for “paperwork,” ignored an employee’s requests to say what was missing, and then fired her for abandoning her job faced a jury on her FMLA claims (Graziadio v. Culinary Inst. of Am., 817 F.3d 415, 424–31 (2d Cir. 2016), vacating summary judgment on those claims). That leave was to care for her sons, but the certification rules are the same for your own condition.

Will I be paid while I am out?

Sick leave is usually paid. The FMLA is not. For a longer absence, New York’s disability benefits replace part of your pay if your illness or injury did not come from your job. They cover inability to perform your regular duties “as a result of injury or sickness not arising out of and in the course of an employment,” including disability “caused by or in connection with a pregnancy” (Workers’ Comp. Law § 201(9)(A), (B)).

• How much. Half your average weekly wage, but no more than $170 a week (§ 204(2)(b)). That cap has applied to disabilities beginning on or after May 1, 1989.
• When it starts and how long it lasts. Benefits begin on the eighth day of disability (§ 204(1)) and last up to 26 weeks in a 52-week period, reduced by any Paid Family Leave you took in that period (§ 205(1)(a)).
• Conditions. You must be under the care of a licensed provider (§ 205(1)(b)). No benefits are paid for a day you worked for pay, or for days on which your employer is already paying you at least as much (§ 205(3)(b), (c)).
• They do not hold your job. Disability benefits are money only. Job protection comes from the FMLA, from sick leave, or from leave as an accommodation.
• Paid Family Leave is not for your own illness. It covers caring for a family member, bonding with a new child and certain military family needs (§ 201(15)), and you cannot collect it at the same time as disability benefits (§ 205(4)).
• If work caused it, workers’ compensation, not disability benefits, is the program that applies.

What if the FMLA does not cover me, or my 12 weeks are used up?

Time off can itself be a reasonable accommodation under the ADA and the State and City Human Rights Laws, which cover far more employers than the FMLA. The State regulation lists “adjustments to work schedule for treatment or recovery” as an accommodation (9 NYCRR 466.11(a)(2)), and protects a temporary disability where a “reasonable time for recovery” would let you do the job (466.11(i)(1)).

• A leave with an end date is the strongest request. A worker who asked for “a couple weeks” to see a specialist could be found to have asked for a finite leave, which may be reasonable (Graves v. Finch Pruyn & Co., 457 F.3d 181, 185–86 (2d Cir. 2006), vacating summary judgment on that claim).
• Open-ended leave has fared badly under State law. The Court of Appeals held that an employee who asked for indefinite leave had no State-law claim, and the Second Circuit later set aside a $440,000 State-law jury verdict for an employee who could not give a return date (Romanello v Intesa Sanpaolo, S.p.A., 22 N.Y.3d 881, 884 (2013); Vangas v. Montefiore Med. Ctr., 823 F.3d 174, 180–82 (2d Cir. 2016), entering judgment for the employer).
• City law is more forgiving. In the same case, the Court of Appeals reinstated the employee’s City claim, because under City law the employer must prove that no reasonable accommodation was available (Romanello, 22 N.Y.3d at 884–85). The City Commission’s guidance says an approximate return date or a range of dates can be enough (NYC Commission on Human Rights, Disability Discrimination Legal Guidance).
• The practical rule is the same everywhere. Ask your doctor for an expected return date, even an estimate or a range, and put it in the request. If the date changes, tell your employer promptly and give the new one.

Can my employer make me take leave?

Not as a way of avoiding an accommodation that would let you keep working. Being pushed onto leave after asking for an accommodation can be retaliation: a forced leave “could well dissuade a reasonable worker” from complaining (Tafolla v. Heilig, 80 F.4th 111, 126–27 (2d Cir. 2023), vacating summary judgment for the employer). If you are pregnant, the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act says so expressly: an employer may not require you to take leave if another reasonable accommodation would work (42 U.S.C. § 2000gg-1(4)).

Can I be fired for taking medical leave?

Not for taking leave the law protects. Each of these laws has its own anti-retaliation rule:

• The FMLA forbids interfering with your leave and punishing you for taking it (29 U.S.C. § 2615(a)).
• The sick-leave law forbids retaliation for requesting or using sick leave (Labor Law § 196-b(7)), enforced through Labor Law § 215.
• The Workers’ Compensation Law forbids firing or discriminating against you because you claimed disability benefits, Paid Family Leave or workers’ compensation (Workers’ Comp. Law § 120).
• The ADA and the State and City Human Rights Laws forbid retaliation for asking for an accommodation, including leave (42 U.S.C. § 12203; Exec. Law § 296(7); Admin. Code § 8-107(7)).

An employer can still hold you to attendance rules it applies to everyone once your protected leave ends, though reasonable deviations must be allowed as accommodations (9 NYCRR 466.11(g)(1)). That is why it matters which law covers each day you were out.

What are the deadlines?

General periods only; when a period starts depends on the facts. An EEOC charge under the ADA or the PWFA is generally due within 300 days in New York. A State Human Rights Law claim can be brought in court within three years (CPLR 214(2)), or with the Division of Human Rights within three years for conduct on or after February 15, 2024 and one year before that (Exec. Law § 297(5)). A City Human Rights Law claim can be brought in court within three years (Admin. Code § 8-502(d)) or with the City Commission within one year (§ 8-109(e)). Filing with the Division or the Commission can bar a later lawsuit on the same claim (Exec. Law § 297(9); Admin. Code § 8-502(a)). See the deadlines on the main page.

• FMLA: two years in court, three if the violation was willful (29 U.S.C. § 2617(c)).
• Sick-leave retaliation: two years in court (Labor Law § 215(2)(a)).
• Workers’ Compensation Law retaliation: two years, with the Workers’ Compensation Board (Workers’ Comp. Law § 120).

What can I recover?

Under the FMLA: lost wages and benefits with interest, plus an equal amount as liquidated damages unless the employer proves it acted in good faith and reasonably believed it was not violating the law, reinstatement where appropriate, and attorney’s fees and costs (29 U.S.C. § 2617(a)(1), (3)). Under the sick-leave law, a court may award lost compensation, reinstatement, fees, and liquidated damages of up to $20,000 (Labor Law § 215(2)(a)). Under the Human Rights Laws, see what you can recover.

What is unsettled?

• Open-ended leave under the amended State law. Romanello and Vangas were decided before the Legislature directed in 2019 that the State law be construed liberally regardless of how federal law is read (Exec. Law § 300). The Second Department has since said the amended State law “now aligns with the standards of” the City law (Wright v White Plains Hosp. Med. Ctr., 237 A.D.3d 1143, 1145 (2d Dep’t 2025), affirming summary judgment for the employer on a pregnancy discrimination claim). We are not aware of an appellate decision applying that to a request for leave without a return date.
• Finite leave under the ADA. In Graves the Second Circuit said it had not yet decided whether a finite unpaid leave is a reasonable accommodation under the ADA, or how sure an employer must be that the employee will come back, while noting that other courts accept a leave that is finite and reasonably likely to let the employee return (457 F.3d at 185 n.5, 186 n.6). We are not aware of a published Second Circuit decision that has since settled it. Under State and City law, the regulation and the City Commission treat time for recovery as an accommodation to be considered.

What should I gather?

• Your written leave request and every reply, with dates.
• Your doctor’s notes and any certification form, with the expected return date.
• The employer’s leave, sick-time and attendance policies, and your pay stubs showing sick-time balances.
• Any disability benefits or Paid Family Leave claim forms and decisions.
• Any warning, write-up or schedule change that came after you asked for leave.