20 hours paid prenatal leave — first in the nation.
Effective January 1, 2025, New York became the first state to require paid prenatal leave: 20 hours per 52-week period for healthcare services received during pregnancy. The benefit is separate from sick leave and PFL, available to all NY employees regardless of employer size, with one-hour minimum increments. NYC's ESSTA codified the requirement effective February 22, 2026 with $500/employee/year penalties.
Paid Prenatal Leave Tracking
Tracks 20 hours of paid prenatal leave per worker per 52-week period as a separate bank from sick leave. Allows one-hour minimum increments. Auto-applies during pregnancy without medical-record disclosure required.
What the rule does when prenatal leave is requested.
The hero card configuration: Flag on bank balance, Avoid on documentation requests. Here's what each does at runtime.
Paid prenatal leave is a separate bank from sick leave or PFL. Workers see the balance distinctly on every wage statement. Use deducts from this bank specifically.
Employers cannot require disclosure of medical records, diagnoses, or details of prenatal care. The leave applies for any healthcare service received during pregnancy. Requests for excessive documentation surface as compliance alerts.
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First-in-nation benefit. Separate bank. Pregnancy-related healthcare.
Paid prenatal leave is unique to New York. The benefit is broad — any healthcare service received during pregnancy qualifies, including physical examinations, medical procedures, monitoring, testing, and discussions with providers.
20 hours per 52-week rolling period
Each employee gets 20 hours of paid prenatal leave during any 52-week period. The period is rolling — once leave is used, it doesn't refresh until 52 weeks have passed since first use. Multiple pregnancies within a 52-week period don't create additional banks (uncommon).
Broad covered services
Any healthcare service related to pregnancy qualifies: physical examinations (initial and follow-up), medical procedures (ultrasounds, blood tests, amniocentesis), monitoring and testing, discussions with providers (whether in-person, telehealth, or phone). Fertility treatments and end-of-pregnancy care also covered.
Teambridge tracks the separate prenatal bank with appropriate privacy.
Paid prenatal leave is structurally simple but operationally needs separate tracking. Teambridge handles it as a distinct bank with no medical-information collection.
20 hours, one-hour increments.
When an employee declares pregnancy or first requests prenatal leave, the 20-hour prenatal bank initializes. Tracked separately from PSL, PFL, vacation.
Period starts at first use.
The 52-week period begins when the worker first uses prenatal leave. Once 20 hours are exhausted, no additional leave is available until 52 weeks have elapsed since first use.
Worker identifies as prenatal — no questions.
When a worker requests prenatal leave, the system records 'prenatal' as the reason — no documentation, no diagnostic information collected. Confidentiality is structural.
Separate line item.
Prenatal leave balance and use appear on every wage statement as a separate line item — distinct from PSL and PFL. Visibility supports compliance defense.
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