We’re thrilled to announce that Mayor de Blasio has just signed into law a major expansion of the Earned Sick Time Act.

The original law, which Make the Road New York helped win last spring, guaranteed 5 paid sick days for one million New York City workers and ensured no worker could be fired for taking a sick day.

Now hundreds of thousands of additional workers will have the right to take a paid day off to care for themselves or a sick family member. 

Starting April 1, businesses with 5 employees or more will be required to provide paid sick days(increased from businesses with 15+ employees). With these critical new measures, the Earned Sick Time Act will protect our families and help keep all of New York City healthy by also:

• Including manufacturing workers (who were previously excluded).
• Extending the time in which workers can file complaints.
• Expanding the list of relatives whom workers can care for with their sick time to include grandparents, grandchildren, and siblings.
• Allowing the City to proactively enforce the law.

“Today is a proud day in our 5-year campaign to protect basic rights on the job,” said MRNY member Mauricio Jimenez, whose job with 5 employees will now be covered under the law’s expansion. “Here, in one of the most expensive cities in the world, workers cannot afford to take an unpaid sick day and still make ends meet. But now we will be able to earn paid sick days and keep our families and our co-workers healthy.”

“In my 27 years as a small business owner, I have seen that when my community is healthy my business is healthy,” says Marco Reinoso, owner of Super Star Deli in Bushwick, Brooklyn. “I am proud to support paid sick days because it increases job security for so many New Yorkers. These workers are also customers who keep my business afloat and my community thriving.”

Thank you to our supporters for standing with us to achieve this historic victory for New York City workers.

We also want to thank our partners who made it possible: Working Families Party, NYC Paid Sick Days Coalition, SEIU 32BJ, Mayor de Blasio, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Council Member Margaret Chin (bill sponsor), the Progressive Caucus of the City Council, and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.