Under Mamdani, New York City to Investigate Businesses Where Most Employees Take Zero Sick Days
New York City will begin investigating businesses where most employees take no paid time off, under a new enforcement effort announced by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP).
Starting Friday, the city will flag employers for possible violations of its Protected Time Off Law if payroll records show that fewer than half of their workers used any paid time off over the past year.
According to DCWP policy director Elizabeth Wagoner, businesses where more than 50% of employees take zero sick days may face a compliance review. The exact benchmark could vary depending on the industry and company size.
City officials said the 50% threshold is based on national data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found that about half of private-sector workers with paid sick leave miss at least one day annually due to illness, injury, or disability.
The new payroll tracking system is part of a broader push to strengthen enforcement of the city’s paid time off law, originally enacted in 2014. The law covers roughly 3 million New Yorkers and guarantees at least 32 hours of unpaid time off and a minimum of 40 hours of paid time off each year for eligible private-sector workers.
Officials say some employers report low usage rates because workers “choose” not to use the benefit. However, the agency found evidence that some employees face illegal barriers, including lack of notice about their rights, managers discouraging time off, or being required to find their own shift replacements.
The city began analyzing payroll data about a year ago to identify patterns that could signal systemic violations. Friday’s rollout formalizes that approach.
Labor experts praised the move as a data-driven enforcement strategy. Terri Gerstein of NYU’s Wagner Labor Initiative called it a “common-sense” method to determine whether workers are genuinely able to use their benefits.
Employers who fail to provide protected time off can face steep penalties, including at least $500 per affected worker per year, plus matching civil fines. For a company with 100 employees violating the law for three years, penalties could total $300,000 — with half paid directly to workers.
