Quick Hits

• Abortion rights will be enshrined in the New York Constitution.
• Employers will be required to provide paid prenatal personal leave for pregnant employees to receive healthcare services.
• The state minimum wage rate will increase by $0.50 per hour.

On November 5, 2024, voters in New York approved a ballot measure to support abortion rights. The New York State Constitution will include protections against discrimination “by any other person or by any firm, corporation, or institution, or by the state or any agency” based on “race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, creed, religion, or sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”

Abortion has been legal in New York for decades, and the New York Human Rights Law currently prohibits discrimination based upon these characteristics, but the successful ballot measure will make it harder for lawmakers to revoke the protections in the future.

In addition, employees in New York will be entitled to take prenatal personal leave under New York State’s Paid Sick Leave Law. Employers must provide twenty hours of paid personal leave for pregnant employees to attend prenatal medical appointments, in addition to the state’s paid sick leave entitlement. The prenatal leave may be taken in hourly increments during a fifty-two-week period, and it applies to pregnancy-related physical examinations, medical procedures, monitoring, testing, and discussions with health care providers. Employers may not penalize or retaliate against workers for taking paid prenatal leave.

Wage and Hour Changes

The general minimum wage rate for employees in New York City, Westchester, and Long Island will increase from $16.00 to $16.50 per hour. The general minimum wage rate in the rest of New York State will jump from $15.00 to $15.50 per hour.

• The minimum wage rate for tipped food-service workers will increase from $10.65 to $11.00 per hour in New York City, Westchester, and Long Island, and from $10.00 to $10.35 per hour in the rest of the state.
• The overtime wage rate for tipped food-service workers will rise from $18.65 to $19.25 per hour in New York City, Westchester, and Long Island. It will increase from $17.50 to $18.10 per hour in the rest of the state.
• For home health aides, the minimum wage rate will increase from $19.10 to $19.65 per hour in New York City, Westchester, and Long Island, and from $18.10 to $18.65 per hour in the rest of the state.

Meanwhile, the minimum salary threshold for the executive, and administrative exemptions from overtime pay requirements in New York will also rise. Starting on January 1, 2025, workers in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester who qualify for the executive or administrative exemption will need to earn at least $1,237.50 per week (or $64,350 per year) to maintain the exemption. Those working in the rest of New York state will need to earn at least $1,161.65 per week (or $60,405.80 per year) to maintain the exemption.

Notably, New York’s minimum salary thresholds for the executive and administrative exemptions are separate from those established federally by the Fair Labor Standards Act and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). As such, while the DOL’s proposed minimum salary threshold increases were struck down by a federal court last week, that ruling has no bearing on the minimum salary thresholds imposed under New York law.

Next Steps

Employers may wish to update their compensation and time-off policies and practices to ensure they adhere to the new laws for 2025. If they use third-party payroll vendors, employers may wish to verify that the vendors are prepared to comply with the new provisions of the minimum wage and overtime laws. It may be necessary for businesses to anticipate increased costs in their staffing budgets.