New York City Launches Second Phase of Its Paid Sick Leave Public Education and Outreach Campaign

June 6, 2014

Department of Consumer Affairs Expands Outreach Efforts and Rolls out Advertising Campaign to Alert New Yorkers that Covered Employees can Begin Using Accrued Leave on July 30

NEW YORK —Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Julie Menin today officially launched the second phase of the City’s paid sick leave public education and outreach campaign to help employees and employers understand their responsibilities and rights. Under the law, certain employers now must provide sick leave so employees can care for themselves or a family member. These employers must allow covered employees to begin using accrued leave on July 30, 2014.

This phase of the campaign consists of advertisements in the city’s subway cars, stations, and buses and will continue through July with advertisements on television, radio, online and in daily, community, and foreign language newspapers, as well as training events, webinars and other community outreach.

“As a former small business owner, I understand how challenging it can be to not only run a business, but also to understand the laws that apply to your business, which is why DCA is deeply committed to ensuring businesses have the tools they need to comply with the paid sick leave law,” said DCA Commissioner Julie Menin. “We are launching a major, multilingual effort to ensure that every employee and employer throughout the city knows about paid sick leave.”

The first phase of the public awareness campaign, which began in April of this year, alerted New Yorkers that the law became effective April 1 and featured ads, in English and Spanish, on 1,000 subway cars and 1,000 buses, as well as on bus shelters and phone kiosks. Since April, paid sick leave materials have been mailed directly to more than 400,000 businesses and DCA inspectors have been hand delivering materials to every business they visit. DCA is also working with partner agencies, including Small Business Services, Health and Mental Hygiene, Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, Human Resources Administration, New York Housing Authority, Department of Youth and Community Development, Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs, Education, Business Integrity Commission, Parks & Recreation, Health and Hospitals Corporation, Administration for Children’s Services, Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, and community boards to disseminate information. DCA has hosted dozens of events with elected officials, business improvement districts, chambers of commerce, nonprofits, and industry associations, and will be expanding its outreach efforts in the coming months to include additional partners.

Employers and employees can visit nyc.gov/PaidSickLeave or call 311 (212-NEW-YORK outside NYC) for more information, including upcoming events and webinars, the required Notice of Employee Rights, one-page overviews for employers and employees, FAQs, DCA’s paid sick leave training presentation in multiple languages, and legal interpretations. Employers must provide the notice to employees in English and, if available on the DCA website, their primary language. The one-page overviews for employers and employees and Notice of Employee Rights are currently available in English, Spanish, Chinese (Traditional), French-Creole (Haitian Creole), Italian, Korean, and Russian. These documents are also being translated to Albanian, Arabic (notice available), Bengali (notice available), Chinese (Simplified), Croatian, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Tagalog, Serbian, Urdu, Yiddish, and Yoruba. New Yorkers can also follow DCA’s handle @NYCDCA on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram using the hashtag #paidsickleave, and employers can ask questions online on DCA’s Live Chat for Business platform Monday – Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Key Facts about NYC’s Paid Sick Leave Law:
NYC’s New Paid Sick Leave Law is now in effect.

If you work in NYC for more than 80 hours a year, you can:

Earn up to 40 hours of sick leave each year to care for yourself or a family member.
Start using earning leave on July 30, 2014.

If you are an employer, including a not-for-profit or small business, you must provide:

Paid sick leave if you have 5 or more employees who work in NYC or unpaid sick leave if you have fewer than 5 employees.
2 days of paid sick leave to domestic workers who have worked for you for more than 1 year. This leave is in addition to the 3 days of paid rest to which domestic workers are entitled under New York State Labor Law.

Contact 311 or visit nyc.gov/PaidSickLeave for more information or to file a complaint about an employer.

DCA enforces the paid sick leave law, the Consumer Protection Law and other related business laws throughout New York City. Empowering consumers and businesses to ensure a fair and vibrant marketplace, DCA licenses almost 80,000 businesses in 55 different industries. Through targeted outreach, partnerships with community and trade organizations, and informational materials, DCA educates consumers and businesses alike about their rights and responsibilities. The DCA Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) is the first local government initiative in the country with the specific mission to educate, empower, and protect individuals and families with low incomes. OFE creates innovative programs, products, and services for New Yorkers so they can build assets and make the most of their financial resources. Our goal is to increase access to high-quality, low-cost financial education and counseling; connect individuals to safe and affordable mainstream banking and products and services; improve access to income-boosting tax credits, savings, and other asset building opportunities; and enforce and improve consumer financial protections to safeguard financial stability. For more information, call 311 or visit DCA online at nyc.gov/consumers.

Abigail Lootens / Katyusca Abreu
Department of Consumer Affairs
(212) 436-0042
press@dca.nyc.gov