New York Paid Family Leave (PFL) FAQs for Employees

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How long does the employee have to submit a claim from the first day the leave is taken?

   The employee must submit the claim within 30 calendar days from the first day of leave taken.

2. What if my employer imposes quarantine? Does this qualify for COVID-19 PFL?

   No. Only a quarantine or isolation order triggers the benefit. If your/an employer temporarily closes or goes out of business the employee(s) will be eligible for unemployment benefits and not PFL.

3. What if my child's or dependent's school is closed due to a mandatory or precautionary quarantine or order of isolation issued by the State, Department of Health, Local Board of Health or Government Entity?

   As an employee, you may be eligible to take paid family leave, (assuming you can’t perform their job functions remotely). Please contact your employer.
   If your child’s school closes for preventative social distancing, you should contact your employer to advise/discuss.

4. Is the COVID-19 sick leave coming from the employee's own bucket of accrued sick leave days?

   No, the Sick Leave provided under this act is not taken from an employee’s accruals.

5. When does the DBL/PFL benefit start?

   For purposes of the “Emergency COVID-19 Paid Sick Leave”, the 7-day waiting period under DBL is waived. Benefits start on the employee’s first full day of unpaid quarantine. Here’s what that means:

   1. Employees at a small business with less than 10 employees and that has less than $1m in annual net income are eligible to get their income replacement back to day 1 of the quarantine through their DBL/PFL insurance.
   2. However, if a small business with 1-10 employee has more than $1m in annual net income, the employer has to pay the first 5 days before DBL/PFL benefits become payable to cover the remaining quarantine time from day 6 on. The same applies to businesses that have between 11 and 99 employees.
   3. Employees at organizations with 100+ employees and employees of public employers do not get paid sick leave through DBL/PFL benefits under this act. Employers must continue their full salary for the duration of the quarantine.
6. Does Emergency COVID-19 Paid Sick Leave apply to the Quarantine/Isolation of an employee's child?

   Yes. The legislation provides Paid Family Leave for working parents if their minor dependent child has to go into mandatory or precautionary quarantine/isolation.

7. How long does it take to pay/issue benefits?

   Benefits must be paid or denied by a carrier within 18 calendar days.

8. Is there a limit to the number of times that an employee is eligible for COVID-19 sick leave?

   In no event shall an employee qualify for sick leave under New York’s COVID-19 sick leave law for more than three orders of quarantine or isolation. The second and third orders must be based on a positive COVID-19 test and the employee must submit documentation from a licensed medical provider or testing facility attesting that the employee has tested positive for COVID-19. The employee does not need to submit documentation of a positive result if the employee’s employer gave the employee the test for COVID-19 that showed the positive result.