New Law Guarantees NYers Paid Time Off for COVID-19 Vaccine

Employers in New York will now be required to allow their employees four hours of paid time off to receive the COVID-19 injection under a bill signed into law Friday.

The law allows workers to take up to four hours of time away from work per injection, and that time is not allowed to be taken from an employee’s earned time off, like vacation or sick time.

"This legislation will allow both public and private employees to take time off to get vaccinated without exhausting the leave they have earned, putting us one step closer to getting every single New Yorker vaccinated and defeating this virus once and for all,” Gov. Cuomo said.

If employers don’t allow their workers to take time off to receive a vaccine, they could be the target of civil action from the state. 

New York has, so far, administered 6.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, with about 10% of the state now fully vaccinated.