Who Are Private Employers Required to Cover for New York Paid Family Leave?

A private employer who employs one or more persons in New York State on each of 30 days in any calendar year becomes a "covered employer” four weeks after the 30th day of such employment.

 

Coverage is required for:

  • All full-time and part-time employees, except for employees who are eligible for, and have signed, a waiver.
  • Domestic or personal employees who work 20 or more hours per week for one employer.

 

Coverage is not required for the following employees, however private employers may voluntarily opt them in, for both disability benefits and Paid Family Leave, by providing coverage and notifying the Board:

  • A minor child of the employer.
  • Ministers, priests, rabbis, members of religious orders, sextons, Christian Science readers.
  • Individuals that volunteer their services for nonprofit organizations and receive no compensation. Compensation includes stipends, room and board, and other "perks" that have monetary value. (Stipends used solely to offset expenses incurred while performing activities for the nonprofit are not counted as stipends.)
  • An executive officer of an incorporated religious, charitable or educational institution
  • Persons engaged in a professional or teaching capacity in or for a religious, charitable, or educational institution (Section 501(c)(3) under the IRS tax code).
  • Persons receiving rehabilitation services in a sheltered workshop operated by such institutions under a certificate issued by the U.S. Department of Labor.
  • Persons receiving aid from a religious or charitable institution, who perform work in return for such aid.
  • One or two corporate officers who either singly or jointly own all of the stock and hold all of the offices of a corporation that employs no other employees.
  • Golf caddies.
  • Daytime students in elementary or secondary school, who work part-time during the school year or their regular vacation period.
  • The spouse of a private employer that files a spousal exclusion form Notice of Election to Voluntarily Exclude Spouse from Coverage (Form DB-212.5) [PDF]