Sick Leave for Pets?

By Fiona Ong - Shawe Rosenthal LLP

November 7, 2024

Over the years, I’ve mentioned my adorable dog many times in connection with blog posts on employment-related topics like pet bereavement leave, paw-ternity leave (i.e. pet parental leave), and Take Your Dog to Work Day. In addition, I’ve blogged several times about sick leave for service animals – each time noting that there is nothing that requires employers to allow employees to take sick leave for pets. Until now?

The New York City Council is considering a bill that would allow employees to take their statutory sick and safe leave to care for a sick pet. Under current NYC ordinance, employees in NYC are entitled to a certain amount of sick and safe leave each year (unpaid for the smallest employers and up to 56 hours of paid leave for the largest). Employees may use this leave for the diagnosis, care or treatment of their own or a family member’s mental or physical illness/injury/health condition, preventive care, and for certain domestic violence reasons. The bill proposes to add “care of a covered animal that needs medical diagnosis, care or treatment of a physical illness, injury or health condition or that needs preventive medical care” as a permitted reason for sick leave. And it defines “covered animal” as not just service animals, but also companions!!

Wow. Frankly, my mind boggles. Although I adore my dog, and although I consider him a member of my family, I still struggle with granting broad permission for employees to take statutory sick leave to care for a pet. From an employer perspective, unfortunately there are all too many instances of employees abusing sick leave for fraudulent reasons – and under every sick leave law, employers cannot verify the legitimate use of sick leave until the employee has been absent for several days, and they cannot discipline employees for unscheduled use of leave. This feels like another opportunity for naughty employees to abuse the law.

On the other hand, sick leave laws provide a finite amount of leave that can be used for the identified purposes. And once an employee has exhausted their statutory entitlement, they are no longer protected by the law for their absences – even those for sick and safe leave reasons. (Although employers would need to make sure their policies are appropriately drafted to reflect this). If an employee chooses to use their protected leave to care for a pet, perhaps that should be their choice.

And given the growing attention paid to mental health issues, this development is not really all that surprising. Many employers are seeking ways to support their employees and foster employee loyalty. Perhaps this is a creative benefit that employers might consider. Maybe it’s time to teach an old dog new tricks…

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