Paid sick leave for New Yorkers with COVID-19 may come to an end later this year. Gov. Kathy Hochul this year proposed to sunset the existing COVID-19 Sick Leave Law, which went into effect in 2020, in her proposed fiscal year 2025 budget.

The law requires state employers to provide at least five or 14 days of paid, job-protected COVID sick leave to employees subject to mandatory or precautionary quarantine or isolation orders due to COVID. The amount of days is dependent on the size of the employer. Here’s what to know about the possible end to the law and what other options you may have.

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When would paid COVID sick leave end?

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According to the proposed budget, Hochul is seeking to end the law because it’s unclear how it would apply to new employers and quarantine requirements have since changed.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their respiratory virus recommendations earlier this month, stating individuals with COVID and the flu can return to normal activities when, for at least 24 hours, symptoms are improving and if applicable, you’re fever free without the use of fever-reducing medications.

“New York state has one of the nation’s strongest paid sick leave policies, providing most employees with up to 56 hours of paid sick leave each year,” a representative for Hochul’s office said in a written statement Thursday. “And Governor Hochul’s FY25 Executive Budget includes additional expansions of medical and disability leave.”

Under the proposal, paid COVID sick leave would end July 31.

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What other options are there?

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If you’re sick and need to take time off, there’s still a paid option for some New Yorkers. Employers with five or more employees or a net income of more than $1 million, have to provide paid sick leave to their employees, according to a state law signed in 2020.

Hochul’s proposed budget also includes an amendment to the state’s disability law to increase the maximum benefit over the next five years, tying the amount to the Statewide Average Weekly Wage (SAWW.) For the first 12 weeks of medical leave, eligible employees would receive 67% of their average weekly wage, capped at 67% of the SAWW, once fully phased in after five years to match the paid family leave benefit.