Three coverages, not one. What New York requires.

Workers’ comp pays for injuries and illnesses that happen on the job: the tech who falls on the stairs during a water heater swap. Disability benefits pay an employee who cannot work because of an injury or illness that is not job related: the same tech hurt at home on a Saturday. Paid Family Leave, which rides on the disability policy, pays for time off to bond with a child or care for a family member. New York requires all three of virtually every employer, and they are two policies, not one.

Workers’ comp applies from the first day someone works for you. For disability benefits and Paid Family Leave, the Board says an employer becomes subject to the requirement once it has employed one or more people for at least a set number of workdays in a calendar year, and a new employee must be covered a set number of weeks after the thirtieth day of employment. The days need not be consecutive. We add a new hire to both policies the week they start, so the window never matters.

Under the Board’s rules, workers’ comp, disability, and Paid Family Leave coverage are not required for a sole proprietor with no employees, a partnership or LLC with no employees, or a corporation owned entirely by one or two people who hold all the offices and have no other employees. The first hire ends the exception for all three. Many one-person shops still carry workers’ comp because general contractors require a certificate before letting anyone on site, and an owner can elect to be covered.

Generally, yes. For workers’ comp the Board says part-time, temporary, seasonal, casual, leased, borrowed, and many family workers generally count as employees. For disability benefits and Paid Family Leave, coverage is required for all employees once the employer is subject to the law. Calling the helper an independent contractor does not decide it; the facts of the work do, and construction is treated strictly. We do not decide worker status for you. We show you the rule and the source, and you decide with your accountant.

The state treats a lapse in disability and Paid Family Leave coverage the way it treats a lapse in workers’ comp: the employer is out of compliance and the Board can assess penalties for the uncovered period. It is the coverage that lapses most often because it is small, renews on its own date, and sits apart from the policies people think about. That is why we keep it in the same review as workers’ comp and general liability, and why a licensing body such as New York City’s Department of Buildings wants its certificate on its own form.

Yes. Workers’ comp is written by a carrier or the State Insurance Fund and rated on your payroll and class codes. Disability benefits and Paid Family Leave are written together, with Paid Family Leave as a rider on the disability policy, by a carrier authorized for them in New York. We place both policies in one review, add hires to both, and issue the certificates a general contractor or a city licensing body wants from each policy as written, so the three coverages share one calendar and one broker.