Paid Sick Leave Benefits at Risk if Traveling to These States

New Yorkers taking non-essential trips to high-risk states will not be eligible for Covid-19 paid sick leave benefits.

Emergency legislation guaranteeing job protection and compensation for all workers has been in place since March 18. However, under this new order, anyone voluntarily traveling to high-risk states are ineligible for those protections.

This order does not apply to employees who are required to travel for work at their employers request.

Governor Cuomo signed the order describing high risk states as any with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents. A high risk state would also be described as one with higher than a 10% positive test rate over a seven-day rolling average.

This new executive order applies to travel to the same eight states with high infection rates covered under quarantine restrictions that New York, New Jersey and Connecticut put in place. Travelers from those states must self-isolate for two weeks upon arrival within the tristate area, Cuomo said. In addition to Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Utah are currently covered by the quarantine.

“If we are going to maintain the progress we’ve seen, we need everyone to take personal responsibility,” Cuomo said in a statement explaining the new executive order on sick leave.