Federal worker protections are narrowing. On April 23, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing the EEOC and other federal agencies to deprioritize disparate impact enforcement under Title VII. Then, on January 22, 2026, the EEOC voted 2-1 to rescind its 2024 Harassment Guidance, stripping away clarity that workers had relied on when deciding whether to bring a federal claim. For employees in New York, though, the story doesn’t end there.
New York State and New York City have spent the past several years building a body of employment law that operates entirely independently of federal enforcement priorities. At Schwartz Perry & Heller LLP, we’ve represented employees in New York for over three decades, and this particular moment stands out: state and city law is expanding in precisely the areas where federal law is pulling back. Understanding the specific changes that took effect in late 2025 and 2026 can help you recognize whether a workplace situation you’re experiencing is now legally actionable in ways it wasn’t before.
New York Is Filling the Federal Gap on Worker Protections
The EEOC shift matters because disparate impact discrimination, the legal theory holding that a neutral employment policy can be unlawful if it disproportionately harms a protected group even without discriminatory intent, has historically been one of the most powerful tools available to workers challenging systemic practices. With federal deprioritization of that theory, employees who would previously have filed EEOC charges need a state-level alternative.
New York provided one. Effective December 19, 2025, the New York State Human Rights Law was amended to expressly codify disparate impact liability at the state level. A worker no longer needs to route this kind of claim through the EEOC. The state law stands on its own, with its own burden-shifting framework: once a worker demonstrates that a neutral policy produces a disproportionate impact on a protected group, the employer must show the practice is job-related, consistent with business necessity, and that no less discriminatory alternative exists. For workers in New York City, the New York City Human Rights Law has always provided protections exceeding federal minimums, and those protections remain fully in force regardless of what happens at the federal level.
Disparate Impact & AI Hiring: A New Legal Hook for Workers
One of the most significant practical applications of the disparate impact codification involves the algorithms now screening job applications. Automated hiring tools, sometimes called automated employment decision tools (AEDTs), sort and rank candidates using data points that can systematically disadvantage protected groups without any human making a deliberate choice to discriminate. New York City has regulated these tools since July 2023 through NYC Local Law 144, which requires any employer or employment agency using an AEDT on New York City candidates to conduct an annual independent bias audit, publish the results, and notify applicants that such a tool is being used. Penalties start at $500 for a first violation and rise to $1,500 per day for subsequent violations.
The December 2025 amendment to the New York State Human Rights Law extended that reach: workers outside New York City now have a statewide legal basis to challenge AI-driven hiring outcomes under the disparate impact framework. A federal case, Mobley v. Workday, added something equally important: identifiable defendants. The court allowed ADEA, Title VII, and ADA claims to proceed, concluding that an AI vendor may qualify as an employer’s agent. That reasoning, applied alongside New York’s strengthened disparate impact statute, means a worker filtered out by a biased algorithm has a clearer path to relief than they did even a year ago.
Height & Weight Discrimination: From Statute to Precedent
NYC Local Law 61, which took effect in November 2023, prohibits employment discrimination based on actual or perceived height or weight for employers with four or more employees. The law covers hiring, firing, promotion, compensation, and harassment, and a worker doesn’t need to frame their weight as a disability to be protected. No medical condition or diagnosis is required.
The first significant judicial test came in March 2025. In Harris v. City of New York, a New York Supreme Court denied the employer’s motion to dismiss in a case where an NYPD medical evaluation directed a probation officer applicant to lose 95 pounds before being reconsidered. The court held that blanket weight thresholds applied without individualized assessment can violate the New York City Human Rights Law, a concrete precedent, not just a statutory protection on paper. The New York City Commission on Human Rights enforces these protections with real teeth: it can order employers to stop discriminatory conduct, mandate policy changes, award emotional distress damages, and impose civil penalties up to $125,000 per violation, rising to $250,000 for willful violations. A state bill, A1858, to expand height and weight protections across all of New York State was introduced in January 2025, though it hasn’t yet passed.
The Statewide Credit Check Ban: A Right Workers Outside NYC Didn’t Have Before
New York City had already prohibited most employers from using an applicant’s consumer credit history in employment decisions. Effective April 18, 2026, that protection now applies statewide. Employers across New York are prohibited from requesting or using a job applicant’s or employee’s credit scores, credit reports, creditworthiness, credit capacity, or payment history in decisions about hiring, promotions, compensation, or other terms of employment.
Limited exemptions exist for law enforcement positions, roles requiring a security clearance, and certain positions with signatory or financial authority, among other narrow exceptions. Background screening companies are also prohibited from providing credit history for employment purposes unless an exemption applies, which closes a workaround that previously allowed employers to obtain credit information indirectly. If you work or applied for a job anywhere in New York State and don’t fall into one of those exempt categories, a credit check used against you after April 18, 2026 may be a violation.
Expanded Leave Rights & the Accommodation Retaliation Fix
Two amendments that took effect in late 2025 and early 2026 address situations workers frequently encounter but often don’t realize have legal protection.
NYC Earned Safe & Sick Time Act Expansion
Effective February 22, 2026, covered New York City employers must provide an additional 32 hours of unpaid leave per year, available immediately upon hire. Permissible uses were expanded to include recovery from workplace violence, caregiving for a minor child or dependent, public disaster closures, and attending housing or benefits proceedings. This builds on the paid leave protections already in place under New York City’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act. New York City also enacted 20 hours of paid prenatal leave per 52-week period, separate from regular sick leave, available immediately upon hire, and with no federal equivalent in scope.
Accommodation Request Retaliation Protection
Effective December 5, 2025, the New York State Human Rights Law was amended to prohibit retaliation against employees who simply request a reasonable accommodation. Before this change, retaliation protection applied to employees who filed a complaint or opposed an unlawful practice. An employee who only asked for an accommodation, without taking any further formal step, wasn’t clearly protected if their employer punished them for asking. That gap is now closed. If you requested an accommodation in late 2025 or 2026 and faced adverse consequences as a result, that may be a standalone retaliation claim.
What These Changes Mean for Workers Right Now
The pattern across all of these changes is consistent: New York is building state and city-level protections that operate independently of federal enforcement priorities. Disparate impact claims have a state home. AI-driven hiring can be challenged under a codified framework. Credit history can no longer filter out most applicants statewide. And asking for an accommodation is now protected conduct, not just filing a complaint about one.
Whether any of these changes apply to your situation depends on specific facts: the employer’s size, the date the conduct occurred, the nature of the decision made against you, and which statute governs in your context. We’ve been advocating for New York employees for over thirty years at Schwartz Perry & Heller LLP. If you want to understand how these changes apply to what you’re going through, reach out to our team at (646) 490-0221.