Paid Sick Leave for Uber & Lyft Drivers in NYC

In short: If you drive for Uber or Lyft in New York, you earn 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours you work, up to 56 hours a year. Hours count from the moment you accept a trip until you drop the rider off. For NYC trips the pay rate started at $17 an hour and rises with inflation; Uber says one hour is worth $18.58 as of March 1, 2026. This right comes from the 2023 settlements with the New York Attorney General, not from a TLC rule.

This page explains how the hours add up, what you can use them for, how to ask for them, and what to do if the company says no. It is general information, not legal advice.

Where this sick leave comes from

On November 2, 2023, the Attorney General announced settlements with Uber ($290 million) and Lyft ($38 million) over pay deductions. Besides back pay, both companies agreed to give drivers paid sick leave (AG press release). The AG says the benefits began with Uber on February 29, 2024 and with Lyft in January 2024 (AG settlement page). The back-pay side is explained in the $328 million settlement guide.

How you earn hours

The AG's settlement page says your work hours "begin when you accept a rider's request in the Lyft or Uber driver app, and end when you drop the rider off at their destination." Uber describes the same thing as "time spent en route or completing trips." Time waiting online for a request does not count.

To estimate your own balance: divide your counted hours this year by 30 and round down, stop at 56, then subtract the hours you have already used. Your app should show the official balance. The AG says the companies would update their apps so you can see how much leave you have and claim it.

How much an hour pays

The settlement set different rates inside and outside the city:

Why the NYC rate is lower

The AG explained that NYC drivers already get TLC's minimum per-trip pay, and those rules "already include an amount for paid time off." So trips covered by TLC minimum pay use the lower $17 base. TLC's minimum pay is a per-mile and per-minute amount for each trip. You can check a trip with the estimator below, and the full rules are in Uber and Lyft minimum pay.

What you can use it for

The AG's settlement page lists these reasons, for you or a family member you care for:

• a mental or physical illness, injury or health condition (you do not need a diagnosis or medical care to ask);
• diagnosis, care or treatment, or preventive care;
• safe leave if you or a family member is a victim of domestic violence, a sexual offense, stalking or human trafficking, for example to get help from a shelter, meet a lawyer, go to court, move, or enroll children in a new school.

Uber's page says drivers do not have to give detailed medical information when they ask for sick leave.

How to ask for it

Two worked examples

These use Uber's March 2026 rate. They are estimates; your app balance is what counts.

• Part-time driver. You accept trips and carry riders for about 20 counted hours a week. After 15 weeks you have about 300 counted hours, which earns 10 hours of sick leave. Taking one 8-hour sick day would pay about 8 × $18.58 = $148.64.
• Full-time driver. You have about 40 counted hours a week. You reach 1,680 counted hours, and the 56-hour cap, after about 42 weeks. Hours you work after that do not add more leave that year.

Remember that "counted hours" are not the same as hours logged in. TLC's data shows app drivers recorded trips in about 6.4 hours of a typical driving day in 2025 (TLC industry indicators), and that figure counts any clock hour with a trip in it. Waiting time between trips does not count toward sick leave, so expect your counted hours to be lower than your hours logged in.

If you drive for both Uber and Lyft

Uber and Lyft each signed a separate settlement, and each company tracks sick leave in its own app. So check both apps. Hours you work on one app show up only in that app's balance. Because the settlements are separate, the 56-hour yearly cap is set in each one; ask each company how it applies to you.

What the public documents do not say

We read the AG's press release, settlement page and information sheet, and Uber's benefits page. They do not clearly answer:

• whether unused hours carry over to the next year;
• which date your sick-leave year starts on;
• Lyft's current NYC rate.

The full terms are in the assurances of discontinuance linked from the AG settlement page. Ask the company in writing, through in-app chat, and keep the answer. The settlements also required the companies to offer in-app chat support in several languages (Uber: English, Spanish, French, Russian, Bengali and Chinese).

If you are refused or underpaid

Sick leave is not the same as unemployment insurance or workers' compensation. If you stop driving, read unemployment benefits for app drivers. If you are hurt on the job, the Black Car Fund covers workers' compensation for drivers of member bases, including Uber and Lyft. If the app stops you from working, see deactivated by Uber or Lyft and app lockouts and the 72-hour and 16-hour rules. WAV drivers have different per-trip rates; see WAV driver pay. The short definition is in our glossary, and the Uber and Lyft driver hub lists everything else for app drivers.