NYC Workers Deserve Paid Time Off for Cancer Screening
By Veronica Novy | October 20, 2026
I was religious about my mammograms. Every year, starting when I turned 45, I went in for my scans, never running into any obstacles along the way. Until seven years ago when I got a new job. My employer didn’t allow me to take time off to get screened. For a few months, I accepted it, brushing away the gnawing concern and reasoning with myself that my scans were always clear. Then I began experiencing a stinging pain in my breast.
I couldn’t afford to take unpaid time to get screened. Before the pain and fear could consume me, my lucky break parked itself in front of my office. A mobile mammography unit. I signed up for the first available lunchtime screening, and it confirmed what I already knew deep down: I had breast cancer.
My treatment was a blur. It was a steady drumbeat of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy. But I made it to the other side and have been cancer-free for seven years now. If not for the mobile mammogram unit and early detection, I am not sure that I would be here at all.
Like most cancers, breast cancer is easier to treat the earlier you are diagnosed. It’s why we should get screened and doctors modify recommendations according to a patient’s risk factors. I am at higher risk because I have dense breasts. It’s why I started getting screened early and often.
Screening access and utilization looks different for every person; it’s tied very closely to where people live, their insurance status and health plan, their skin color and how much money they make. A recent study led by the American Cancer Society indicated that people living in racially and economically segregated neighborhoods in New York City were more likely to be diagnosed with later-stage breast cancer.
The reasons for this staggering disparity are many. As a Black woman living in a racially and economically segregated neighborhood in NYC, I can speak to one. It’s what threatened my ability to get screened and almost cost me my life: my then-employer’s PTO policy.
I was diagnosed early by luck and luck alone. I was not in a position to take unpaid time off work. We all know how expensive it is to live in New York City. I was living paycheck to paycheck at the time, and my doctor’s office didn’t offer screenings during my off-hours.
Thankfully, the New York City Council is looking to take luck out of the equation through a bill that would require businesses with five or more employees to provide five hours paid time off for preventative medical care, like doctor-recommended cancer screenings. Public employees across the state already have this lifesaving benefit. It’s time for private workers to get the same.
This bill aims to ensure New Yorkers don’t face the impossible choices that I was looking at up until that bus happened to appear in front of my office:
(1) take the hour-long train ride from my office to the hospital; then sit in the waiting room for another hour; meet with medical staff and get screened, racking up 3rd hour; then ride the train back; and hope it didn’t amount to a half a day’s pay gone. This scenario could put me behind on my rent or decide whether I eat dinner one night.
Or (2) stay at work, forgo the screening and hope the stinging pain goes away.
What kind of choices are those?
If Intro 434-2026 is passed, this impossible choice would be a thing of the past for most workers in New York City. It will make lifesaving screening accessible for the people who help run this city and the businesses that define it. They should not be forced to sacrifice necessities to prevent disease and detect it early.
Championed by Councilwoman Lynn Schulman, the bill marries the City Council’s stated goals around health equity and affordability. It is my hope that Council Speaker Julie Menin sees it for what it is–long overdue and critical to saving more New Yorkers from diseases like mine–and schedules the bill for a vote before the end of the year.
On Tuesday, Tammy Moyl