Effective Jan. 1, 2026, Granite State employers with at least 20 employees must provide employees with up to 25 hours of unpaid leave to attend medical appointments associated with childbirth, postpartum care, and their infant’s medical appointments within the first year of the child’s birth or adoption.

This new leave obligation appears in a broader piece of legislation, HB 2, an act “relative to state fees, funds, revenues, and expenditures,” which was signed into law on June 27, 2025.

Subject to the 25-hour limit, covered employers may not deny employees’ leave requests to attend their “own medical appointments for childbirth, postpartum care, or the employee’s child’s pediatric medical appointments within the first year of the child’s birth or adoption.” The law allows an employee to

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