A bill that insurance groups and contractor associations have pushed for over a decade is finally moving in Albany, and it goes straight at the law that shapes every liability line item on a New York job.

Labor Law 240/241 — the Scaffold Law — puts full liability for gravity-related injuries (falls, falling objects) on contractors and property owners even when a worker was partly at fault. New York is the only state left with a pure comparative-negligence carve-out like it, and contractors have blamed it for years for inflating general liability premiums here well above national averages. First reported by Crain's New York, which covered the renewed push in Albany this week, the current reform conversation centers on adding a comparative-fault standard — meaning a jury could reduce an award if the worker's own actions contributed to the fall, instead of the contractor eating 100% of the liability regardless.

Nothing has passed. This is a legislative push gaining 'traction,' per Crain's reporting, not a signed bill — the state legislature isn't in regular session again until January, and any change would need to clear both chambers and the governor's desk. But the politics have shifted: labor unions that have blocked reform for years are reportedly engaging with modified versions this cycle, and insurers are lobbying hard on the premium math.

For a New York GC or sub, the Scaffold Law isn't an abstraction — it's a line item. Contractors routinely cite it as the single biggest driver of their GL premiums relative to peers doing identical work in New Jersey or Connecticut, and it shapes how subcontracts get written, how insurance gets structured on a wrap-up (CCIP/OCIP) program, and how aggressively a sub negotiates indemnification language with a GC.

If a comparative-negligence standard actually passes, it would be the first structural change to 240/241 liability in generations — and it would ripple through every insurance renewal and every bid markup in the state. Until then, estimators should keep pricing jobs under the current rule: assume full liability exposure on any fall or falling-object claim, and don't bank savings on reform that hasn't cleared Albany.

Track the bill number once it's formally introduced in the 2027 session — that's the actionable next step, not this week's news coverage.