Although there are no federal laws requiring that employers provide paid sick leave, some individual states (as well as cities and counties) have created their own regulations. For instance, employees in Colorado accrue one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked (capped at 48 hours in a year), while workers in Washington, D.C., earn anywhere from one hour of paid sick leave for every 37 hours worked to one hour for every 87 hours worked (depending on the total number of employees the business has).
Overview of State & Municipality Sick Leave Laws
The following states have statewide or city or county paid sick leave laws—or both. If your state is not listed, it has no state or local laws related to paid sick leave. You can click on the state name in the table for more detailed information.
Please note: This table is up-to-date as of October 2023. Covered reasons for sick leave always include the employee’s own health and for immediate family. Where a jurisdiction includes other covered reasons, we’ll note that in the table below.
State | State Sick Leave Law | City or County Sick Leave Laws | Eligibility | Other Covered Reasons | Annual Max Use & Accrual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
✓ | ✕ | All employers | General Use | Max Use: 40 hours Accrual: 1 hour per 30 hours worked | |
✓ | ✓ | All employees who work at least 30 days per year in California | Sexual assault | Max Use: 24 hours Accrual: 1 hour per 30 hours worked | |
✓ | ✕ | All employers | Family death | Max Use: 48 hours Accrual: 1 hour per 30 hours worked | |
✓ | ✕ | Service workers who work at least 10 hours per week, plus employers with 50+ employees | Violence and sexual assault | Max Use: 40 hours Accrual: 1 hour per 40 hours worked | |
✓ *Takes effect Jan. 1, 2024 | ✓ | All employers | Any reason | Max Use: 40 hours Accrual: Frontloaded | |
✓ | ✕ | Employers with at least 10 employees | General Use | Max Use: 40 hours Accrual: 1 hour per 30 hours worked | |
✓ | ✓ | Employers with 15+ workers | Violence and sexual assault | Max Use: 64 hours Accrual: 1 hour per 30 hours worked | |
✓ | ✕ | Employers with 11+ workers | General Use | Max Use: 40 hours Accrual: 1 hour per 30 hours worked | |
✓ | ✕ | Employers with 50+ workers | General Use | Max Use: 40 hours Accrual: 1 hour per 35 hours worked | |
✓ *Takes effect January 1, 2024 | ✓ | All employees working at least 80 hours per year in Minnesota | School closures, public health emergencies | Max Use: No Cap Accrual: 1 hour per 30 hours worked | |
✓ | ✕ | Employers with 50+ workers | Family Death | Max Use: 40 hours Accrual: Frontloaded or 1 hour per 40 hours worked | |
✓ | ✕ | All employers | Domestic and sexual violence | Max Use: 40 hours Accrual: 1 hour per 30 hours worked | |
✓ | ✕ | All employers except on tribal lands | Child school or care meetings | Max Use: 64 hours Accrual: 1 hour per 30 hours worked | |
✓ | ✓ | All employers with 5 or more employees | Safe time | Max Use: 56 hours Accrual: 1 hour per 30 hours worked | |
✓ | ✓ | All employers with 10 or more employees | Air quality and heat index | Max Use: 40 hours Accrual: 1 hour per 30 hours worked | |
✕ | ✓ | Employees in Philadelphia are eligible after 90 days working for an employer | Family Death | Max Use: 40 hours Accrual: 1 hour per 40 hours worked | |
✓ | ✕ | All employers with at least 18 employees | Safe time and public health emergencies | Max Use: 40 hours Accrual: 1 hour per 35 hours worked | |
✓ | ✕ | All employers | Safe time and public health emergencies | Max Use: 40 hours Accrual: 1 hour per 52 hours worked | |
✓ | ✓ | All employers | Safe time | Max Use: No Cap Accrual: 1 hour per 40 hours worked | |
✓ | ✕ | All employers | General Use | Max Use: 7 days Accrual: 1 hour per 87 hours worked |
Arizona
Arizona’s sick leave law (Fair Wages and Healthy Families Act) requires all employers with fewer than 15 employees to provide at least 24 hours of paid sick leave per year. Over 15 employees, employers must provide at least 40 hours of paid sick leave annually.
You can opt to have the sick leave accrue throughout the year (at the rate of one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked) or provide it all in a lump sum after an employee is hired. If you choose to front-load it this way, you can pay out any remaining hours they have (up to the maximum accrual amounts) each year or implement a use-it-or-lose-it policy.
California
California’s Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 requires employers of any size to provide three days (24 hours) of paid sick leave. Additionally, a company’s sick leave policy must be provided to new hires upon their start date and posted in an employee area, such as the breakroom. It is best to keep sick time separate from PTO as sick time doesn’t need to be paid upon termination, but PTO does.
California Cities
Many cities in larger urban areas, such as Berkeley, Emeryville, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and San Diego, also have mandated sick leave ordinances. Some are more generous to the employee than what’s provided by the state. Read our article on California Sick Time Laws for more city-specific information.
Colorado
Colorado’s Healthy Families and Workplaces Act requires employers, regardless of size, to provide paid sick leave to employees. Employees accrue one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, with a cap of 48 hours per year. Sick leave accrues immediately and can be used as soon as it is accrued.
Connecticut
Connecticut’s Paid Sick Leave Law requires that employers with 50 or more employees provide paid sick leave of 40 hours (five days) to full-time employees, and to any service workers who work at least 10 hours per week. Part-time employees receive prorated sick leave at the rate of one hour earned for every 40 hours worked. It also allows employers to provide an employee, at the beginning of the year, with all of the sick leave that the employer expects the employee to accrue.
Illinois
Effective Jan. 1, 2024, Illinois has a statewide paid sick leave law. This new law covers all Illinois employers and requires employers to provide at least 40 hours of paid sick leave per year. The sick leave is frontloaded and does not accrue per hour worked like many other states.
The city of Chicago and Cook County, where Chicago is located, both have paid sick time leave laws as well. While many municipalities have opted out of Cook County’s paid sick leave law ordinance, the City of Chicago has not. Thus, Chicago employers are generally subject to both Chicago’s and Cook County’s paid sick leave laws.
Cook County
Within Cook County, the ordinance covers any employee who works for a minimum of two hours in two weeks and works within Cook County limits. Covered employees earn one hour of sick leave for every 40 hours worked. An exception to the ordinance states that certain individuals under a bona fide collective bargaining agreement are exempt. These individuals include independent contractors and workers covered under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act.
Chicago
Any employer maintaining a business facility within the City of Chicago is required to provide its employees with paid sick leave. All employees who work a minimum of 80 hours within any 120-day period are eligible for the required paid sick leave, earning one hour for every 40 hours worked.
Maine
Maine’s paid leave law allows employees working for an employer with at least 10 employees to take up to 40 hours of paid sick leave annually. The employer head count must be met for just 120 days in a calendar year. Paid sick leave in Maine is earned at one hour for every 40 hours worked.
Maryland
The Maryland Healthy Working Families Act requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide paid sick and safe leave for certain employees. It also requires that employers who employ 14 or fewer employees provide unpaid sick and safe leave for eligible employees.
Employees are entitled to earn sick and safe leave at the rate of one hour for every 30 hours that an employee works up to a maximum of 64 hours. To comply with the law, employees will be awarded 40 hours of paid/unpaid sick leave at the beginning of each year.
Montgomery County
Additionally, Montgomery County has its own paid sick leave law under the Montgomery County Sick and Safe Leave Law. This law requires employers to provide one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked (up to 80 hours) to individuals who work within the county. To help small businesses, an employer with fewer than five employees would have to provide an employee with up to 32 hours of paid sick and safe leave per year plus an additional 24 hours of unpaid sick and safe leave. Paid parental leave is also included in the Sick and Safe Leave Law. This law allows the use of paid leave for the birth of a child or the placement of a child with the employee for adoption or foster care.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts Earned Sick Time Law requires businesses with 11 or more employees to provide 40 hours (five days) of paid sick time to full-time employees. Both full-time and part-time employees accrue one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Employees with 11 or fewer employees must provide unpaid sick time.
Michigan
Michigan’s Paid Medical Leave Act requires all employers with 50 or more employees who work at least 25 hours per week to provide paid leave at a rate of one hour for every 35 hours worked, up to 40 hours per year.
Minnesota
Effective Jan. 1, 2024, Minnesota law now provides for paid sick leave. Any employee who works at least 80 hours in the state each year is eligible. The state’s program covers general uses, plus school closures and public health emergencies. There is no cap on the amount of time a person can use each year, but the time accrues at one hour for every 30 hours worked.
Minneapolis
The Minneapolis Sick and Safe Time ordinance requires employers with six or more employees to provide paid sick and safe time. Employers with five or fewer employees must also provide the sick and safe time; however, they can provide it as unpaid leave.
St. Paul
St. Paul Earned Safe and Sick Time (ESST) ordinance states that employers must provide paid sick leave. Leave is accrued at one hour per 40 hours worked and starts on the first day worked. Employees can accrue up to 48 hours per year, and any unused sick leave must be rolled over to the next year.
Duluth
The Duluth Earned Sick and Safe Time ordinance states that employers must provide paid sick and safe time. After 90 days of employment, an employee may use up to 40 hours of sick leave per year.
Nevada
The state of Nevada’s paid sick leave covers all industries within the state, including casinos and hotels. An employee is entitled to up to 40 hours of paid sick leave annually. Employers may frontload this time or have it accrue at a rate of one hour per 40 hours worked. Unlike some states, paid leave accrued may carry over between employees’ benefit years of employment.
Although this carry-over is nice for employees, employers may limit the amount of paid leave for each employee carried over to a maximum of 40 hours per benefit year.
New Jersey
New Jersey requires paid leave policies from all employers, regardless of the number of employees. Even if the employer has only one employee, it must offer this benefit. Employees accrue sick leave at one hour of leave for every 30 hours worked. Accessing leave ahead of the accrual schedule is also permitted. The annual accrual cap is 40 hours.
New Mexico
Effective July 1, 2022, the Healthy Workplaces Act requires employers with as few as one employee to offer paid sick leave. Employees will earn one hour for every 30 hours worked and can use up to 64 hours in a 12-month period.
New York
New York state law requires employers with five or more employees or net income of over $1 million annually to provide paid sick leave. Time accrues at a rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked and is broken down by employer size and income:
- Employers with 100+ workers: Up to 56 hours per year of paid sick leave
- Employers with five to 99 workers: Up to 40 hours per year of paid sick leave
- Employers with less than five workers and net income over $1 million: Up to 40 hours per year of paid sick leave
- Employers with less than five workers and net income under $1 million: Up to 40 hours per year of unpaid sick leave
New York City
Within the city limits of New York City (NYC), employees who have worked for more than 80 hours in a calendar year are covered under paid sick time laws. Both NYC and Westchester County mandate that for every 30 hours worked, one hour of leave is accrued (for both paid and unpaid sick time). For employers with 100 or more employees the total accrued sick leave per year is equal to 56 hours. Employers with 5-99 employees must provide a total accrued sick leave amount of 40 hours per year.
Westchester County
Employees who work within Westchester County for more than 80 hours in a calendar year are covered. Domestic workers are also covered, as are employees of Westchester County who are considered “city employees.”
Oregon
Oregon, like California and New Jersey, requires sick leave to be provided to employees of all size businesses, according to Senate Bill 454. Oregon requires five days (40 hours) of unpaid sick leave to be made available to all full-time employees. For employers with 10 or more employees, or with six or more employees if the business has a location or an employee working in Portland, that sick leave time off has to be paid by the employer. Check out our Oregon Sick Leave guide for more detail.
Portland
If your business is in Portland, paid sick leave applies to employees of businesses with six or more employees.
Pennsylvania
The state of Pennsylvania does not have a mandated paid sick leave. However, the cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh do.
Philadelphia
Philadelphia’s Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces Ordinance outlines that all employees who work within the boundaries of the City of Philadelphia for at least 40 hours in a calendar year are entitled to a minimum level of sick days. Employers with 10 or more employees must provide eligible employees up to 40 hours of paid sick time per year, while employers with fewer than 10 employees must provide unpaid sick time.
Exempt from this law are independent contractors, seasonal workers, adjunct professors, employees hired for a term of fewer than six months, interns, pool employees, state and federal employees, and employees covered by a bona fide collective bargaining agreement.
Pittsburgh
The city of Pittsburgh’s Paid Sick Days Act states that an individual employed by an employer who performs work within the City of Pittsburgh is eligible for at least 35 hours of paid sick leave within a calendar year.
Rhode Island
Rhode Island’s Healthy and Safe Families and Workplaces Act requires employers with 18 or more employees to pay sick leave. Employers with 17 or fewer employees are required to provide sick leave, but it may be unpaid. Workers earn one hour of sick leave for every 35 hours worked, which employers can cap at 40 hours per year.
Vermont
Vermont’s Earned Sick Time Act requires that employers with five or more employees provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave to full-time staff members. Sick leave accrues at one hour for every 52 hours worked.
Washington State
Washington state provides paid sick leave in the form of Sick and Safe Time Leave to be accrued at the rate of one hour for every 40 hours worked. However, it’s geared toward hourly employees, and salaried managers who supervise more than two employees may be exempt, as are professional staff, such as doctors, lawyers, and dentists.
Seattle
Seattle’s Paid Sick and Safe Time ordinance requires employers to provide paid sick leave to all employees regardless of company size. Employees accrue one hour for every 40 hours worked. Employees working for an employer with over 250 employees accrue at a rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked.
Tacoma
Employees in the city of Tacoma are eligible for paid sick leave after 90 days of employment. Workers accrue one hour for every 40 hours worked, with no cap on the number of hours that can be accrued.
Washington D.C.
The District of Columbia (Washington D.C.) has a very straightforward approach to paid sick leave.
- Workers at businesses with 100 or more employees earn one hour of paid leave for every 37 hours worked, not to exceed seven days per calendar year.
- Workers at businesses with at least 25, but not more than 99 employees, earn one hour of paid leave for every 43 hours worked, not to exceed five days per calendar year.
- Workers at businesses that employ 24 or fewer employees earn one hour of paid leave for every 87 hours worked, not to exceed three days per calendar year.
Bottom Line
Several states, cities, and counties with paid sick leave ordinances require employers to offer employees paid time away from work for health and safety reasons. As an employer, it’s up to you to manage your employees, protect your business, and avoid fines by complying with these local labor laws.
