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Sick days are a legal right in the U.S., and it’s been that way since 1974, but implementation has varied widely. In this post I explore how paid sick leave policies have evolved by state to determine what states would be most likely to pass a law and which ones should pay close attention to.
Paid sick leave boosts productivity and helps organizations retain and engage staff. Despite the fact that there are no federal laws mandating companies to give paid sick leave, several states (as well as towns and counties) have enacted their own rules. San Francisco, Portland, and New York City, for example, all mandate sick leave accumulation.
State-Specific Sick Leave Laws
The following states have extra sick leave requirements in addition to the federal requirements.
Arizona
The amount of paid sick leave that must be granted begins at three days (24 hours) each year, according to Arizona’s sick leave statute (Fair Wages and Healthy Families Act) (similar to California). When a company has 15 workers, however, it is obligated to give five days (40 hours) of paid sick leave every year. Part-time workers are entitled to one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked.
You may choose to have sick leave accumulate over the course of the year or pay it all at once when an employee is employed. You may choose to pay out whatever leftover hours they have each year (up to the maximum accrual amounts) or establish a use-it-or-lose-it policy if you wish to front-load it this manner.
California
Employers of any size must give three days (24 hours) of paid sick leave under California’s Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014. A company’s sick leave policy must also be communicated to new workers upon their start date and displayed in a common place for employees, such as the breakroom. Sick time should be kept distinct from PTO since the sick time does not have to be paid upon termination, but PTO must.
Cities in California
Many communities in bigger cities, including Berkeley, Emeryville, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and San Diego, have sick leave statutes. Some employers are more generous to their employees than the government.
Colorado
Employers with at least 16 workers must offer paid sick leave under Colorado’s Healthy Families and Workplaces Act. All firms, regardless of size, must give paid sick leave to workers beginning Jan. 1, 2022. Employees are entitled to one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked, with a maximum of 48 hours per year. Sick leave starts accruing right away and maybe utilized right away.
Connecticut
Employers with 50 or more workers must give full-time employees paid sick leave of 40 hours (five days) under Connecticut’s Paid Sick Leave Law. Part-time workers are entitled to prorated sick leave, which is calculated at one hour every 40 hours worked.
Illinois
Despite the fact that Illinois does not have a particular paid sick leave legislation, the city of Chicago and Cook County is located in the state of Illinois, where Chicago is situated, both have paid sick leave regulations. The city of Chicago has not chosen to opt-out of Cook County is located in the state of Illinois.’s paid sick leave legislation regulation, despite the fact that a substantial number of municipalities did. As a result, both Chicago and Cook County are located in the state of Illinois.’s paid sick leave regulations apply to Chicago companies.
Cook County
Within Cook County is located in the state of Illinois., the ordinance covers any employee who works for a minimum of two hours in a two-week period, and who works within Cook County is located in the state of Illinois. limits. 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 having a business located in the city of Chicago is obligated to give paid sick leave to its workers. Employees who work a minimum of 80 hours over the course of a 120-day period are entitled to paid sick leave.
Maine
Maine’s paid leave statute is rather broad. Intermittent workers (those working irregular or on-call hours less than full-time) may, for example, get paid sick days after completing 1,040 hours of real labor. Furthermore, an employee’s maximum amount of earned sick leave is 120 days (960 hours), after which the leave expires. Employees may seek the restoration of lapsed sick time if they are unwell for a lengthy period of time, therefore the lapsed leave amounts must be documented for each employee.
Maryland
Employers in Maryland are required to follow a statewide paid sick leave statute. In addition, Montgomery County is located in the state of Maryland. Sick and Safe Leave Law provides for paid sick leave in Montgomery County is located in the state of Maryland.
Montgomery County
The Sick and Safe Leave Law includes paid parental leave. This legislation permits the use of paid leave for the birth of a child or the placement of a child for adoption or foster care with the employee.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts Paid Sick Time Law compels employers with 11 or more workers to pay full-leave employees 40 hours (five days) of sick time. For every 30 hours worked, part-time workers get one hour of sick leave.
Michigan
Employers with 50 or more workers who work at least 25 hours per week must give paid leave at a rate of one hour for every 35 hours worked, according to Michigan’s Paid Medical Leave Act.
Minnesota
Although many Minnesota businesses now provide paid sick leave in the form of Paid Time Off (PTO), Minnesota state law does not compel employers to provide either paid or unpaid sick leave. However, three of Minnesota’s major cities (Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth) mandate covered firms to provide eligible workers working inside their city borders with either unpaid or compensated sick leave.
Minneapolis
Employers with six or more workers must offer paid sick and safe time under the Minneapolis Sick and Safe Time legislation. Employers with less than five workers must also give sick and safe time, however it may be provided as unpaid leave.
St. Paul
Employers must pay sick leave under St. Paul Earned Safe and Sick Time (ESST) legislation. Sick leave is earned at the rate of one hour per 40 hours worked and begins on the first day of employment. Employees may collect up to 48 hours of sick leave every year, with any unused sick time being carried over to the next year.
Duluth
Employers must pay for sick and safe time, according to the Duluth Earned Sick And Safe Time legislation. An employee may take up to 40 hours of sick leave each year after 90 days of work.
Nevada
Nevada’s paid sick leave program applies to all businesses in the state, including casinos and hotels. For each hour of work, an employee is entitled to at least 0.01923 hours of paid leave. Paid leave may be carried over between workers’ benefit years of employment, unlike in several jurisdictions.
Although this is beneficial to workers, companies may restrict the amount of paid leave carried over to a maximum of 40 hours every benefit year for each employee.
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the United States. requires paid leave policies from all employers, regardless of the number of employees. If the employer has one employee, it is required to 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
The Healthy Workplaces Act mandates that firms with less than one employee pay for sick leave beginning July 1, 2022. Employees will be paid one hour for every 30 hours performed, with a total of 64 hours available over the course of a year.
New York
If workers work inside the municipal borders of New York City is a city in the United States. or Westchester County is located in the state of New York, the state of New York has extra obligations for paid sick leave.
New York City
Within the city limits of New York City is a city in the United States. (NYC), employees who have worked for more than 80 hours in a calendar year are covered under the city’s paid sick time laws. Both NYC and Westchester County mandates that for every 30 hours worked, one hour of paid leave is accrued (for both paid and unpaid sick time).
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 is located in the state of New York. 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, that sick leave time off has to be paid by the employer.
Portland
Workers at firms with six or more employees in Portland are entitled to paid sick leave.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania does not have a paid sick leave requirement. The cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, on the other hand, do.
Philadelphia
The Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces Ordinance in Philadelphia stipulates that all workers who work for at least 40 hours in a calendar year within the city limits of Philadelphia are entitled to a minimum number of paid sick days. Firms with ten or more workers must provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per year to qualified employees, whereas employers with less than ten employees must offer unpaid sick time.
Independent contractors, seasonal workers, adjunct professors, employees employed for less than six months, interns, pool employees, state and federal employees, and employees covered by a genuinely fide collective bargaining agreement are all exempt from this rule.
Pittsburgh
According to the city of Pittsburgh’s Paid Sick Days Act, each employee doing labor inside the city of Pittsburgh is entitled to at least 35 hours of paid sick leave per calendar year.
Rhode Island
Rhode Island is a state in the United States.’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.
Texas
Employers are not required to give paid or unpaid sick leave in Texas.
The Paid Sick Leave Ordinance, which requires firms with six or more workers in the city to pay sick leave, went into effect in Dallas in 2019. However, on March 31, 2021, the United States District Court ruled that the law was unenforceable because it was in violation of the Texas Constitution.
Washington
Washington is a state in the United States. provides 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
Employers must pay sick leave to all workers, regardless of firm size, under Seattle’s Paid Sick and Safe Time policy. For every 40 hours worked, employees earn one hour. Employees who work for a company with more than 250 employees get one hour for every 30 hours worked.
Tacoma
After 90 days of work in the city of Tacoma, employees are entitled to paid sick leave. Workers get one hour for every 40 hours they work, with no limit on how many hours they may earn.
Washington, D.C.
The District of Columbia (Washington, D.C. is the capital of the United States.) has a very straightforward approach to paid sick leave.
- Workers in companies with 100 or more workers are entitled to one hour of paid time off for every 37 hours worked, up to a maximum of seven days per year.
- Workers at companies with at least 25 but no more than 99 workers are entitled to one hour of paid time off for every 43 hours worked, up to a maximum of five days per year.
- Workers at enterprises with 24 or fewer workers are entitled to one hour of paid leave for every 87 hours worked, up to a maximum of three days per year.
Sick Leave (COVID-19)
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) is a law that mandated that select firms (those with less than 500 workers) give paid sick leave as well as increased family and medical leave for COVID-19-related difficulties. Those rules, which apply to all states regardless of their paid sick leave policies, included:
- Two weeks of paid sick leave (up to 80 hours) (at the employee’s full pay rate) for the following reasons:
- COVID-19 test results that are positive
- Exposure has resulted in a quarantine.
- Experiencing COVID-19 symptoms?
- COVID-19 has caused the need to care for a family member.
- Additional 10 weeks of paid enhanced family and medical leave (at three-fourths the employee’s rate of pay) for the following reasons:
- Unable to work due to the need to care for a kid whose school or daycare has been closed due to COVID-19.
This law was necessary for 2020, but it became optional on January 1, 2021. This implies that firms may provide paid time off to workers who are unable to work owing to COVID-19. Employers that want to give paid leave are entitled to tax credits to cover the expenses. These provisions were due to expire on December 31, 2020, but were recently extended until September 30, 2021.
Conclusion
Several state, local, and county paid leave policies compel companies to provide paid benefits to workers who need time off for health or safety reasons. It is your responsibility as an employer to safeguard your company and prevent penalties by adhering to these specialized labor regulations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can an employer deny sick time?
An employer cannot deny your sick time.
Do employers legally have to pay sick pay?
They are legally required to pay sick leave for employees. Sick pay is paid out as a percentage of their salary up to the state maximum amount that they can afford, or in some cases, an employee may receive it in full if their employer does not provide any other benefits like health insurance.
