Bereavement Leave: A Small Business Guide

The first time an employee came to me after losing a parent, I realized I had no policy for it. I wanted to do right by them, but I did not know what was standard, whether I owed them paid time, or how many days was reasonable.

I ended up making a decision on the spot, which worked out, but it taught me to settle bereavement leave in advance, before someone is grieving and you are improvising a response during their hardest week. This guide gives you those answers ahead of time, from the employer's side, for a small business owner or manager without a dedicated HR team.

The guide explains what bereavement time off is, whether the law requires it, how many days is standard, which family members are typically covered, what the leave is for, whether it has to be paid, and how to set and document a simple, compassionate policy. It also flags the state laws that may apply to you, since several start at very low employee counts.

I built document management, e-signature, and employee records into FirstHR so a bereavement policy is written down, acknowledged, and easy to find, and the process is handled with care rather than improvised. This article is general information, not legal advice, and state leave laws change often, so confirm the current rules where you operate before finalizing a policy.

What Is Bereavement Time Off?

Bereavement time off, also called bereavement leave or funeral leave, is time away from work that an employer grants an employee after the death of a family member or loved one. It gives the employee space to grieve, attend the funeral or memorial, travel if needed, and handle the practical and legal matters that follow a death.

Employers offer bereavement leave by choice, not because a federal law makes them. It earns its place in an employee benefits package for a simple reason: supporting someone through the loss of a loved one, at the moment they genuinely need time, builds loyalty and reflects a decency employees remember. Few benefits deliver as much goodwill for as little cost.

Bereavement leave is also different from general paid time off. An employee could use their regular paid time off (PTO) after a death, but a dedicated provision signals that the employer has planned for this situation rather than expecting someone to spend vacation days grieving.

Employers split on how far to keep the two apart. Some run them entirely separately; others let employees add PTO to bereavement leave if they need more time. Either way, a distinct bereavement provision is what most employees expect, which raises the question of whether any of this is actually required.

Is Bereavement Leave Required by Law?

No federal law requires private employers to provide bereavement leave. Neither the Fair Labor Standards Act nor the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) mandates time off specifically for grieving a death, so at the federal level, offering bereavement leave is entirely voluntary. This is the baseline every employer starts from.

The Department of Labor puts it plainly. According to the US Department of Labor, the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require payment for time not worked, including attending a funeral, and the benefit is generally a matter of agreement between an employer and an employee.

The FMLA is where most of the confusion sits. People sometimes assume it covers bereavement, but it does not. It reaches two situations near a death: caring for a family member with a serious health condition, which might apply before the death, and the employee's own serious health condition, which might apply if grief becomes a diagnosable condition requiring treatment.

Grieving a loss, on its own, is not an FMLA-qualifying reason. That distinction matters when you design a policy, because bereavement leave fills a gap the FMLA leaves open.

So at the federal level, bereavement leave is a benefit you choose to offer, not one you must provide. The federal picture is only half the story, though. A growing number of states have stepped in with their own bereavement leave laws, and several of them reach even very small businesses.

State Bereavement Leave Laws

While there is no federal mandate, six states now carry a bereavement provision, and for a small business this is the part of the legal picture that actually bites. Only four of them create a general entitlement: California, Illinois, Oregon, and Vermont.

The other two work through leave you already provide or through a state program. Several thresholds sit low enough to catch a small business squarely, which is why the table below leads with who each law applies to rather than with the amount.

California's law is the most relevant for the smallest businesses, since it applies to employers with 5 or more employees. An employee who has worked at least 30 days can take up to 5 days per qualifying death, and the days need not be consecutive as long as the leave is completed within three months of the death.

In California, pay follows your own policy. Where you have none, the leave may be unpaid, though the employee may apply vacation, personal leave, accrued sick leave, or compensatory time off (time off given in place of overtime pay).

California also lets you ask for documentation within 30 days of the first day of leave. The statute accepts a death certificate, a published obituary, or written verification of death, burial, or memorial services from a mortuary, funeral home, burial society, crematorium, religious institution, or government agency.

Illinois runs two separate laws. The Family Bereavement Leave Act covers all public employers and private employers with 50 or more employees, giving 2 weeks of unpaid leave, or up to 6 weeks when several qualifying events fall inside one 12-month period. It also counts reproductive loss, including miscarriage and stillbirth.

The second Illinois law is narrower in scope and far longer in duration. The Child Extended Bereavement Leave Act gives a parent 6 weeks of unpaid leave at an employer with 50 to 249 employees, and 12 weeks at 250 or more, after the loss of a child to suicide or homicide.

Oregon puts bereavement inside its Family Leave Act rather than in a standalone statute. An employer with 25 or more employees in the state must allow 2 weeks per family member, capped at 4 weeks in a leave year, and the leave is unpaid.

Maryland matters only if you already give paid leave. Under the Flexible Leave Act, an employer with 15 or more employees that provides paid leave under a policy or a collective bargaining agreement must let an employee spend earned days on the death of a child, spouse, or parent. It creates no new entitlement of its own.

Washington is the narrowest of the six and the easiest to overstate. Its Paid Family and Medical Leave statute covers seven calendar days after the death of a child, but only where the employee would have qualified for birth or bonding leave for that child. Grief in general is not a covered reason.

Vermont, the fourth state with a general entitlement, added bereavement leave to its Parental and Family Leave Act through Act 32 of 2025, effective July 1, 2025. An employer with 10 or more employees averaging at least 30 hours a week must allow up to 2 weeks of unpaid leave after a death, taken from the 12 weeks of leave available in a year.

Vermont attaches three conditions. The employee needs a year of service averaging 30 hours a week, no more than 5 workdays can be taken in a row, and the leave must be taken within one year of the death. The statute also counts time spent administering or settling the family member's estate as part of the leave, inside that same one-year window. The Vermont compliance guide covers the rest of the picture.

Other states reach the same result through sick leave rather than a bereavement statute. Minnesota lists funeral arrangements, attending a service or memorial, and post-death financial or legal matters among the permitted uses of earned sick and safe time. Check your own state sick leave rules before concluding you owe nothing.

States with no bereavement law, and why Nevada still matters

In the other forty-four states, bereavement leave is entirely your choice. That is the correct starting point, but it is not the whole answer, because a state paid leave or sick leave statute can still give an employee the right to take the days even where no bereavement law exists.

Nevada is the clearest example, and it is the state people most often ask about. Nevada has no bereavement leave statute for private employers. What it has instead is NRS 608.0197, a paid leave statute that requires private employers with 50 or more employees in the state to accrue paid leave at 0.01923 hours for every hour an employee works.

The provision that matters for bereavement is the one on how the leave is used: an employee may use accrued paid leave without providing a reason to the employer. So at a Nevada business of 50 or more employees, an employee can take paid time after a death whether or not you have written a bereavement policy, and you cannot demand an explanation for it.

Below 50 employees in Nevada, there is no obligation at all, which puts most small businesses there in the discretionary column. The same pattern shows up in other states, so it pays to check whether your state sick leave statute lists bereavement as a permitted use. The Nevada compliance guide covers the rest of the state picture.

How Many Days Is Bereavement Leave?

The usual answer for bereavement leave is 3 to 5 days for the death of an immediate family member. Because no federal requirement sets the number, that range reflects employer practice rather than law, and you are free to set what fits your business except where a state law dictates otherwise.

Survey data from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) backs the range. According to SHRM's 2016 Paid Leave in the Workplace survey, employers gave an average of 4 days after the death of a spouse or child and 3 days after the death of a parent, sibling, grandparent, or grandchild. More distant relatives typically received 1 or 2 days.

Most well-designed policies use a tiered structure, granting more days for closer relationships and fewer for more distant ones, because both the grief and the practical work a death creates grow with closeness. A common structure gives the most time for the death of a spouse, child, or parent, somewhat less for grandparents and in-laws, and a day or two for extended relatives.

Some large employers go much further. SHRM reported in 2024 that Meta has offered 20 days after the death of an immediate family member since 2017, well past the traditional 3 days, while most companies still offer only a few. Grief does not resolve on a fixed schedule, and a short, rigid allowance can fall short of what the person actually needs.

A small business does not have to match that. Offering a solid 3 to 5 days for immediate family, with some flexibility to add PTO, positions you as a caring employer without significant cost. The right number balances compassion, cost, and what is competitive in your area, and it should be written down so no one has to negotiate it while grieving.

Which Family Members Are Covered

Which family members qualify for bereavement leave is one of the most important and sometimes sensitive parts of a policy. Coverage usually centers on immediate family (spouse or domestic partner, children, parents, and siblings) and then extends outward based on the employer's choices and any applicable state law.

Beyond immediate family, many policies include close relatives such as grandparents, grandchildren, and in-laws, recognizing that these losses are deeply felt. Some employers go further and add chosen family: people an employee treats as family regardless of legal or blood relationship.

Covering chosen family reflects modern family structures. It also avoids the awkward and painful situation of denying leave for the death of someone who was, in every meaningful sense, the employee's family.

State laws that mandate bereavement leave define covered relationships specifically, and the definitions vary. California names a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner, and parent-in-law.

Illinois spells out its own list: a child, stepchild, spouse, domestic partner, sibling, parent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandchild, grandparent, or stepparent. Unlike California's, that list names stepchildren and stepparents. Oregon is among the broader of the mandate states.

Your own policy is a separate decision. You choose which relationships qualify, as long as you meet any state minimum. A reasonably inclusive definition, covering immediate family plus close relatives and ideally chosen family, reduces disputes and signals that you understand grief is not confined to the narrowest definition of family. Spelling the list out is what prevents difficult judgment calls in the moment.

Pet bereavement leave

No state bereavement law covers the death of a pet, so pet bereavement leave is entirely a policy choice. It is still worth deciding in advance, because the request will come, and an employee who has just lost an animal they lived with for a decade is genuinely grieving whether or not your policy has a category for it.

There are two sensible answers and one bad one. You can name it in the policy, typically a day, on the same terms as your extended-family tier. Or you can leave it out and let people use a PTO day with no questions asked, which most employees find perfectly acceptable as long as the request is not scrutinized.

The bad answer is a flat refusal delivered as a policy point. Telling someone that a pet does not qualify, on the day they had one put down, costs you far more goodwill than the day off would have cost in wages. If you do not want a named provision, at least make sure your managers know to approve the PTO request without commentary.

What Bereavement Leave Covers

Bereavement leave covers more than just the funeral itself. It is meant to give an employee time for the full range of needs that follow a death. Those needs fall into three groups: the service, the practical aftermath, and time to grieve.

The most immediate use is attending the funeral, wake, or memorial service, along with the travel required to get there, which can be substantial if family lives far away.

Beyond the service, bereavement leave commonly covers the practical aftermath: making funeral and burial arrangements, handling the deceased's affairs, and dealing with legal and financial matters such as the estate. These tasks often fall to close family and can take significant time.

Just as important, though harder to quantify, is time to grieve. The emotional impact of losing a loved one does not fit neatly into the days allotted for logistics, and good policies recognize that some grieving time is part of what the leave is for. That is also why some employers offer more generous leave and let employees supplement bereavement days with PTO.

Days off are not the only support available here. An employee assistance program usually includes grief counseling, and it costs a small employer very little to have one available. If you have one, name it in the policy so a grieving employee knows the help is there.

Scope is the thing to settle in writing. Deciding what the leave is meant to cover (the service, the travel, the arrangements, the affairs, and the grief) helps you set a day count that is genuinely adequate rather than merely symbolic. It also spares employees from having to ask awkward questions about what qualifies during an already painful time.

Is Bereavement Leave Paid or Unpaid?

Whether bereavement leave is paid or unpaid is entirely up to the employer where no state law dictates otherwise, and practice varies. According to SHRM (2024), 91 percent of its member organizations offer some paid time off for bereavement, while other employers offer unpaid leave or ask employees to use accrued PTO.

What bereavement pay is

Bereavement pay is the wages an employer chooses to pay for the days an employee is out on bereavement leave. No federal rule sets a rate, so the standard practice is simple: the employee is paid their regular rate for the hours they were scheduled to work, on the normal payday, exactly as if they had worked those days.

Two mechanics are worth writing down before the first request arrives. Bereavement hours are paid but they are not hours worked, so like PTO they do not count toward the 40 hours that trigger overtime in a week. The federal overtime regulation, 29 CFR 778.218, backs this up: it lists attending a funeral among the occasional absences whose pay is not compensation for hours of employment.

The second mechanic is the rate. For an employee whose pay varies, decide whether the day is paid at base rate or at an average that includes shift differentials or commission, and apply the same answer every time.

The last detail people ask about is the cap. Bereavement pay is normally limited to the number of days in your tier for that relationship, with anything beyond it running as PTO or unpaid. Say that in the policy rather than leaving it to be worked out by someone who is grieving.

Among the states that mandate bereavement leave, most require only unpaid leave, though employees can typically apply their accrued paid time off to cover it. Even where the law requires leave, then, it usually does not require pay.

Washington holds the one paid entitlement: seven days through its state program, and only for the death of a child inside the birth or bonding window. That leaves the paid-versus-unpaid decision with the employer in most cases.

My practical recommendation for a small business is to offer at least a few paid days for immediate family, because the cost is low and the impact is high. If budget is tight, pay for a small number of days and let the employee extend with PTO or unpaid time.

Whichever way you go, make the pay status explicit in the policy, so nobody is left uncertain about their income during an already stressful time. Clarity here is part of treating people well, which is ultimately what a bereavement policy is about.

How to Write a Bereavement Leave Policy

Writing a bereavement leave policy is straightforward, and having one in place before you need it is what lets you respond with care instead of improvisation when an employee suffers a loss. A good policy answers the key questions clearly and compassionately, so a grieving employee never has to negotiate the basics.

The request itself can run on the same leave request form you use for other absences, which keeps the ask as light as possible. Here is what the policy should include.

The single most important quality of a bereavement policy is compassion balanced with clarity. Clarity means every question (how many days, who is covered, paid or unpaid) is answered in advance, so no one has to figure it out mid-grief.

Compassion means erring toward generosity and flexibility, keeping documentation requirements light, and recognizing that rigid rules land badly during a loss. A policy that is both clear and kind is one employees remember.

Once the policy exists, the administration is light: tracking the occasional bereavement absence, applying the right number of days, and keeping any documentation confidential. With a good policy in place and a simple way to administer it, bereavement leave becomes one less thing to figure out under pressure, letting you focus on supporting your employee when it matters most.

If you have no policy yet, the six points above are enough for a one-page draft you can finish before the next request arrives.

Frequently Asked Questions