Paid Sick Leave Laws by State: A Guide for Small Employers
Which states require paid sick leave, the size thresholds that decide whether you are covered, remote worker rules, and how to write a policy.
Paid Sick Leave Laws by State
Which states require it, whether your headcount exempts you, and how to build a policy that survives an audit
The first time paid sick leave became my problem, it was because of one remote hire. We were a small team in a state with no requirement at all, and I had genuinely never thought about the topic. Then we hired someone who lived elsewhere, and about four months later I learned that her state had a mandate, that it applied to employers of any size, and that she had been accruing an entitlement I had not been tracking.
Nothing bad came of it, mostly through luck. But it taught me the thing that most guides on this topic bury: the question is not what your state requires. It is what every state where you have someone working requires, and for a lot of small businesses those are now different questions.
This guide covers which states have a mandate, the employer size thresholds that decide whether you are actually covered, what happens with remote employees, how to write a policy from scratch, and where small employers most often get caught. It is written for a small business with no HR department.
The Short Answer
There is no federal law requiring private employers to provide paid sick leave. According to the Congressional Research Service (April 2026), 17 states plus the District of Columbia require it, and three additional states require paid leave that can be used for any purpose, giving 21 jurisdictions with a mandate. Many of these laws apply to every employer regardless of headcount, and the state where the employee physically works determines which law applies.
If you have employees in only one state and that state has no mandate, you have no legal obligation, though you may still want a policy. If you have an employee anywhere else, including a remote worker, start with the list below. Vacation time is governed separately, under each state's own PTO laws (the rules on paid time off), so settling sick leave does not settle vacation.
Having no sick leave mandate is not the same as having no leave obligations. Jury duty and military leave protections exist in most states independently of any sick leave law. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) still reaches you at 50 employees. And once you offer sick time voluntarily, your own written policy governs and can be enforced against you.
Idaho, at the least-regulated end of the range, has no state sick leave and no state FMLA. Employers there still cannot discharge someone for jury service, and they must restore National Guard and reserve members to their jobs after up to 15 days of training a year, paid or unpaid as the employer decides (Idaho Code 46-224).
There Is No Federal Paid Sick Leave Law
It surprises people, but no federal statute requires private employers to provide paid sick leave. The emergency paid sick leave created during the pandemic under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act expired at the end of 2020, and the associated tax credit ended the following year. Nothing replaced it.
The Department of Labor confirms this directly: federal law does not require paid sick leave. The Family and Medical Leave Act provides up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave for eligible employees, but that leave is unpaid and it only applies at employers with 50 or more employees.
What fills the gap is state and local law, which is why paid sick leave is a patchwork rather than a national rule. It is also why this topic requires ongoing attention: a business that was fully compliant two years ago may not be now, either because a state changed its law or because the business hired someone in a new state.
Which States Require Paid Sick Leave
The authoritative count comes from the Congressional Research Service report published on April 28, 2026: 17 states plus the District of Columbia require private sector employers to provide paid sick leave, and three additional states require paid leave usable for any purpose.
| Category | Jurisdictions | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| Paid sick leave mandate | Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia | A dedicated paid sick leave entitlement with defined permitted uses |
| Paid leave for any reason | Illinois, Maine, Nevada | Employees accrue paid leave usable for any purpose, including illness. Functions as sick leave without being labeled that way |
| Local mandates only | Pennsylvania | No statewide requirement, but Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Allegheny County impose their own |
| Recently repealed | Missouri | A law took effect in May 2025 and was repealed effective August 28, 2025. Missouri no longer has a mandate |
| Preemption states | Texas and Florida, for example | No state mandate, and local governments are barred from creating one |
Virginia is the state most often added to lists like this one, and the Congressional Research Service count leaves it out. The requirement on the books today reaches only home health workers who provide personal care, respite, or companion services in the Medicaid consumer-directed services program, not the private sector broadly (Code of Virginia).
Virginia's general mandate phases in later. Employers with 50 or more employees are covered from July 1, 2027, employers with 25 or more from January 1, 2028, and every employer from January 1, 2029.
Why Every Source Gives You a Different Number
If you search this topic you will find counts of 17, 18, 19, 21, and 22 states, all from credible sources. They are not contradicting each other so much as counting different things. Knowing which methodology produced a number tells you whether it answers your question.
Knowing how a count was made matters beyond pedantry. A guide that gives you a number without the methodology is telling you something you cannot act on, and if it is quietly out of date on Missouri or Nebraska you have no way of knowing. Check the date on anything you read about this topic, including this page.
Employer Size Thresholds: The Part That Actually Decides
Employer size decides whether any of the rest applies to you, and it is the part most guides handle badly. The instinct at a small company is that a small-business exemption probably covers you. For most states with a mandate, it does not.
Two counting rules matter regardless of state. Part-time employees generally count toward a threshold, so a business with eight full-time and six part-time staff is usually at fourteen rather than eight. And most laws look at the count over a period rather than on a given day, so a seasonal peak can bring you into coverage for the whole year.
How Accrual Actually Works
The one-hour-per-30-hours rate is the most common standard across state laws, though not universal. Vermont uses one hour per 52 hours worked, and several laws use one per 40. Annual caps typically range from 24 to 72 hours depending on the state and, in several states, on employer size.
| Concept | What It Means | The Trap |
|---|---|---|
| Accrual rate | How fast leave is earned, commonly 1 hour per 30 hours worked | Applies to all hours worked including overtime in most states, which is easy to miss in manual tracking |
| Accrual cap | The maximum that can be earned in a year | Distinct from the usage cap. Some states cap one, some both, and the numbers are often different |
| Usage cap | The maximum that can be used in a year | An employee can have a balance above the usage cap through carryover and still be limited in what they use |
| Waiting period | A delay before accrued time can be used, often up to 90 days | Permitted for use in most states, not for accrual. Time still builds during the wait |
| Carryover | Unused hours rolling into the next year, usually capped | Required in most states if you accrue. Avoidable in most states if you frontload the full annual amount |
| Frontloading | Granting the full annual entitlement at the start of the year | Simpler, and usually removes carryover. But the grant must at least equal what accrual would have produced |
| Reinstatement on rehire | Restoring a balance if someone returns within a set period | Required in several states, with a 12-month window in California and Washington. Almost always missed by manual tracking |
For a small business operating in a single state, frontloading is usually the right choice. It removes the carryover calculation, removes the need to track accrual against hours worked, and gives employees a clear number. The cost is granting time to someone who may leave early in the year, which for most small businesses is a smaller problem than the administrative one.
The State Rules Employers Ask About Most
Five states account for most of the questions I get on this topic. California, New Jersey, and Massachusetts reach every employer, although Massachusetts requires paid time only at 11 or more employees. Alaska's July 2025 mandate caught employers off guard, and Florida has no law at all, which employers assume settles the matter. Each summary below is current as of the date on this page.
| State | Who is covered | Accrual and annual cap | The detail that trips employers up |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | Every employer, for employees working 30 or more days in a year | 1 hour per 30 hours worked; use at least 40 hours or 5 days a year, accrual capped at 80 hours or 10 days | The 90-day employment period applies to using leave, not to earning it |
| Alaska | Every employer, since the law took effect on July 1, 2025 | 1 hour per 30 hours worked; 40 hours a year below 15 employees, 56 hours at 15 or more | Unused leave rolls over year to year unless you front-load the full amount |
| Massachusetts | Every employer; the time is paid at 11 or more employees and unpaid below that | 1 hour per 30 hours worked; 40 hours a year | Unused earned sick time does not have to be paid out when someone leaves |
| New Jersey | Every employer regardless of size, including part-time and temporary staff | 1 hour per 30 hours worked; 40 hours per benefit year | You set the 12-month benefit year, and changing it later takes 30 days' written notice to the state labor commissioner |
| Florida | No state mandate, and no city can create one | None required by law | Your own written policy is then the only thing binding you, and it is enforceable |
California sick leave law is the one most employers meet first, because it reaches every employer and because a single remote hire there brings you under it. Employees accrue one hour for every 30 hours worked and must be allowed to use at least 40 hours or five days a year, whichever is greater. Accrual may be capped at 80 hours or ten days (California Department of Industrial Relations).
Frontloading the full annual amount at the start of the year removes the carryover arithmetic and is what I would choose for a small team. An accrued balance also has to be restored if the person returns within 12 months. The California compliance guide covers the rest of the state framework, and how sick time sits against PTO there is its own decision.
When a Doctor's Note Is Required for Work in California
California is stricter than most states on doctor's notes. An employer may not deny paid sick leave solely because the employee did not produce certification from a health care provider, so treating a note as a condition of using accrued time is the wrong move for a routine absence.
Documentation can be requested in the narrow case where you hold information suggesting the leave is being misused, which is a different situation from someone taking a Tuesday off with a fever. If your handbook says a note is required after one day, that sentence is doing you no good in California and some harm.
Of the other states in the table, Alaska and New Jersey are where I most often see a small employer assume that being small exempts them. Neither state has a size threshold for coverage.
Alaska caps use at 40 hours a year below 15 employees and 56 at or above it, and does not require unused leave to be paid out when employment ends (Alaska Department of Labor). New Jersey caps at 40 hours per benefit year and lets you grant the whole amount up front (New Jersey Department of Labor).
Massachusetts Sick Time and Payout at Termination
Massachusetts does not require you to pay out unused earned sick time when employment ends. What the law does permit is an optional payout at the end of the benefit year, or when someone changes jobs inside your company, and taking that option carries a follow-on obligation (Massachusetts earned sick time regulations).
Pay out 16 hours or more and you owe the employee 16 hours of unpaid sick time until new paid time accrues to replace it. Pay out less than 16 and you owe an equivalent amount of unpaid time on the same terms (940 CMR 33.03). That is the part small employers miss when they decide to be generous at year end.
Florida, last in the table, is the opposite of the four states above it. There is no state paid sick leave law, and Florida Statute 218.077 bars counties and cities from creating one.
The Florida statute lists paid and unpaid days off for sick leave among the benefits a local government may not require of employers (Florida Statutes). Your handbook is then the binding document, and FMLA still arrives at 50 employees.
Remote and Multi-State Employees
For remote and multi-state employees, the law of the state where the employee physically performs the work applies, not the law of the state where your company is registered or where your office sits. If your business is incorporated in a state with no mandate and you hire one remote employee in a state that has one, that state's rules apply to that employee.
That rule is what turns paid sick leave from a question about your state into a question about several, and it is the most common way small businesses acquire an obligation they do not know about.
Hiring an employee in a new state creates several obligations at once, not only this one: state tax registration, unemployment insurance, workers compensation valid in that state, and often different rules on pay frequency and final paychecks.
City Laws That Exceed State Minimums
Several cities have their own paid sick leave ordinances that require more than their state does, and in a few cases the city requirement exists where the state has none at all. Most guides leave this layer out entirely.
| Where | What Happens | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Several California cities | San Francisco, Los Angeles, Berkeley, West Hollywood, Oakland, San Diego, Santa Monica, Emeryville and others require more than the state minimum | California already covers all employers. These cities raise the entitlement on top |
| New York City | The Earned Safe and Sick Time Act adds requirements beyond the state law | A New York City employee is subject to both, and the more generous provision governs |
| Philadelphia and Pittsburgh | Both have ordinances despite Pennsylvania having no statewide requirement | If you have an employee in either city, you have an obligation the state list would not show you |
| Chicago and Cook County | Local paid leave ordinances apply in place of the Illinois any-reason leave law for the employers they cover | The local ordinance sets the rules, and Chicago's adds a separate 40-hour paid sick leave bank on top of 40 hours of paid leave |
| Seattle and Tacoma | Local requirements above the Washington state minimum | The state law is the floor, not the ceiling |
| Minneapolis and St. Paul | Both cities have earned sick and safe time ordinances alongside the Minnesota statewide law | Where the city and state rules differ, the one more favorable to the employee governs |
For a small business, a state-level answer is a starting point rather than a conclusion. If you have an employee in a major metropolitan area, check the city before assuming the state rule is your obligation. Texas and Florida are the reverse case: both preempt local ordinances, so cities in those states cannot impose their own requirements.
New Jersey is the case in between. It has a statewide mandate, and that law preempts every county and municipal sick leave ordinance (N.J.S.A. 34:11D-8), so the state rule is the whole obligation there. Minnesota, by contrast, leaves room for local rules, and its Department of Labor and Industry lists ordinances in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Building a Compliant Policy From Scratch
Six decisions define a paid sick leave policy. The second one, whether sick time keeps its own balance or sits inside a combined bank, causes more trouble than the other five put together. Most small businesses copy a template without making these deliberately, which is how a policy ends up technically existing and legally failing.
Beyond those decisions, most state laws require the written policy to state the accrual rate or frontloaded amount, the annual cap, the carryover rule, and the permitted uses, including family care and safe leave (time off connected to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking).
Most of those laws also require the policy to explain how employees request leave and when documentation may be required, and to state explicitly that using leave will not result in retaliation. Put it in the employee handbook and collect signed acknowledgments.
One drafting caution worth repeating: do not promise payout of unused sick time at separation unless you intend to honor it. State laws generally leave it optional (Washington requires it only for certain construction workers who leave before their 90th day), and a policy that offers it may create an enforceable wage obligation.
Is Sick Pay Taxable?
Yes. Sick pay you run through your own payroll is ordinary taxable wages: subject to federal income tax withholding and to Social Security and Medicare, and reported on the W-2 alongside every other dollar you paid. There is no separate treatment and nothing extra to do at year end.
The exception is third-party sick pay, meaning benefits paid to your employee by an insurer or a plan rather than by you. Who withholds and who reports then depends on whether that payer is acting as your agent, and the rules sit in IRS Publication 15-A.
Before the first payment goes out, ask the carrier in writing which side is handling withholding and the W-2, because sorting it out afterward means amended returns.
How State Sick Leave Interacts With FMLA
State paid sick leave and FMLA are separate obligations that overlap, and confusing the two is common. FMLA provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected leave for eligible employees at employers with 50 or more employees. State paid sick leave provides a smaller amount of paid time with broader eligibility and, in most states, no employer size floor.
| State Paid Sick Leave | FMLA | |
|---|---|---|
| Paid or unpaid | Paid | Unpaid, though accrued paid leave may run alongside it |
| Employer size | Often every employer, sometimes a threshold around 10 or 11 | 50 or more employees |
| Employee eligibility | Usually all employees, sometimes after a short waiting period | 12 months of service and 1,250 hours in the preceding year |
| Amount | Typically 24 to 72 hours per year | Up to 12 weeks per year |
| Typical use | Short absences: illness, appointments, caring for a family member | Serious health conditions, childbirth, caring for a family member with a serious condition |
| Job protection | Yes, with anti-retaliation provisions | Yes, explicit restoration right |
Where the two overlap, an absence can be covered by both: a serious health condition qualifying for FMLA can also be a permitted use of state sick leave. Employers may generally require accrued paid leave to run concurrently with unpaid FMLA leave, with one important limit.
The limit applies when an employee is drawing compensated benefits from a state or local paid family and medical leave program. Because that portion of the leave is not unpaid, the FMLA substitution provision (the rule that lets accrued paid leave run alongside unpaid FMLA leave) does not reach it.
Neither the employer nor the employee can then unilaterally require employer-provided paid leave to run concurrently with the compensated portion, per Wage and Hour Division opinion letter FMLA2025-01-A (Department of Labor, January 14, 2025). The two sides may still agree, where state law permits, to use paid leave to top up a partial benefit.
Where Small Employers Actually Get Caught
Almost none of the failures below involve a business deciding not to comply. They involve a business that thought it was complying and got a detail wrong.
The last one is worth dwelling on because it defeats an otherwise correct policy. If your attendance system assigns points for absences and does not exclude protected sick leave, an employee who uses their legal entitlement accumulates points toward discipline. That is retaliation regardless of intent, and it is common in businesses with shift-based attendance tracking. If you run an attendance point system, build the sick leave exclusion in explicitly.
The Compliance Checklist
A working document covering the state-by-state assessment, the policy decisions, tracking, and the quarterly review this topic requires.
Section 8 is the part that distinguishes this topic from most compliance work. A pregnancy or overtime policy written correctly stays correct for years. Paid sick leave does not: states added mandates in 2025, one repealed its law, and thresholds are scheduled to change. A quarterly reminder is the entire maintenance requirement, and it is the step most businesses skip.
Staying Current as the Laws Change
Staying current takes a scheduled review rather than a one-time setup, because paid sick leave laws keep changing. The 2025 and 2026 changes illustrate the pace.
Alaska's mandate took effect on July 1, 2025, and Nebraska's on October 1, 2025 at employers with 11 or more employees (Nebraska Department of Labor). The Missouri mandate took effect on May 1, 2025 and was repealed effective August 28, 2025 (Missouri Department of Labor).
Connecticut is still phasing in. Employers with 11 or more employees are covered now, every employer is covered from January 1, 2027, and accrual runs at one hour per 30 hours worked up to 40 hours a year (Connecticut Department of Labor).
Michigan and Oregon moved as well. Michigan's Earned Sick Time Act took effect on February 21, 2025, and on October 1, 2025 for employers with 10 or fewer employees. Employers below 11 employees may cap use at 40 hours a year against 72 hours at larger employers, so the size line changes the entitlement rather than removing it (Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity).
Oregon added blood donation to the list of qualifying uses of sick time on January 1, 2026, for donations made through a program approved or accredited by the American Association of Blood Banks or the American Red Cross (Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries).
None of those changes announced themselves to affected employers. The practical approach for a small business is a recurring quarterly calendar reminder to check each state where you have someone working, using the state labor department website rather than a secondary source. Fifteen minutes per state, four times a year. A standing compliance calendar is the easiest way to make that review actually recur.
Two authoritative starting points: the Department of Labor for the federal position, and each state's own labor department for its rules. Vendor guides, including this one, are useful for orientation and should not be your source of record for a compliance decision.
The paperwork side is where a small team loses the most time. FirstHR stores the written policy and each employee's record, collects signed acknowledgments through built-in e-signature, and puts the policy into every new hire's onboarding, while accrual balances come from your payroll or time tracking system.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which states require paid sick leave?
In 17 states and the District of Columbia, private sector employers must provide paid sick leave. That is the count in the Congressional Research Service report on paid sick leave dated April 28, 2026. Illinois, Maine, and Nevada require paid leave that employees may use for any reason, illness included, which brings the total to 21 jurisdictions with a mandate of some kind. In Pennsylvania the rules are local only: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Allegheny County have ordinances, but there is no statewide law. Missouri had a mandate for a short time, until its repeal took effect on August 28, 2025.
Is paid sick leave required by federal law?
No. Federal law does not make private employers offer paid sick leave. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act created emergency paid sick leave during the pandemic, but that requirement expired on December 31, 2020, and the tax credit tied to it ended in 2021. The Family and Medical Leave Act does protect an eligible employee's job for up to 12 weeks of leave, but only if the employer has 50 or more employees, and none of that time has to be paid. If you owe paid sick leave at all, the obligation comes from a state or local law, or from your own policy.
Do small businesses have to provide paid sick leave?
It depends entirely on the state, and in most states that have a mandate the answer is yes. A large number of states with paid sick leave laws, including California, Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Washington, apply the requirement to every employer regardless of size. Others set a threshold, commonly around 10 or 11 employees. A few, including New York and Michigan, keep small employers covered but reduce the entitlement. Assuming that being small means being exempt is one of the most common and expensive mistakes at this scale.
How much paid sick leave do employers have to provide?
The most common rule is accrual: an employee earns one hour of paid sick leave for each 30 hours worked, and state law caps how much of it can be used in a year. Those annual caps commonly run from 24 to 72 hours, with the figure set by each state and, in several states, by the size of the employer. Some states set a different accrual rate. Vermont's is one hour for every 52 hours worked, and some laws use one hour for every 40. The legal amount is only a floor, and you can always give more. Many employers do, so that a single policy works in every state where they have staff.
Which state's law applies to a remote employee?
Generally, it is the law of the state the employee physically works in. Your state of registration and the location of your office do not decide it. If your company is headquartered in Texas and one employee works remotely from California, California's paid sick leave rules cover that employee. The rule catches small businesses that hire remotely without realizing the hire changed their compliance obligations. A single employee in a new state can also create registration, tax, and leave obligations at the same time.
Can I use a single PTO bank instead of separate sick leave?
In most states with paid sick leave laws, yes, provided the combined bank meets or exceeds everything the state sick leave law requires: the amount available, the permitted uses, the accrual timing, carryover, and the rules on documentation and notice. The complication is that a combined bank must satisfy all of those simultaneously, which is manageable in one state and difficult across several. Where you operate in multiple states, separate tracking is usually easier to defend.
Do employers have to pay out unused sick leave when someone leaves?
Usually not. State paid sick leave laws generally make payout at separation optional, although Washington requires it for certain construction workers who separate before reaching the 90-day point at which they could start using the leave. This differs from accrued vacation, which several states do treat as earned wages that must be paid out. The important caution is that if your own policy promises to pay out unused sick time, state law can hold you to that promise as a wage obligation, even though the statute does not require the payout. Leave a payout provision out of your policy unless you plan to honor it.
Can I require a doctor's note for sick leave?
Usually only after the employee has been out a certain number of days in a row, commonly three, and the exact rule varies from state to state. Many jurisdictions prohibit requiring documentation for a one-day absence. Some states also make the employer pay for the paperwork: Michigan puts every out-of-pocket expense of obtaining the documentation on the employer, and Oregon makes the employer pay the associated costs of any medical verification it requires. Before asking for a note after a short absence, check the day count in the state where the employee works.
Can an employee use sick leave for a family member?
In nearly every state with a paid sick leave law, yes. Covered uses typically include the employee's own illness, care for a family member, preventive care and medical appointments, and in most states safe leave relating to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. The definition of family member is often broad and in several states extends beyond immediate relatives to any individual whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship. Check your state definition rather than assuming.
What happens if I do not comply with state paid sick leave law?
Consequences vary by state but commonly include payment of the leave that was denied, liquidated or double damages in some jurisdictions, civil penalties per violation, and attorney fees. Several states allow a private right of action, meaning an employee can sue directly rather than only filing with an agency. The practical exposure for a small business is larger than the individual claim, because a policy applied to one employee was almost always applied to everyone, which turns a single complaint into a group of them.
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