Company Blog
Paid Sick Leave Laws by State
January 13, 2020
Over the last decade, an increasing number of US states and cities have passed legislation to provide employees with paid sick leave as a standard employee benefit. Currently, the list of states with earned paid sick time laws include:
- Arizona
- California
- Connecticut
- Maine (starting in 2021)
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- New Jersey
- Oregon
- Rhode Island
- Vermont
- Washington
- Washington DC
In addition to these states, there are many cities that have passed their own earned paid sick leave laws. The chart below outlines the current sick time laws for each state listed above.
| State | Earned Paid Sick Time | Date Enacted | Important Notes |
| Arizona | 1 hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked. Annual cap: 24 hours or 40 hours | 7/1/2017 | Employers with 15 or fewer employees must provide 24 hours of paid sick leave each year. Employers with more than 15 employees must provide 40 hours each year. |
| California | 1 hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked. Annual cap: 48 hours | 7/1/2015 | Employers must allow use of at least 24 hours (or 3 days) or provide at least 24 hours (or 3 days) paid sick leave at the beginning of a 12 month period. Paid sick leave must carry over from year to year, but employers can place a cap on accrual of 48 hours. |
| Connecticut | 1 hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked. Annual cap: 40 hours | 1/1/2012 | Employers with 50 or more employees in any one quarter of the previous year must provide paid sick leave. Employees can carry over up to 40 unused accrued sick leave hours to the next year, but no employee can use more than 40 hours in any calendar year. |
| Maine | 1 hour of paid sick time for every 40 hours worked. Annual cap: 40 hours | 1/1/2021 | Employers who employ 10 or more people who work more than 120 hours annually must provide paid sick time. |
| Maryland | 1 hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Annual cap: 40 hours | 2/11/2018 | Employers with 15 or more employees must provide earned sick leave. Employers may offer accrual or may offer the entire 40 hours of leave at the beginning of the year. Employers with 14 or fewer employees must offer unpaid sick time. |
| Massachusetts | 1 hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Annual cap: 40 hours | 7/15/2015 | Employers with 11 or more employees must provide paid sick leave. Employers with fewer than 11 employees must provide up to 40 hours of unpaid sick time per calendar year. |
| Michigan | 1 hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Annual cap: 40 hours or 72 hours | 3/1/2019 | Employers with 10 or more employees may accrue up to 72 hours of paid sick time per year. Earned sick time carries over from year to year, but the annual maximums apply. Employers with fewer than 10 employees may accrue up to a maximum of 40 hours of paid sick time and 32 hours of unpaid sick time. |
| New Jersey | 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Annual cap: 40 hours | 10/29/2018 | Employers may award the full 40 hours at the beginning of the benefit year. |
| Oregon | 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Annual cap: 40 hours | 1/1/2016 | Employers with 10 or more employees must provide paid sick leave. Employers with fewer than 10 employees must provide up to 40 hours of unpaid sick time per calendar year. |
| Rhode Island | 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 35 hours worked. Annual cap: 40 hours | 7/1/2018 | Employers with 18 or more employees must offer paid sick leave. Employers with fewer than 18 employees must provide unpaid sick leave. |
| Vermont | 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 52 hours worked. Annual cap: 40 hours | 1/1/2017 | |
| Washington | 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked. No annual cap | 1/1/2018 | Employers have the option to front-load, providing a fixed number of sick leave hours in advance to employees, provided they meet the law’s accrual, use, and carryover requirements. Employees must be allowed to carry over up to 40 hours of their accrued but unused sick leave. |
| Washington DC | Based on number of employees. | 11/13/2008 | Employers with fewer than 25 employees: Employees accrue one hour per 87 hours worked. Annual cap: 24 hours. Employers with 25 – 99 employees: Employees accrue one hour per 43 hours worked. Annual cap: 40 hours. Employers with 100 or more employees: Employees accrue one hour per 37 hours worked. Annual cap: 56 hours. |
Looking for a way to accurately track earned sick leave hours for your employees? Virtual TimeClock leave tracking allows you to configure sick time accruals based on hours worked with a maximum award cap. For information, review the Overview of Leave Tracking article.
To get started with a free trial of Virtual TimeClock, visit our Free Trial page.
This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to provide legal, regulatory, accounting, or tax advice.
