Paid sick leave laws by state
Accrual rates, annual caps and carryover rules for every US state that mandates paid sick leave, with a link to the primary statute on each page.
This is informational, not legal advice. Figures are checked against Congressional Research Service report R48921 (a public-domain US government work) and each state's labour department, and every rule links to its primary source. Statutes change every legislative session, most often on 1 January and 1 July — confirm before setting a policy.
21 states and territories mandate paid sick leave
Note the accrual denominators. Most use 30, but four do not — and those are the ones generic leave trackers get wrong.
| State | Law | Accrual rate | Annual cap | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | Alaska Paid Sick Leave (Ballot Measure 1) | 1 : 30 | 56 hrs | Details |
| Arizona | Fair Wages and Healthy Families Act | 1 : 30 | 40 hrs | Details |
| California | Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act | 1 : 30 | 80 hrs | Details |
| Colorado | Healthy Families and Workplaces Act | 1 : 30 | 48 hrs | Details |
| Connecticut | Connecticut Paid Sick Leave | 1 : 30 | 40 hrs | Details |
| District of Columbia | Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act | 1 : 37 | 56 hrs | Details |
| Illinois | Paid Leave for All Workers Act | 1 : 40 | 40 hrs | Details |
| Maine | Maine Earned Paid Leave | 1 : 40 | 40 hrs | Details |
| Maryland | Maryland Healthy Working Families Act | 1 : 30 | 40 hrs | Details |
| Massachusetts | Massachusetts Earned Sick Time Law | 1 : 30 | 40 hrs | Details |
| Michigan | Michigan Earned Sick Time Act | 1 : 30 | 72 hrs | Details |
| Minnesota | Minnesota Earned Sick and Safe Time | 1 : 30 | 48 hrs | Details |
| Nebraska | Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act | 1 : 30 | 56 hrs | Details |
| Nevada | Nevada Paid Leave | 1 : 52 | 40 hrs | Details |
| New Jersey | New Jersey Earned Sick Leave Law | 1 : 30 | 40 hrs | Details |
| New Mexico | Healthy Workplaces Act | 1 : 30 | 64 hrs | Details |
| New York | New York State Paid Sick Leave | 1 : 30 | 56 hrs | Details |
| Oregon | Oregon Sick Time Law | 1 : 30 | 40 hrs | Details |
| Rhode Island | Healthy and Safe Families and Workplaces Act | 1 : 35 | 40 hrs | Details |
| Vermont | Vermont Earned Sick Time | 1 : 52 | 40 hrs | Details |
| Washington | Washington Paid Sick Leave | 1 : 40 | no cap | Details |
States with no current mandate
Federal FMLA leave is unpaid, and city ordinances may still apply even where the state is silent.
These rules are not a blog post. They run the accrual engine.
The same table that generates these pages is what computes statutory balances inside PTODesk. Apply a state's defaults to a leave policy in one click, and when a legislature changes something you can see the effective date it changed on.