Arizona Paid Sick Leave Poster: Content, Display, and Penalties

Every private employer in Arizona has to display the Arizona paid sick leave poster in a spot where employees will see it, in both English and Spanish, using the free notice the Industrial Commission of Arizona publishes. The requirement comes from A.R.S. § 23-375, and skipping it starts at a $250 civil penalty and climbs from there.¹

Where to Get the Official Poster

The Industrial Commission of Arizona hosts the earned paid sick time notice as a free PDF on its “Posters Employers Must Display” page, with English and Spanish versions available for direct download.² You do not need to buy anything from a compliance vendor. Print the PDF on standard letter or legal paper and check that the text is still legible after printing.

The same page lists the other mandatory Arizona workplace posters, so it’s worth pulling the full set at once. Section 23-375(D) directs the commission to produce the model notices and provide them to employers at no cost, which is why the download is free.¹

What the Poster Has to Say

Section 23-375(A) lists five things every notice has to cover. The commission’s model poster includes them all, which is the main reason to use it rather than draft your own.

That employees are entitled to earn paid sick time, and how much they can accrue.
The terms under which sick time can be used.
That retaliation for requesting or using sick time is prohibited.
That employees have the right to file a complaint if sick time is denied or if they are retaliated against.
Contact information for the Industrial Commission of Arizona.

The accrual figures the poster references come from A.R.S. § 23-372: one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Employees at businesses with 15 or more workers can accrue and use up to 40 hours per year; at smaller employers, the cap is 24 hours.³

Language Requirements

English and Spanish are the baseline. Section 23-375(B) also requires the notice in any additional language the Industrial Commission designates as appropriate.¹ If your workforce primarily speaks something other than English or Spanish, check the commission’s poster page for additional translations before assuming the two-language default covers you.

Where and How to Display It

The poster goes in a conspicuous location where employees will actually see it during a normal workday. Break rooms, employee lounges, and the area around a time clock are the usual choices. If your operation spans multiple floors or separate buildings, put one up in each distinct work area so no employee has to go looking for it.

Remote and mobile workers complicate things. Sending the notice by email or making it available on a company intranet can help reach staff who never come into a central office, but any location where employees do report in person still needs a physical poster. The U.S. Department of Labor has said that posting a notice on a company website alone does not replace physical posting where physical posting is otherwise required.⁴

Which Employers Must Post the Notice

The definition of “employer” in A.R.S. § 23-371 sweeps in almost every private business operating in Arizona: corporations, sole proprietorships, partnerships, joint ventures, LLCs, trusts, and political subdivisions of the state. A business with a single employee is covered.⁵

Only two employers are outside the law: the State of Arizona itself and the United States government.⁵ Small employers get a lower accrual cap for their workers, but the posting obligation does not scale with headcount. If you employ people in Arizona and you are not one of those two governments, you post the notice.

Penalties for Not Posting

Civil penalties for notice and posting violations come from A.R.S. § 23-364(F). A first violation carries a minimum $250 fine. Each subsequent or willful violation carries a minimum $1,000 fine. Those are floors. The Industrial Commission or a court can also impose special monitoring and inspections on repeat offenders, which puts wage and hour practices under ongoing scrutiny well beyond the poster itself.⁶

A complaint about a missing poster often arrives alongside a complaint about denied sick time or retaliation, and once an investigator is looking, accrual records and paycheck attachments come into view too. Employees who believe their employer has failed to post the notice or has otherwise violated the sick time law can file using the Earned Paid Sick Time Claim Form on the commission’s website.⁷

Retaliation Language Isn’t Just Words on a Wall

The poster tells employees that retaliation is illegal, and A.R.S. § 23-374 gives that statement force. Employers cannot interfere with, restrain, or deny any right under the sick time article, including by punishing someone for requesting or using sick time, filing a complaint, cooperating with an investigation, or telling a coworker about the law.⁸

A specific trap for employers: attendance policies cannot count protected sick time as an unexcused absence that leads to discipline, demotion, or termination. A point-based attendance system that docks employees for using earned sick time is out of compliance, regardless of whether the poster is up. Protections extend to anyone who reports a suspected violation in good faith.⁸

The Poster Is Not the Paycheck Requirement

The poster and the paycheck stub obligation are two separate rules that get confused constantly. Section 23-375(C) requires that every paycheck, or an attachment to it, show the employee’s available sick time balance, sick time used so far that year, and sick pay received.¹ Displaying the poster does not satisfy that requirement, and tracking sick time on pay stubs does not satisfy the poster requirement. Both apply, and both carry penalties independently.

1
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-375 – Notice
2
Industrial Commission of Arizona. Posters Employers Must Display
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-372 – Accrual of Earned Paid Sick Time
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Posters – Frequently Asked Questions
5
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-371 – Definitions
6
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-364 – Enforcement
7
Industrial Commission of Arizona. Earned Paid Sick Time Complaint Form Instructions
8
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-374 – Retaliation and Interference Prohibited