Arizona Sick Time Law: Accrual, Carryover, and Retaliation

Arizona’s sick time law, enacted through the Fair Wages and Healthy Families Act (Proposition 206), gives nearly every private-sector employee in the state paid sick time that begins accruing on the first day of work. You earn one hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year if your employer has 15 or more employees and up to 24 hours a year if it has fewer.¹ You can use that time for your own illness, to care for a family member, during a public health emergency, or to deal with the aftermath of domestic violence, sexual violence, abuse, or stalking.²

Who the Law Covers

If you work for a private employer in Arizona, you’re almost certainly covered, whether you’re full-time, part-time, temporary, or seasonal. Employees of cities, counties, and other political subdivisions are covered too. Even people who perform work as a condition of receiving public benefits qualify as employees under the Act.³

Two groups fall outside the law: federal employees and employees of the State of Arizona. The statute explicitly excludes both from its definition of “employer.”³ City and county workers, though, are in.

How Much You Earn and When You Can Use It

Accrual runs at one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours you work. The annual cap depends on employer size:¹

Employers with 15 or more employees: up to 40 hours per year.
Employers with fewer than 15 employees: up to 24 hours per year.

Nothing stops an employer from offering more. Accrual itself starts on day one, but your employer can require you to wait up to 90 calendar days before actually using any of what you’ve earned. After that waiting period, you can use hours as fast as you accrue them.¹

Employers don’t have to track hours as they add up. They can frontload the full annual allotment at the start of the year, in which case the whole bank is available immediately. And if your employer already has a paid time off or vacation policy that gives you at least as much leave, usable for the same reasons under the same conditions, that existing policy satisfies the statute. No separate sick time bank is required.¹

What You Can Use Sick Time For

Arizona allows earned paid sick time for four broad categories of absences:²

Your own physical or mental health: treatment, diagnosis, or preventive care.
The same kind of care for a qualifying family member.
A public health emergency: your workplace or your child’s school is closed by a public official, or a health authority determines your presence in the community could endanger others because of exposure to a communicable disease.
Domestic violence, sexual violence, abuse, or stalking: medical care, counseling, victim-assistance services, relocation, securing your home, and related legal proceedings, whether the leave is for you or a family member.

Family is defined broadly. It includes children (biological, adopted, foster, and stepchildren), parents, spouses, domestic partners, grandparents, grandchildren, and siblings, plus anyone related by blood or whose close association with you is the equivalent of a family relationship.³ A close friend you’d care for like family can qualify.

Notice and Documentation

When you know in advance you’ll need time off, tell your employer as early as you can. When something comes up suddenly, make a good-faith effort to notify your employer before your shift. Follow whatever call-in procedure your employer has in place.

Your employer can only require documentation when you miss three or more consecutive workdays. A signed note from a healthcare professional confirming that sick time was necessary is enough, and it doesn’t have to disclose your diagnosis.² For a one- or two-day absence, no proof can be demanded.

Carryover, Termination, and Rehire

Unused hours carry over to the next year, but the annual usage cap (40 or 24 hours) still applies. Carryover preserves what you didn’t spend; it doesn’t let you use more than the statute allows in a given year. As an alternative to carryover, your employer can pay you for unused hours at the end of the year and then give you a fresh, compliant allotment at the start of the next.¹

If your job ends, your employer does not have to cash out your unused sick time. The statute is explicit that no such right exists.¹

Come back within nine months, though, and your previously accrued balance must be reinstated. You also don’t have to serve a new 90-day waiting period before using it. The one exception: if your employer voluntarily paid you out for those hours when you left, the Industrial Commission of Arizona has said it will not enforce reinstatement against that employer.⁴

Retaliation and How to File a Complaint

Your employer cannot fire you, demote you, cut your pay, or otherwise punish you for using earned sick time or asserting your rights under the Act. It also cannot count protected sick time as an absence in an attendance or “points” system that leads to discipline.⁵ That second piece is the one employers most often get wrong: a legitimate use of sick time cannot generate points against you.

If your employer takes negative action against you within 90 days of your using sick time or filing a complaint, the law presumes that action was retaliation. Overcoming that presumption requires clear and convincing evidence of a legitimate reason, which is a high bar.⁶

The Industrial Commission of Arizona enforces the law.⁷ You can file an Earned Paid Sick Time Claim through the ICA’s online portal, providing your employment details, the sick time at issue, and a written statement of what happened. You can ask the ICA to keep your identity confidential, and it will not disclose your name without your consent.⁸ Retaliation is a separate claim on a separate form; file both if both apply.

You can also sue directly. The deadline is two years from the last violation, or three years if the violation was willful. The clock pauses while the ICA or another law enforcement agency is investigating, and one lawsuit can cover all violations in a continuing pattern.⁶

Penalties reach employers from several angles. Unpaid sick time is recoverable in full, plus interest, plus an additional amount equal to twice the unpaid amount. Posting, notice, and recordkeeping failures carry their own civil penalties.⁶

How Arizona Sick Time Fits With Federal Leave Laws

Arizona’s paid sick time is separate from federal leave. If your employer has 50 or more employees and you’ve worked there at least 12 months with 1,250 hours logged, you may also qualify for up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. FMLA is limited to serious health conditions involving inpatient care or ongoing treatment, a higher threshold than Arizona sick time uses. In practice, you can apply your Arizona paid hours during an FMLA-qualifying absence so you keep getting paid.

For workers with disabilities at employers with 15 or more employees, the Americans with Disabilities Act may require additional unpaid leave as a reasonable accommodation, even after Arizona sick time and FMLA leave are used up. The ADA has no fixed cap; the employer has to show that additional leave would be an undue hardship.

1
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 23-372 – Accrual of Earned Paid Sick Time
2
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 23-373 – Use of Earned Paid Sick Time
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 23-371 – Definitions
4
Industrial Commission of Arizona. Frequently Asked Questions About Minimum Wage and Earned Paid Sick Time
5
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 23-374 – Exercise of Rights Protected; Retaliation Prohibited
6
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 23-364 – Enforcement
7
Industrial Commission of Arizona. Labor – Minimum Wage Main Page
8
Industrial Commission of Arizona. Earned Paid Sick Time Claim Form