California paid sick leave rules entitle most employees to at least 40 hours, or five days, of paid time off each year for their own health, a family member’s health, or certain safety situations. The Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, expanded by SB 616 as of January 1, 2024, sets the floor.1Department of Industrial Relations. Healthy Workplace Healthy Family Act of 2014 Some cities require more.
Who Qualifies
You qualify if you work in California for the same employer for 30 or more days within a year of being hired. Part-time, temporary, and seasonal workers are covered. There is no minimum weekly hours threshold.1Department of Industrial Relations. Healthy Workplace Healthy Family Act of 2014
Hours start building from your first day, but you can’t actually use any until your 90th day on the job.2Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions The waiting period applies to usage only. Your balance keeps accruing during those first 90 days.
How Hours Build Up
The default method is one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. An employer can use a different schedule as long as you have at least 24 hours by your 120th calendar day and at least 40 hours by your 200th calendar day.2Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions
Two caps matter. Your employer can cap total accrued leave at 80 hours or 10 days, and can cap how much you use in a year at 40 hours or 5 days. Unused time carries over from one year to the next, but once your balance hits the accrual cap, hours stop building until you use some and drop below it.2Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions
Instead of tracking accrual, an employer can front-load the full amount at the start of each year. Under this option, at least 40 hours or 5 days must be available from the beginning of the benefit year. For new hires on the front-load method, 24 hours must be available by the 120th calendar day and the full 40 by the 200th.2Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions Front-loading skips the carryover math.
What You Can Use It For
Paid sick leave covers diagnosis, treatment, or preventive medical care for you or a family member. It also covers time you need as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, whether for safety planning, legal proceedings, counseling, or relocation. Outdoor agricultural employees can use it to avoid smoke, heat, or flooding conditions during a declared state or local emergency.2Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions
Family includes a spouse, registered domestic partner, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, and a “designated person” you identify. SB 616 added the designated person category, which lets you name someone outside the traditional family list who functions as family for you.3California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 246.5 – Paid Sick Days
What Your Employer Can’t Require
You do not have to bring a doctor’s note. California law does not permit an employer to condition paid sick leave on medical certification. An oral or written request is enough, no matter how many days you take.2Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions
You do not have to find your own replacement. Your employer cannot require you to line up someone to cover your shift as a condition of using leave. Any policy that says otherwise conflicts with state law.3California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 246.5 – Paid Sick Days
You do not have to explain why. Labor Code section 247.5 says employers have no obligation to inquire into the purpose of the leave, which also means they have no right to demand a reason.4California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 247.5
How Sick Leave Pay Is Calculated
If you are nonexempt (hourly), leave is paid at your regular, non-overtime rate. Your employer either uses your normal hourly rate for the workweek in which you took the leave, or divides your total non-overtime pay over the previous 90 days by the non-overtime hours worked in that period.2Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions
If you are salaried and exempt, sick leave is paid the same way as your other paid time off. Employers can set a minimum increment for using leave, but that increment cannot exceed two hours. A one-hour medical appointment can be charged as two hours, but no more.2Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions
Retaliation Is Prohibited
Your employer cannot fire, threaten, demote, suspend, or otherwise punish you for using accrued sick days, trying to use them, filing a complaint, cooperating with an investigation, or opposing a policy that violates the law.3California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 246.5 – Paid Sick Days
If adverse action happens within 30 days of any of those protected activities, the law creates a rebuttable presumption that the action was retaliatory. The employer has to prove the action was unrelated, rather than you having to prove it was.3California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 246.5 – Paid Sick Days
Points-based attendance systems cannot assign points for days taken as paid sick leave. Counting protected sick leave as a disciplinary absence is itself a violation.5Department of Industrial Relations. Laws that Prohibit Retaliation and Discrimination
Filing a Complaint
The Labor Commissioner, through the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE), handles paid sick leave complaints. Anyone can report a suspected violation, not just the affected worker. Retaliation complaints must be filed within one year of the retaliatory act.6California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 248.5 – Paid Sick Days
The penalties an employer can face:
- For sick pay unlawfully withheld: three times the amount withheld or $250, whichever is greater, up to $4,000.
- For other harm such as termination: $50 per day the violation continued, up to $4,000.
- Through a civil action by the Labor Commissioner or Attorney General: reinstatement, back pay, the withheld sick days, and liquidated damages up to $4,000.
The caps apply per violation, so an employer who denied leave to several workers faces exposure that stacks.6California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code 248.5 – Paid Sick Days
What Happens to Unused Leave When You Leave
Employers are not required to pay out unused sick leave when you quit, are laid off, or are fired. That is different from vacation, which must be paid out at separation.7Department of Industrial Relations. Final Pay If your employer bundles sick leave into a single PTO bank alongside vacation, the whole balance likely has to be paid out, because California treats PTO the same as vacation for payout purposes.
If the same employer rehires you within 12 months, your previously accrued and unused sick leave has to be reinstated, and you can start using it right away. The exception is if the employer already paid out that balance when you left.2Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions
Cities With Stronger Rules
State law is a floor, not a ceiling. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Berkeley, Santa Monica, San Diego, and other California cities have their own paid sick leave ordinances that can offer higher accrual caps, faster accrual, or broader family definitions. Where a local rule is more generous, the employer must follow the version that benefits you, element by element. If you work in one of these cities, check the local ordinance alongside the state rules.