An Introduction on Paid Sick Leave for 2025
The importance of paid sick leave laws cannot be understated. Federal law does not require employers in the United States to provide paid sick leave to employees. Because of this, each state and local municipality is largely free to enact whichever laws they would like, as long as it does not violate another federal, state, or local law.
Paid sick leave laws have become an increasingly popular issue for both state and local governments in the past several years. Over half of the states in the country currently have a paid sick leave law in place, with more states considering passing such laws as 2025 approaches. As these laws continue to develop, employers should stay up to date on the current state or locality in which they operate to remain compliant and avoid liability.
In addition to the increasing number of paid sick leave laws , it is becoming more and more common for states to amend existing laws, therefore changing the rights of employees and the obligations of employers. Employers should stay up to date both on the laws that may affect them in their states, as well as in all other states in which their employees may work – as this could expose them to liability if an employee works in a state that differs from the one in which the employer is located.
In reviewing this section of the blog, you will find an overview of the existing state-by-state laws for paid sick leave in 2025. However, it is important to note that states may continue to amend these laws as 2025 approaches. Therefore, it is important that employers stay up-to-date on any changes in the laws in certain states or localities in order to avoid potential liability.
Comparing Federal and State Paid Sick Leave Laws
Employers should also be aware of the difference between state and federal paid sick leave laws for their employees. States are free to impose their own regulations that go beyond federal law, or they may choose to opt-out of the FMLA entirely.
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) allows eligible employees to take up to twelve weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for certain specific reasons, including personal or family illness. Employers with fifty or more employees within a seventy-five mile radius must provide this benefit to their employees once they meet the eligibility requirements, regardless of state laws. Currently, the FMLA allows employers to choose whether disabled employees can use paid leave benefits or sick days to receive pay while they are on leave. However, many states are taking steps to change that.
States with paid sick leave laws vary in their coverage and requirements. As of 2025, there are states which do require that an employee can elect to use the paid leave benefits and sick days under the FMLA. Therefore, employers subject to both laws must ensure compliance with both. This can be a confusing concept because federal law does not mandate any form of paid sick leave, but that does not prevent states from enacting their own laws.
For example, California’s paid sick leave law requires employees to be allowed to use one-half of their accrued sick leave, not just the paid time off benefits, while on leave as outlined by the FMLA. An employer in a non-FMLA state generally has less than fifty employees, therefore is not subject to FMLA, and does not provide paid leave benefits or sick days. However, day-to-day business operations may require a non-FMLA employer to offer some form of paid time off. If such an employer abides by California’s paid sick leave law, a worker in California may be able to receive compensation for taking time off from work that could have otherwise been unpaid.
States that already require paid sick leave may not see a significant change in their paid leave laws. In Oregon, employers can require workers to use their accrued paid time off benefits, but if the state-paid sick leave law is applicable, employers are not responsible for paying for the hourly wages of a worker on leave. On the contrary, the federal government will have no such laws in place to potentially conflict with state laws.
Federal law is not expected to change by bringing paid sick leave benefits into effect by way of the FMLA. However, states have enacted or are considering legislation to cover all workers in their jurisdictions—which would cover workers employed by companies not subject to the FMLA—and businesses are responsible for their wage and hour laws. Due to this potentiality, employers should be aware of the differences between state and federal law.
Changes to State Paid Sick Leave Laws in 2025
As of January 1, 2025, Utah will have a state-wide minimum paid sick leave requirement. This law requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide a minimum of 24 hours of paid leave per year for an employee’s own medical condition, their family member’s medical condition, or certain legal or victimization issues. Including Utah, 16 states and D.C. will have state-wide paid sick leave laws by the beginning of 2025.
Utah will be the second state to require a minimum amount of paid sick leave. Oregon’s law is the only other paid leave law with a minimum paid leave requirement, mandating 40 hours/year as of January 1, 2018. Most paid leave laws allow employers to choose between offering a lump sum of time (e.g., 40 hours) annually and allowing employees to accrue paid time off over the course of the year.
Nevada’s paid leave law will also go into effect in 2025. Nevada’s law requires employers to offer accrued paid sick leave and new hire or notice postings.
California’s law is set to make a significant change at the start of the 2025 calendar year as the employee threshold decreases from 26 employees to 5 employees.
In addition to becoming the state with the second highest number of paid sick leave laws, Arizona will have a rare paid sick leave law that bases its accrual rate on each employee’s regular rate of pay. Currently, 12 laws have an hourly accrual rate, making it less complicated for employers to administer.
The scheduled changes in labor market trends and legislation over the next two years will dramatically increase the number of employees who become eligible to accrue paid sick leave under existing state laws. The number of employees and employers in states with paid sick leave laws that have gone into effect in 2020 and 2021 will increase from 46 million to 77 million. New York has one of the highest percentages of employees who work for an employer with paid sick leave in the United States, at 79% in 2021.
The increase in the number of people eligible to accrue paid sick leave under state laws poses new opportunities for litigation for employers and plaintiff’s counsel in 2025 and beyond. Moreover, until there is a federal law that preempts state paid sick leave laws, employers will continue to grapple with the requirements and burdens of being compliant with state paid sick leave laws.
State-by-State Framework
Employers must navigate a complicated patchwork of paid sick leave laws by state. The table below summarizes main components of these laws, including the accrual rate, maximum amount of required paid sick leave, and employer obligations.
California
Accrual Rate: 1 hour for every 30 hours worked
Maximum: 48 hours or 6 days in a 12-month period
Employer Obligations: Must maintain accurate records of hours worked and payment of wages; 10-year record retention
Colorado
Accrual Rate: 1 hour for every 30 hours worked
Maximum: 48 hours or 6 days in a 12-month period
Employer Obligations: Must allow employees to use paid sick leave for their own health needs and those of family members, or to attend the closing of an employee’s place of business to care for a child whose school or place of care is closed or to care for a child whose health care provider is unavailable; not required to provide paid sick leave to exempt employees on a salary basis if they do not work more than 4 hours in a week; employees may not be disciplined for using paid sick leave
Connecticut
Accrual Rate: 1 hour for every 40 hours worked
Maximum: 40 hours or 5 days in a 12-month period
Employer Obligations: Must allow employees to use paid sick leave for themselves or to care for a child, spouse, civil union partner or parent; not required to provide paid sick leave to an exempt employee if they do not perform work for more than 20 hours in a week
Washington, Oregon and Arizona
Accrual Rate: 1 hour for every 50 hours worked
Maximum: 52 hours in a 12-month period
Employer Obligations: Must allow employees to use paid sick leave for themselves or a child; employees may not be disciplined for using paid sick leave; employees in Washington may only use paid sick leave for their own medical condition.
Effects on Businesses and Compliance Implications
As we gear up for the 2025 implementation of 11 paid sick leave laws, changes to other paid sick leave laws could occur. We are already seeing proposed bills in multiple states that have been prepared for introduction in 2025. Cities are busy passing wage theft ordinances, expanding non-discrimination, and public accommodation laws that may increase financial penalties as well.
So what does this mean for businesses? As employers are discovering, this extensive, myriad patchwork of state-mandated paid sick leave laws (in addition to the patchwork of state and federal wage and hour laws) make multi-state operations increasingly difficult. Employers must keep up with the various requirements, leave accrual, and availability of each locality in which it operates, for each employee. Employers who don’t track and administer their paid leave properly could face steep fines. The penalties for flouting the laws are hefty. San Francisco is a "name and shame" enforcement city that will post an employer’s name if ordered to pay a fine. The state of Connecticut can impose a fine of up to $1 , 000 per violation. Massachusetts has not yet set its fine, but similar to the Connecticut law, employers would have up to 30 days after receiving a written warning to correct any violations.
Not only are there local laws employers need to comply with, but as shown by the Clarity Advantage Corporation case, there might also be local administrative rules created. Subsequently, if the local rules are not followed, there could be civil liabilities.
The high cost of doing business in states and cities with a density of paid sick leave laws, along with the uncertainty regarding how these leave laws will evolve, causes many employers to consider outsourcing to PEOs. While outsourcing can free up some bandwidth, the onus still remains with the outside vendor to comply with the ever-changing state and local leave laws. As such, it may be advisable for business owners to work with an experienced employment attorney to help navigate through these issues.
FAQs for Paid Sick Leave in 2025
Q: I’m a restaurant owner. Must I provide paid sick leave to every one of my employees, including high school and college-aged workers, interns, and casual helpers?
A: Most likely, yes. In 2025, if the federal law is upheld and your state doesn’t have a better law, you must provide employees with at least 40 hours of paid sick leave per year, regardless of age or job title.
Q: My state currently has an employee’s rights policy, notifying employees that they may not be retaliated against for reporting unpaid sick time or wages. With the new paid sick leave requirements, am I now obligated to fire or discipline employees who can’t provide medical documentation on short notice?
A: Not unless you want to risk being sued for discrimination. Under the new regulations, you may not retaliate against a worker for requesting or using paid sick leave. That’s not too much of a stretch from what’s already illegal under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). A high school worker or intern may have a legitimate reason for needing sick leave.
Q: How quickly must I respond to a sick leave request from an employee?
A: You must immediately respond to requests for sick leave up to 7 days in length. For leave longer than 7 days, you must respond within 5 days, and give them a document showing the start and end date of their approved leave.
Q: What if my employee goes back to work before finishing their paid sick leave?
A: You cannot allow them to return to work until the full number of hours has been taken.
Q: I’m worried about losing business because of the new paid sick leave policy I must put in place in 2025.
A: You could be in big trouble, especially if you don’t implement and enforce this policy uniformly across employees. Workers may complain that they’re being forced to use leave when they don’t need it, for fear of being retaliated against. Heed their warnings: to help strengthen your worker’s advice, ensure you include the following:
- A complaint-easy process with multiple ways to access forms;
- Email confirmation of form receipt, and contact information for the HR representative who received the form; and
- Rigid and consistent policies on why sick leave may be taken, as well as ways to track employee whereabouts while on "vacation."
Trends on the Paid Sick Leave Horizon
As we look further into the future, there is a growing body of opinion that the current wave of paid sick leave laws in the states may be the part of a trend that will not be easily reversed in the years, and perhaps decades, ahead. According to such labor experts, while it is possible that some jurisdictions will repeal their paid leave laws during a period when legislators or other officials are able to pass such a repeal, significant movements of voters to repeal such laws have not generally been successful. And while the continuing struggle between Democrats (who favor paid sick leave) and Republicans (who generally oppose such laws) have made this an issue on which broad demographics may alter the prospects for paid leave laws, those demographics are still significantly behind in terms of numbers as compared to Democrats. Thus, they review how paid leave states have increased in what has begun to appear to be a wave of paid leave laws taking effect following a period of significant inertia, essentially driven by perceptions that failure to adopt such laws in the current political climate are unlikely.
That said, while economic factors are more or less in equilibrium, predictions are that as the economy sours (such as what occurred during the Great Recession), employers will resist laws that increase their costs, including paid leave. As evidenced by the political stalemate being experienced by Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C., such laws are likely much easier to pass in periods of economic growth and prosperity. And once such laws are passed, economists and labor experts predict that the counter trend of repeal is likely to arise in periods of significant economic downturn.
Conclusion: Looking Ahead to 2025
As the landscape of paid sick leave continues to evolve, it is crucial for both employers and employees to remain informed about the current laws and any upcoming changes. In 2025, the patchwork of state laws may look different, and it will be important for individuals and businesses to stay up to date.
To summarize the key points to know about paid sick leave laws by state in 2025: Looking ahead, it is clear that paid leave laws will continue to change over the next three years. Employees should carefully stay up to date with the laws in their state, and make sure to utilize the benefits that they are entitled to . Similarly, employers should proactively monitor the evolution of paid sick leave laws to ensure that their programs are compliant, and to avoid costly mistakes down the road.
There are many excellent resources that track and analyze paid sick leave laws by state, including a blog that is dedicated to the evolving world of paid sick leave. Many of these resources also have mobile applications that can help users more easily access the tools that they provide. Remaining aware of the current and future paid sick leave laws will substantially benefit both employees and employers alike.