California’s Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act requires nearly every employer to provide paid sick leave to employees who work in the state for at least 30 days in a year. Employees earn at least 1 hour for every 30 hours worked, and employers must let them use at least 40 hours or five days per year, whichever is more.
Several cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, have their own paid sick leave ordinances. When state and local rules differ, employers follow whichever is more generous to the employee, except on a short list of topics where state law controls.
“Most California sick leave problems I see aren’t about the state minimum. They come from multi-location employers applying one policy everywhere. A policy built around the state’s 40 hours can come up short for a San Francisco employee, who can use everything they accrue, or a Los Angeles employee, who can use 48 hours a year.” — Ryan Parker, Esq.
This guide covers the state rules, compares them with the major city ordinances, and walks through the decisions employers with workers in more than one California location need to make. It reflects the Labor Commissioner’s paid sick leave FAQ, updated December 31, 2025.
Common Questions About California Paid Sick Leave
Who can take paid sick leave in California?
Employees who work for the same employer for at least 30 days within a year in California, including part-time and temporary employees. Employees can start using accrued leave on their 90th day of employment, and employers may lend leave before it’s accrued.
A few groups are fully exempt: construction employees covered by a qualifying collective bargaining agreement, air carrier flight deck and cabin crew who receive equivalent paid time off, railroad employees, and retired annuitants working for government employers. Employees under other qualifying collective bargaining agreements may be partially exempt.
Which employers have to provide this leave?
Every employer with at least one employee in California, regardless of size. Some safe time uses described below depend on whether the employer has 25 or more employees.
How much leave do employers need to provide?
Employees earn at least 1 hour for every 30 hours worked, starting on their first day. Employers can use a different accrual schedule if employees have at least 24 hours by their 120th day of employment and 40 hours by their 200th day. Employers can cap total accrual at 80 hours or 10 days, whichever is more.
Exempt employees accrue as if they work 40 hours a week. If an exempt employee’s normal workweek is shorter, accrual follows their normal workweek.
What can California paid sick leave be used for?
Employees can use paid sick leave:
- For their own or a family member’s diagnosis, care or treatment of an existing health condition, or for preventive care
- When they or a family member is a victim of a qualifying act of violence, to seek a restraining order or other relief and to attend related court proceedings
- Starting January 1, 2026, to attend judicial proceedings related to certain serious crimes committed against them or a family member
- To serve on a jury, or to appear in court as a witness under a subpoena or court order
- If they work outdoors in agriculture, to avoid smoke, heat or flooding during a qualifying state or local emergency
Employers with 25 or more employees must also allow safe time for related medical care, counseling, safety planning, relocation, legal services and childcare. A qualifying act of violence includes domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking, plus acts involving bodily injury or death, firearms or other dangerous weapons, or threats of them. No arrest, prosecution or conviction is required.
Family members include children, parents, spouses, registered domestic partners, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings and one designated person.
How does this relate to other types of leave?
Paid sick leave is separate from California Paid Family Leave, a state insurance program that partially replaces wages, and from job-protected leave under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA).
A PTO policy can satisfy the paid sick leave law if it provides at least as much leave, usable for the same purposes and under the same conditions. Cities can add requirements, so a PTO policy that meets state law may still fall short for employees who work in a city with its own ordinance.
Can employers limit how many hours of sick leave employees use in a year?
Yes, to 40 hours or five days per year, whichever is more. For an employee who works 10-hour shifts, five days is 50 hours, so the employer must allow 50. Some cities set higher limits. Los Angeles employers can cap annual use at 48 hours, and San Francisco employers can’t cap annual use at all, so employees can use everything they’ve accrued.
Can employers provide all the leave at once instead of letting it accrue?
Yes. Employers can give at least 40 hours or five days at the start of each year instead of tracking accrual. When they do, state law requires no accrual and no carryover. New hires still need at least 24 hours available by their 120th day and 40 hours by their 200th day.
City rules can change the math. San Diego treats a 40-hour frontload as meeting its carryover requirement, while Los Angeles requires a frontload of at least 48 hours.
Do employers have to carry over unused leave?
Under an accrual policy, yes. Unused leave carries over to the next year, subject to the employer’s accrual cap of 80 hours or 10 days. Employers that frontload the full amount at the start of each year don’t have to allow carryover under state law. In San Francisco, accrued hours carry over from year to year up to the city’s cap.
What is the smallest amount of leave an employee can use?
Employers can set a reasonable minimum increment of up to two hours. They can’t require employees to take leave in larger blocks, such as a full shift.
How much do employers have to pay for sick leave?
Non-exempt employees are paid at their regular rate, calculated one of two ways:
- Workweek method: the employee’s regular, non-overtime rate for the workweek in which they used leave, whether or not they worked overtime that week.
- 90-day method: the employee’s total pay over the previous 90 days, excluding overtime premiums, divided by the non-overtime hours they worked in the full pay periods within those 90 days.
Exempt employees are paid the same way the employer pays other paid leave, such as vacation. Sick leave must be paid no later than the payday for the next regular payroll period after it’s used.
What notice do employers and employees need to provide?
Employers must:
- Display the Labor Commissioner’s paid sick leave poster where employees can easily read it during the workday. See California labor law poster requirements for the full posting list.
- Give non-exempt employees a written Notice to Employee under Labor Code section 2810.5 at hire, including paid sick leave information.
- Show available paid sick leave or PTO on each pay stub, or in a separate writing provided on payday.
Employees should give reasonable advance notice when leave is foreseeable, and notify the employer as soon as practicable when it isn’t. Leave can be requested orally or in writing.
What verification can employers ask for?
Employers can’t deny paid sick leave just because an employee doesn’t provide a note from a health care provider, and they aren’t required to ask or record why an employee uses leave. The Labor Commissioner says it may be reasonable to ask for documentation in limited circumstances, such as when the employer has information suggesting the leave isn’t being used for a valid purpose.
Are employees’ jobs and benefits protected when they take this leave?
Yes. Employers can’t deny leave, or discharge, threaten, demote, suspend or retaliate against employees for using or requesting paid sick leave, or for filing a complaint. They also can’t require employees to find a replacement as a condition of taking leave.
An employer that unlawfully withholds paid sick leave can owe the employee three times the value of the withheld leave or $250, whichever is greater, up to $4,000. Other violations can carry a penalty of $50 for each day they continue, also capped at $4,000.
Do employers have to pay out unused sick leave at separation?
No, unless the employer’s policy provides for it. If an employee is rehired within one year, previously accrued, unused leave must be reinstated, unless it was paid out under a PTO policy.
How California Law Compares With Local Ordinances
Employers with employees in a city that has its own ordinance must follow whichever rule is more generous to the employee, one rule at a time. State law controls on six topics regardless of what a city requires: lending leave before it’s accrued, pay stub reporting, how sick leave pay is calculated, notice for foreseeable leave, payment timing, and whether unused leave is paid out at separation.
All four jurisdictions below use the same accrual rate of 1 hour for every 30 hours worked. The differences are in coverage, use limits and caps.
| Rule | California | Los Angeles | San Francisco | San Diego |
| Who’s covered | 30+ days of work for the employer in California within a year | 2+ hours of work in the city in a week, and 30+ days with the employer within a year | 56+ hours of work in the city per year | 2+ hours of work in the city in a calendar week |
| Annual use limit employers can set | 40 hours or 5 days, whichever is more | 48 hours | None. Employees can use all accrued leave | 40 hours |
| Accrual cap | 80 hours or 10 days, whichever is more | At least 72 hours | 72 hours (40 for employers with fewer than 10 employees worldwide) | 80 hours |
| Carryover | Yes, up to the cap, unless leave is frontloaded | Yes | Yes, year to year up to the cap | Yes, unless 40 hours are frontloaded |
Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland, Santa Monica, West Hollywood and unincorporated Los Angeles County also have their own paid sick leave ordinances. For city-level detail, see SixFifty’s guides to Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego paid sick leave.
“Don’t compare ordinances as a whole. Compare them rule by rule. An employer can meet San Francisco’s accrual cap and still violate the ordinance by capping annual use at 40 hours, because the city doesn’t allow a use cap. For a multi-location policy, start from the most generous version of each rule that applies to your workforce.” — Ryan Parker, Esq.
California Paid Sick Leave Scenarios for Employers
An employee who works 10-hour shifts
Because the use limit is 40 hours or five days, whichever is more, an employee who works 10-hour shifts can use 50 hours a year. The accrual cap works the same way. Ten days at 10 hours is 100 hours, which is more than 80, so the employer can’t cap this employee’s accrual below 100 hours. A policy that caps everyone at 40 hours of use and 80 hours of accrual is out of compliance for this employee.
Choosing between frontloading and accrual
Frontloading 40 hours at the start of each year removes accrual tracking, and under state law it removes carryover too. The tradeoff is that employees get the full amount on day one of the year, including employees who leave a few months later. Accrual costs less up front but requires tracking hours every pay period and carrying unused leave forward up to the cap. Employers with Los Angeles employees need a frontload of at least 48 hours for those employees.
Paying an employee whose hours and pay vary
An employee’s pay changes week to week with shifts and differentials, so the employer uses the 90-day method. Over the previous 90 days, the employee earned $11,700, excluding overtime premiums, and worked 520 non-overtime hours in the full pay periods within that window. Their sick leave rate is $22.50 an hour, and an 8-hour sick day pays $180. The employer must pay it no later than the next regular payday.
One PTO policy across several cities
An employer gives every California employee 40 hours of PTO a year and caps use at 40 hours. That meets state law for an employee working 8-hour shifts in Sacramento. It falls short for an employee in Los Angeles, who can use 48 hours, and for one in San Francisco, where the employer can’t cap annual use below what the employee has accrued.
Paid Sick Leave Checklist for Multi-Location California Employers
- Map where employees work, including remote employees and anyone who works a few hours a week in another city. Los Angeles and San Diego coverage starts at 2 hours of work in the city in a week, and San Francisco’s at 56 hours a year. For remote teams, see this paid leave compliance checklist for remote and hybrid teams.
- For each rule (use limit, accrual cap, carryover, waiting period and covered uses), identify the most generous version that applies to each group of employees.
- Decide whether to run one policy at the most generous level or separate policies by location. One policy is simpler to administer and harder to get wrong. Separate policies cost less but require tracking where each hour is worked.
- Confirm that pay calculation, pay stub reporting and payment timing follow state law. State rules control those topics in every city.
- Update notices: the state poster, any required city notices, and the Labor Code section 2810.5 notice for new non-exempt hires.
- Update the handbook for the 2025 and 2026 uses, including jury duty, witness appearances and judicial proceedings for crime victims. See California employee handbook requirements and how to choose a California employee handbook builder.
- Review the policy every year. California expanded paid sick leave in 2024, 2025 and 2026, and city rules change on their own schedules.
“For most multi-location employers, I’d recommend one policy set at the most generous level that applies. The extra hours usually cost less than tracking which city every shift was worked in, and a single policy removes the most common mistake I see: applying the wrong city’s rules to an employee.” — Ryan Parker, Esq.
Simplify California Paid Sick Leave with SixFifty
SixFifty helps employers keep paid sick leave policies aligned with California and local requirements, with less administrative work for HR. Schedule a free demo today, explore the paid leave policy creator, or see paid sick leave laws and requirements by state.
