If you employ people across state lines, paid sick leave is one of the hardest benefits to standardize. Rules and regulations are set state by state and, in several states, by city. An employee in Seattle, an employee in Chicago, and an employee in Austin are each covered by a different set of numbers, or by none at all. This guide lays out the 2026 state floor for six states we track: California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, and Washington. All require some form of paid leave an employee can use when they are sick, except Texas. Below is the state-by-state picture, plus the local ordinances that sit on top of the state rules where they exist.
The short version
- Five of these six states require paid leave; Texas does not. California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, and Washington each guarantee paid time an employee can use for illness. Texas has no state mandate, and the city ordinances that Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas passed are not in effect.
- The amount and the accrual rate differ everywhere. Most of these states use an accrual model, where an employee earns leave as they work. Colorado and California grant one hour for every 30 hours worked; Illinois and Washington grant one hour for every 40. The annual amounts range from 40 hours to no cap at all.
- New York scales the requirement to employer size. The number of hours, and whether the leave is even paid, depends on how many people the employer has and, for the smallest employers, on their net income.
- Illinois employees can use leave for any reason. Under the state law, an employee does not have to be sick, and does not have to explain why they are taking the time.
- Cities can change the answer. Chicago and Cook County run their own paid-leave ordinances instead of the Illinois state law. New York City, Seattle, and several California cities set standards that meet or exceed their state's floor. Where a local rule is more generous, it is the one that applies.
- These are sick-leave rules, not paid-family-leave programs. Several of these states also run separate paid-family-and-medical-leave or disability-insurance programs (for bonding with a new child, a serious health condition, and more). Those are funded and administered separately and are not covered here.
State-by-state at a glance
| What to check | California | Colorado | Illinois | New York | Washington | Texas |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State paid-sick requirement | Yes | Yes | Yes (any reason) | Yes | Yes | No |
| The law | Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act (Lab. Code 245+) | Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (C.R.S. 8-13.3-401+) | Paid Leave for All Workers Act (820 ILCS 192) | Labor Law 196-b | Paid Sick Leave (RCW 49.46.200 to .210) | None |
| Annual amount (state floor) | Use up to 40 hours / 5 days a year | Up to 48 hours a year | Up to 40 hours a year | 40 or 56 hours, by size (see below) | No annual cap on use | None |
| How leave is earned | 1 hour per 30 worked | 1 hour per 30 worked | 1 hour per 40 worked | 1 hour per 30 worked | 1 hour per 40 worked | None |
| Depends on employer size? | No | No | No | Yes | No | None |
| What it can be used for | Illness and safe time | Illness, safe time, bereavement, more | Any reason | Illness and safe time | Illness and safe time | None |
| Wait before first use | 90th day of work | None | 90 days | As earned | 90th calendar day | None |
| Local ordinances on top | Several cities (all at least the state floor) | None adopted (unlike Texas, no city has passed one) | Chicago and Cook County have their own requirements | New York City; Westchester | Seattle; SeaTac; Tacoma | City ordinances struck down |
How to read this table: "Accrual" means an employee earns leave gradually as they work, rather than receiving it all at once; "1 hour per 30 worked" is the most common rate. "Safe time" is leave a worker can take when they or a family member is affected by domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. It covers the needs that follow, such as court dates, counseling, or relocating. A "waiting period" is how long a new hire works before they are allowed to use leave they have already earned. And "the state floor" is the minimum a state requires: a city can require more, and where it does, the more generous rule is the one that governs.
State by state
California
California's Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act sets the statewide floor. Employees earn at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, starting from their first day. An employer can cap how much an employee uses at 40 hours (or 5 days) a year, and can cap the total an employee banks at 80 hours (or 10 days). As an alternative to tracking accrual, an employer can front-load the leave, meaning it grants the full 40 hours (or 5 days) at the start of the year, in which case it does not have to carry unused time over. New hires can begin using their leave on their 90th day of employment.
The law is written as "5 days or 40 hours, whichever is greater," so an employee whose normal shift runs longer than eight hours may be entitled to more than 40 hours when the "5 days" measure produces a larger number. Leave can be used for an employee's own health or a family member's health, including preventive care, and for safe time. California does not require unused sick leave to be paid out when someone leaves, though it does have to be restored if the person is rehired within a year.
Several California cities set their own, higher standards, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville, Santa Monica, San Diego, and West Hollywood. These local ordinances were not displaced by the state law. Where a city requires more (a higher bank, for example, or no cap on annual use), the city rule is the one an employer follows. An employer with staff in any of these cities checks the local labor-standards office for the current local figures.
Sources: Cal. Labor Code 246 (accrual, caps, front-loading, waiting period) · Cal. Labor Code 246.5 (permitted uses and safe time) · California DLSE: Paid Sick Leave
Colorado
Colorado's Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (C.R.S. 8-13.3-401 and following) applies to employers of every size. Employees earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours a year, and there is no waiting period: a new hire can use leave as soon as it is earned. Unused time carries over, though an employer is not required to let a worker bank or use more than 48 hours in a year.
Colorado's list of permitted uses is broader than most. Beyond an employee's own or a family member's illness and preventive care, and safe time for domestic violence, sexual assault, and harassment, the state added several uses in 2023: bereavement, caring for a family member whose school or place of care has closed because of weather or a loss of power, heat, or water, and evacuating the employee's own home for the same kinds of reasons.
Colorado law also carries a separate benefit for emergencies: during a declared public health emergency, an employer must ensure the employee can access a total of up to 80 hours of paid leave for emergency-related uses. The employer supplements the employee's existing bank as needed to reach that number and may count unused accrued sick leave toward it, so it is a guaranteed total of 80 hours rather than 80 stacked on top of the 48. The entitlement is dormant when no emergency is declared and activates whenever a federal, state, or local public health emergency is declared.
One difference from California and Washington worth knowing: no Colorado city has layered its own sick-leave ordinance on top of the state law. That is not because the state blocks them (Texas is the state where courts struck local ordinances down); Colorado's cities simply have not legislated here, so the HFWA is the single standard statewide.
Sources: Colorado HFWA statute, C.R.S. 8-13.3-401 through 405 (Title 8, official 2024 statutes) · CDLE: Healthy Families and Workplaces Act overview
Illinois
Illinois takes a different approach from the other states we track. Under the Paid Leave for All Workers Act, which took effect on January 1, 2024, employees earn one hour of leave for every 40 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year, and they can use it for any reason at all. An employer cannot require documentation or even ask why the time is being taken. New hires can begin using leave after 90 days. As in the other states, an employer can front-load the full 40 hours instead of tracking accrual, and unused time does not have to be paid out at separation unless it was folded into a general paid-time-off bank.
There is an important carve-out for employers in the Chicago area. The state law does not apply to an employer that was already covered by a local paid-leave ordinance in effect on January 1, 2024. In practice that means employers in the City of Chicago and in Cook County follow their local ordinances rather than the state act. Chicago's ordinance is the most generous of the three: it provides two separate banks, up to 40 hours of paid sick leave and up to 40 hours of paid leave for any reason, for as much as 80 hours in a year, with leave earned at one hour of each type for every 35 hours worked. Cook County's ordinance mirrors the state at 40 hours. Cook County is a home-rule county, which means some of its municipalities have voted to opt out of the county ordinance; an employee in a suburb that has opted out is still covered by the Illinois state law's 40 hours.
Sources: Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers Act (820 ILCS 192), IDOL · City of Chicago: Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave · Cook County Paid Leave Ordinance
New York
New York is the one state here that scales the requirement to the size of the employer, under Labor Law 196-b. Employees earn one hour of leave for every 30 hours worked, and the annual amount, and whether it is paid, depends on headcount. Employers with 100 or more employees provide up to 56 hours of paid leave a year. Employers with 5 to 99 provide up to 40 hours, paid. The smallest employers, those with 4 or fewer employees, provide up to 40 hours a year, and that time is paid only if the business had more than one million dollars in net income the prior year; below that income threshold, the 40 hours can be unpaid. Leave can be used for an employee's own or a family member's health, and for safe time related to domestic violence, a family offense, a sexual offense, stalking, or human trafficking.
Employees in New York City are also covered by the city's Earned Safe and Sick Time Act, and the city's version got substantially bigger this year. Under Local Law 145 of 2025, effective February 22, 2026 (with the city's final rules in force since July 23, 2026), every covered NYC employer must now provide 32 hours of unpaid protected time off per calendar year in addition to the 40 or 56 paid hours. The unpaid hours are available immediately rather than by accrual, and they cover an expanded set of reasons, including caring for a child or care recipient, housing and public-benefit proceedings, public disasters, and workplace violence. The city law also lets an individual bring their own lawsuit over a violation rather than relying solely on the city agency (a private right of action, in place since March 2024), and an employer without a compliant written policy faces a per-employee penalty.
One 2025 change is worth flagging because it is separate from regular sick leave: New York now provides 20 hours of paid prenatal leave per 52-week period (the clock starts the first time it is used), for pregnancy-related medical appointments and care, including fertility treatment. It is a distinct entitlement, granted on top of an employee's sick leave, and an employer cannot require someone to use their sick leave first.
A note on what is not on this list: New York's Paid Family Leave, and its disability benefits, are separate insurance programs, funded through payroll and administered on their own terms. They are not part of the sick-leave rules above.
Sources: New York Labor Law 196-b · New York State Paid Sick Leave · NYC Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (DCWP) · New York State Paid Prenatal Leave
Washington
Washington guarantees paid sick leave under RCW 49.46.200 and .210, and it is the most generous of the six on one specific point: there is no annual cap on how much leave an employee can use. Employees earn one hour for every 40 hours worked, and while an employer only has to carry over 40 unused hours from one year to the next, it cannot limit how many earned hours a worker actually uses in a year. New hires can begin using leave on their 90th calendar day. Leave covers an employee's own or a family member's health, safe time, time off when a child's school or place of care is closed by a public official for a health reason or after an emergency declaration, and, since July 27, 2025, preparing for or participating in an immigration proceeding involving the employee or a family member.
A 2025 change (effective January 1, 2025) widened who counts as a family member for these purposes, adding a child's spouse and, more broadly, any individual who lives in the employee's home or whose relationship with the employee means the employee would be expected to care for them.
Some Washington cities require more than the state floor. Seattle's ordinance is tiered by employer size, and its largest employers accrue leave faster than the state rate and carry more of it over. SeaTac's rules apply specifically to hospitality and transportation employers, and Tacoma's local ordinance is largely aligned with the state law. An employer with staff in those cities applies whichever rule, state or local, is more favorable to the employee.
Sources: RCW 49.46.210 (Washington paid sick leave) · Washington L&I: Paid Sick Leave · City of Seattle Paid Sick and Safe Time
Texas
Texas has no state paid-sick-leave law, and no enforceable local one either. Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas each passed a paid-sick-leave ordinance, and Texas courts blocked all three. The reasoning is that the Texas Minimum Wage Act treats a mandate like paid sick leave as a regulation of wages, and state law does not allow a city to set wage rules of that kind. Austin's ordinance was stopped before it ever took effect (Texas Association of Business v. City of Austin, No. 03-18-00445-CV), and the Texas Supreme Court declined to review the decision. Dallas's ordinance was permanently blocked by a federal court in 2021 (ESI/Employee Solutions, LP v. City of Dallas, No. 4:19-cv-00570, E.D. Tex.). A 2023 state law, the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act (HB 2127), adds a broader limit on local ordinances in areas the state has chosen to occupy, including labor; an appeals court left that law in place in 2025, and a group of cities has asked the Texas Supreme Court to review that decision, so the last word on the broader law is still to come.
The practical result for an employer with Texas staff is that no state or city paid-sick-leave requirement applies. Many Texas employers still offer paid sick time as a matter of policy, but it is not required by law.
Sources: Texas Minimum Wage Act (Labor Code ch. 62) · Texas Workforce Commission
If you're the employee
We write for employers and HR teams, but these are your rights, so here is the same picture from the worker's side.
- Whether you get paid sick leave depends on your state, and sometimes your city. If you work in California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, or Washington, your state guarantees some paid leave you can use when you are sick. If you work in Texas, your state does not, though your employer may still offer it.
- You usually earn it as you work. In most of these states you accrue leave (commonly one hour for every 30 or 40 hours worked), and you can start using it after a waiting period, often 90 days for a new hire. Colorado has no waiting period.
- You can generally use it for a family member, not just yourself, and for "safe time" if you or a family member is affected by domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. In Illinois, you can use the state leave for any reason, and your employer cannot ask why.
- Your city may give you more. In Chicago, New York City, Seattle, and several California cities, local law can entitle you to more than your state's minimum. Where that is the case, the more generous rule is the one that applies to you.
- If you are pregnant in New York, you have a separate 20 hours of paid prenatal leave for pregnancy-related care, on top of your regular sick leave.
Frequently asked questions
Which states require paid sick leave in 2026? Among the six states we track, California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, and Washington require paid leave an employee can use when sick. Texas does not have a state requirement, and the city ordinances passed in Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas are not in effect. (Other states not covered here also have sick-leave laws.)
How much paid sick leave do employees get? It varies by state. California allows use of up to 40 hours (5 days) a year; Colorado, up to 48 hours; Illinois, up to 40 hours; New York, 40 or 56 hours depending on employer size; and Washington sets no annual cap on how much earned leave an employee can use.
Does paid sick leave depend on how big the employer is? In most of these states, no: the same accrual rate applies regardless of size. New York is the exception. There, employers with 100 or more employees provide up to 56 hours, and the smallest employers (4 or fewer) may provide unpaid leave if their net income was under one million dollars the prior year.
Do Chicago employers follow the Illinois state sick-leave law? No. The Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers Act does not apply to employers already covered by a local ordinance that was in effect on January 1, 2024. Employers in the City of Chicago and in Cook County follow their local ordinances instead. Chicago's provides up to 40 hours of paid sick leave and up to 40 hours of paid leave for any reason.
Can an employee use sick leave for a family member? Yes, in all five states that require it. Each allows leave for a family member's illness or care, and each also covers "safe time" for situations involving domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Illinois goes further, allowing the state leave to be used for any reason.
Does an employer have to pay out unused sick leave when someone leaves? Under the state laws covered here, no. California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, and Washington do not require unused sick leave to be cashed out at separation, though local ordinances (such as Chicago's paid-leave bank for larger employers) can differ, and an employer's own policy may promise more.
Is paid sick leave the same as paid family leave? No. Paid sick leave is short-term time for illness and related needs. Paid-family-and-medical-leave programs (which several of these states run separately) cover longer absences, such as bonding with a new child or a serious health condition, and are funded and administered on their own terms.
This guide states the paid-sick-leave laws of California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Washington, and Texas as they stand for 2026. Every figure was verified against primary sources, the state statutes and official agency guidance linked in each section, on August 18, 2026. State Law Briefing publishes legal information, not legal advice; for how these rules apply to your organization, consult a licensed employment attorney.