Employment Law
Most California employees get at least 40 hours or five days of paid sick leave a year, usable from the 90th day of work. In the City of Los Angeles, the city's ordinance raises that to 48 hours. Your employer cannot punish you for using accrued sick leave, and action taken within 30 days of a sick leave complaint is presumed to be retaliation.
Last updated October 4, 2026.
According to the Labor Commissioner, California's paid sick leave law covers full-time, part-time, temporary and per diem workers alike, with a few narrow exceptions. The minimum rose on January 1, 2024: before then, an employer could limit yearly use to three days or 24 hours. This page explains how much you should have, what you can use it for, how it is paid, and what to do if your employer pushes back. For other employee rights, see our employment law page.
The state minimum is 40 hours or five days a year, and the Labor Commissioner reads that as whichever is more. Someone who works 10-hour days may use at least 50 hours; someone who works 6-hour days and uses five days still has 10 hours left. The table compares the state rules with the City of Los Angeles ordinance.
| Rule | State law (Lab. Code 246) | City of Los Angeles ordinance |
|---|---|---|
| Accrual method | At least 1 hour for every 30 hours worked | 1 hour for every 30 hours worked |
| Front-loading method | At least 40 hours or 5 days (whichever is more) at the start of each year | At least 48 hours at the start of each year |
| When you can start using it | On the 90th day of employment | On the 90th day of employment |
| Yearly use the employer may cap | No lower than 40 hours or 5 days | 48 hours |
| Carryover and caps | Unused accrued hours carry over; total accrual may be capped at 80 hours or 10 days | Unused hours carry over; may be capped at no less than 72 hours |
| Paid out when the job ends? | No, but restored if rehired within one year | No, but restored if rehired within one year |
| When leave taken is paid | No later than the next regular payday | State rule controls (Lab. Code 246(r)) |
| Retaliation | Prohibited; action within 30 days of a complaint is presumed retaliatory (Lab. Code 246.5) | Prohibited (LAMC 187.06) |
An employer that uses a different accrual schedule must still give you at least 24 hours by your 120th calendar day and 40 hours by your 200th (section 246(b)(3)), and an up-front plan must make 24 hours available by day 120 and 40 hours by day 200 for a new hire (section 246(b)(4)). Exempt administrative, executive and professional employees are treated as working 40 hours a week for accrual, unless their normal week is shorter (section 246(b)(2)). A paid time off plan that can be used for the same purposes and meets these minimums counts as sick leave (section 246(f)).
It can. The Labor Commissioner's guidance says that when a local ordinance requires more paid sick leave than state law, the employer must provide the more generous amount. In the City of Los Angeles, the Office of Wage Standards' 2026 notice says the city's ordinance covers employees who work at least two hours in a particular week in the city for the same employer for 30 days or more within a year, and provides the 48-hour amounts shown above. The city's notice also allows sick leave for any individual related to the employee by blood or affinity. State law still controls how sick pay is calculated, when it is due, pay stub statements and payout at separation, whatever a city says (section 246(r)). Our page on the employment lawyer in Los Angeles covers the city's other worker protections.
Section 246.5(a) lets you use paid sick days, on an oral or written request, for the diagnosis, care or treatment of an existing health condition or for preventive care, for yourself or a family member. Preventive care includes annual physicals and flu shots. Section 245.5(c) defines family member broadly: a child of any age, a parent or parent-in-law, a spouse or registered domestic partner, a grandparent, a grandchild, a sibling, and one "designated person" you name when you make the request (the employer may limit you to one designated person every 12 months).
Paid sick days can also be used for purposes connected to being the victim of a qualifying act of violence, or having a family member who is, under Government Code section 12945.8; some of those family-member uses apply only at employers with 25 or more employees. Since January 1, 2025, the Labor Commissioner says you may also use paid sick leave for jury duty or to appear in court as a witness under a subpoena or court order.
The employer may not make you find a replacement worker as a condition of using the leave (section 246.5(b)), and the Labor Commissioner's guidance says an employer cannot deny paid sick leave solely because there is no medical certification. If you need more time for a pregnancy or a new child, see our page on pregnancy leave in California. The death of a relative is covered by bereavement leave in California.
Section 246(l) sets the rate. For a nonexempt employee, the employer either uses your regular rate of pay for the workweek in which you took the leave, whether or not you worked overtime that week, or divides your total wages, not counting overtime premiums, by your hours in the full pay periods of the prior 90 days. Exempt employees are paid the same way as for other paid leave. If you think sick days were paid at the wrong rate, your payroll records will show it, and our page on getting your payroll records explains how to request them.
No. Section 246.5(c)(1) bars an employer from denying the use of accrued sick days, or from firing, threatening, demoting, suspending or otherwise discriminating against an employee for using them, trying to use them, filing a complaint, cooperating in an investigation, or opposing a practice the law prohibits. If the employer takes any of those actions within 30 days of a complaint, cooperation or opposition, section 246.5(c)(2) creates a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation.
Attendance points are the most common trap. The Labor Commissioner explains that an "occurrence" under an attendance policy is a form of discipline, so an employer may not give one for an absence covered by accrued, available sick leave used for a qualifying reason. Time not covered by accrued leave is not protected. Labor Code section 233 separately requires employers that provide sick leave to allow at least six months' worth of accrual each year for the section 246.5 reasons; a violation brings reinstatement and actual damages or one day's pay, whichever is greater, through the Labor Commissioner or a court.
The Labor Commissioner enforces the law under section 248.5 and may order reinstatement, back pay and payment of the sick days withheld. If paid sick days were unlawfully withheld, the administrative penalty includes three times the dollar amount withheld or $250, whichever is greater, up to $4,000. If the violation caused other harm, such as a firing, the penalty includes $50 for each day the violation continued, up to $4,000. Section 248.5(h) excuses an isolated, unintentional payroll or notice error. Our overview of wage violation penalties in California shows how these fit with other remedies.
If you work at least two hours a week inside the City of Los Angeles, the city's 48-hour ordinance applies on top of state law, and the Office of Wage Standards enforces it. If you work in Glendale or another city, the state rules in Labor Code section 246 set the floor.
The Labor Commissioner says workers under a qualifying collective bargaining agreement may be partly exempt from the accrual rules, but they still keep the right to ask orally or in writing, the full list of uses, the bar on requiring a replacement, and the retaliation protections of section 246.5(c), which a contract cannot waive.
Independent contractors are not covered. If you were labeled a contractor but work like an employee, our page on employee or independent contractor status explains the test that decides it.
For example, imagine a hypothetical warehouse worker in Glendale who works four 10-hour shifts a week and has been on the job for two years. Her employer front-loads sick leave each January and lists "40 hours" on her pay stub. She calls in before her shift to stay home with her feverish child, and later for her own doctor's appointment. Her supervisor then gives her an attendance point and warns that one more means suspension.
Several rules apply. Because she works 10-hour days, the "whichever is more" reading gives her at least 50 hours, not 40. Both absences were qualifying uses for herself and a family member, made on a spoken request with notice, and a doctor's note could not be required solely as a condition of the leave. An attendance point for those absences is the kind of occurrence the Labor Commissioner treats as discipline. She saves her pay stubs and the supervisor's message. Whether she has a claim, and what it would be worth, depends on records she has not yet seen.
Not as a blanket condition. Leave cannot be denied solely for lack of a medical certification, though the Labor Commissioner says documentation may be reasonable where the employer has reason to think the leave is not for a valid purpose.
Yes. You decide how much leave you need, and the employer may set a minimum increment of no more than two hours.
It can. A paid time off policy that may be used for the same purposes, under the same conditions, and that meets the accrual, carryover and use minimums satisfies the law, so the employer need not add separate sick days.
Not if you are rehired within one year. Section 246(g) restores your accrued, unused sick days, unless they were paid out under a PTO policy when you left.
A retaliation complaint with the Labor Commissioner is generally due within one year, and other claims have their own limits. Our table of employment claim deadlines in California lists them.
We help employees in Glendale and across Los Angeles County when sick leave is miscounted, denied or used as a reason for discipline or firing. If the problem went further, we can also look at whether it is connected to being fired after asking for medical leave. Call (818) 244-9000 or request a consultation.
Our Glendale team can review your pay records and what your employer did and explain your options under California law.
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