Arizona bereavement leave law does not require private employers to give you time off when a family member dies. Whether you get any paid or unpaid leave depends on your employer’s own policy. State government workers are the exception, with a specific bereavement benefit written into personnel rules, and every worker in Arizona has access to earned paid sick time that can cover grief-related absences in ways most people don’t realize.
No Requirement for Private Employers
Arizona has never passed a statute requiring private employers to provide bereavement leave. No law creates a right to paid or unpaid time off specifically for grieving or attending a funeral. A bill introduced in 2020 (HB 2116) would have required employers to grant leave after the death of a child, but it never made it out of committee. As of 2026, nothing has changed.
That leaves private-sector workers depending on their employer’s voluntary policy or on other legal protections that can serve the same purpose.
Bereavement Leave for Arizona State Employees
If you work for the State of Arizona, you have a guaranteed benefit. Under the state’s personnel rules, a full-time employee can take up to 24 hours of paid leave after the death of a qualifying family member. If you need to travel out of state for the funeral, your agency head can approve an additional 16 hours, bringing the total to 40 hours.1Legal Information Institute. Arizona Administrative Code R2-5A-B605 – Bereavement Leave
Part-time state employees receive a proportional amount based on their schedule. A half-time worker gets up to 12 hours. Employees working less than quarter-time aren’t entitled to bereavement leave.1Legal Information Institute. Arizona Administrative Code R2-5A-B605 – Bereavement Leave
The list of qualifying relationships is broad, covering spouses, biological, adopted, step, and foster children, parents, stepparents, adoptive parents, anyone who stood in a parental role, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, and in-laws.1Legal Information Institute. Arizona Administrative Code R2-5A-B605 – Bereavement Leave
What Private Employers Typically Offer
Most mid-size and large private employers in Arizona offer some form of bereavement leave voluntarily, usually written into the employee handbook. A common arrangement is three to five paid days off for the death of an immediate family member, with shorter leave or no coverage for more distant relatives. None of this is required by law, and details vary widely.
Employer policies typically draw a line between immediate and extended family. Immediate family usually means a spouse, child, parent, or sibling, and sometimes grandparents and grandchildren. Deaths of aunts, uncles, cousins, or in-laws might qualify for a shorter leave or might not be covered at all. Some employers pay for immediate-family bereavement and offer only unpaid time for others.
Many employers require you to notify your supervisor as soon as possible and to provide documentation such as an obituary or funeral program. If your workplace has a written policy, read it before you request leave. If there’s no written policy, ask HR directly and get the answer in writing. That paper trail matters if a dispute arises later.
Using Arizona’s Earned Paid Sick Time
This is the protection most people overlook. Every Arizona employer is required to provide earned paid sick time under the Fair Wages and Healthy Families Act, and the statute’s permitted uses reach further than the name suggests.
How It Accrues
You earn one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours you work. The yearly cap depends on employer size. If your employer has 15 or more employees, you can accrue and use up to 40 hours per year. Fewer than 15 employees, and the cap is 24 hours per year.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-372 – Accrual of Earned Paid Sick Time
What You Can Use It For After a Death
Arizona’s sick time law lets you use accrued hours for your own mental or physical health condition, including grief, depression, or anxiety that keeps you from working. You can also use sick time to care for a family member with a mental or physical health condition.3Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-373 – Use of Earned Paid Sick Time That second category is important. If a surviving parent or child in your family is struggling and needs your care, the statute covers your absence.
The law also covers preventive medical care for you or a family member, so a counseling appointment tied to grief falls within its scope.3Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-373 – Use of Earned Paid Sick Time
A Broader Definition of Family
The sick time law’s definition of “family member” is wider than most employer bereavement policies. It includes your spouse or domestic partner, children of any kind (biological, adopted, foster, step, or a child you raised informally), parents and stepparents, grandparents, grandchildren, and siblings. It also covers your spouse’s or domestic partner’s relatives in those same categories.4Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-371 – Definitions
There’s also a catch-all. Anyone related to you by blood or by close personal bond whose relationship is “the equivalent of a family relationship” qualifies.4Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-371 – Definitions Close friends who are family in all but name are covered, even when your employer’s bereavement policy wouldn’t recognize them.
PTO and Vacation
Accrued PTO or vacation days are another option, following your employer’s normal request procedures. Employers with a general PTO bank that meets or exceeds the sick time accrual requirements aren’t required to provide a separate sick time benefit, so your PTO may already serve double duty.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-372 – Accrual of Earned Paid Sick Time
When FMLA Applies to Grief
The Family and Medical Leave Act doesn’t list bereavement as a qualifying event, so it won’t help you take a few days off for a funeral. If grief develops into a serious mental health condition (clinical depression, severe anxiety, or another condition requiring ongoing treatment), FMLA leave becomes possible.
To qualify, a mental health condition must involve either inpatient care or continuing treatment by a health care provider. Continuing treatment means the condition keeps you from working for more than three consecutive days and requires either multiple provider visits or a single visit followed by care such as prescription medication or therapy. Chronic conditions like depression that cause recurring episodes and require treatment at least twice a year also qualify.5U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #28O: Mental Health Conditions and the FMLA
FMLA leave is unpaid and provides up to 12 weeks of job-protected time. Not everyone is eligible. You must have worked for your employer for at least 12 months, logged at least 1,250 hours during that period, and your employer must have at least 50 employees within 75 miles of your worksite.6U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #28: The Family and Medical Leave Act Your employer can ask for medical certification, though a specific diagnosis is not required.5U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #28O: Mental Health Conditions and the FMLA
If grief has gone beyond a few difficult days, if you can’t function at work, if you’re seeing a doctor, or if you’ve been prescribed medication, ask your healthcare provider whether your condition meets the FMLA threshold. Many eligible people never use this protection because they don’t know grief can qualify.
Religious Accommodation for Funerals
If your religious beliefs require you to attend a funeral, participate in mourning rituals, or observe a grieving period, federal law gives you a separate right. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for sincerely held religious practices unless doing so would impose a substantial burden on the business.7U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Fact Sheet: Religious Accommodations in the Workplace
Schedule changes are one of the most common accommodations the EEOC recognizes. You don’t need to submit a formal written request or use specific legal language. You just need to let your employer know you need time off for a religious reason. The employer then has to work with you toward a solution unless it can show the accommodation would cause real operational problems, not just minor inconvenience.7U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Fact Sheet: Religious Accommodations in the Workplace
Don’t Just Skip Work
Arizona is an at-will employment state. Unless you have a written contract stating otherwise, your employer can end your employment at any time and for nearly any reason.8Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-1501 – Severability of Employment Relationships That includes firing you for missing work without approval, even after a death in the family.
Using the protections that actually exist is what keeps your job safe. When you use accrued paid sick time under Arizona law for a qualifying reason, your employer cannot retaliate against you for that absence.9Industrial Commission of Arizona. Minimum Wage and Earned Paid Sick Time FAQs If you qualify for FMLA leave, your job is protected for its duration. If you just stop showing up without invoking any protection, you have very little recourse if you’re fired. Notify your employer, put your request in writing, and tie the absence to a specific legal entitlement whenever you can.