Under Arizona’s paid sick time law, nearly every private-sector employee earns one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, with an annual cap of 24 or 40 hours depending on how many people the employer has on payroll. The time can be used for your own illness, to care for a family member, for certain public health situations, and for issues tied to domestic violence, sexual violence, abuse, or stalking. Your employer cannot punish you for using it.
Who Is Covered
If you work for a private employer in Arizona, you almost certainly earn paid sick time. The statute defines “employer” to include corporations, partnerships, LLCs, trusts, associations, sole proprietors, and political subdivisions of the state. The only employers left out are the State of Arizona itself and the federal government. Full-time, part-time, and temporary workers all count. People receiving public benefits who perform work as a condition of that assistance are also covered.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-371 – Definitions
The “year” used to track your accrual and usage is whatever consecutive 12-month period your employer picks. It might be a calendar year, a fiscal year, or your work anniversary. Check your employer’s policy so you know when the clock resets.
How Much You Earn
You accrue one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked, starting on your first day. How much you can bank and use in a year depends on employer size:
- If your employer has 15 or more employees, you can accrue and use up to 40 hours per year.
- If your employer has fewer than 15, the cap is 24 hours per year.
Your employer can set a higher limit, but not lower.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-372 – Accrual of Earned Paid Sick Time
What You Can Use Sick Time For
Arizona’s law covers more situations than the name “sick time” suggests. You can use your accrued hours for:
- Your own physical or mental illness, injury, health condition, medical diagnosis or treatment, or preventive care such as checkups and vaccinations.
- The same health-related needs of a qualifying family member.
- A public health emergency, including closure of your workplace or your child’s school or daycare by order of a public official, or a determination by a health authority or provider that your or a family member’s presence in the community could expose others to a communicable disease.
- Needs connected to domestic violence, sexual violence, abuse, or stalking affecting you or a family member, including medical attention, counseling, victim services, legal help, and relocating for safety.
Who Counts as a Family Member
The definition is broad. It includes your child (biological, adopted, foster, step, or a child you’re raising), your parent or your spouse’s parent, stepparents, people who raised you, your spouse or domestic partner, grandparents, grandchildren, and siblings, including in-law and step relationships on your partner’s side.1Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-371 – Definitions There is also a catch-all for any person related by blood or close personal bond whose relationship with you is essentially a family relationship, so a close friend you treat as family or an elderly neighbor you care for can qualify.
Asking for Sick Time
You can request sick time orally, in writing, electronically, or through whatever method your employer accepts. Give the expected duration if you can. When the need is foreseeable, such as scheduled surgery or a court date, make a good-faith effort to give advance notice and try to schedule the time so it does not unnecessarily disrupt operations.3Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-373 – Use of Earned Paid Sick Time
When Your Employer Can Ask for Documentation
Documentation can only be required if you are out for three or more consecutive workdays. A note from a healthcare professional confirming the need for leave is considered reasonable. For absences tied to domestic violence, sexual violence, abuse, or stalking, you choose what to provide: a police report, a protective order, a signed statement from a victim services organization, a statement from an attorney or counselor, or your own written statement.3Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-373 – Use of Earned Paid Sick Time
Your employer cannot require documentation that reveals the nature of your illness or the details of any violence or abuse. Confidential communications between victims and their support providers are protected.
Waiting Period, Carryover, and Separation
You start accruing on day one, but your employer can make you wait up to 90 calendar days before you use what you’ve earned. This applies to employees hired after July 1, 2017.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-372 – Accrual of Earned Paid Sick Time After 90 days, your banked hours are available.
Unused hours carry over to the next year, though the annual usage cap still applies. You might end up with more hours in the bank than you can use in a single year, but you don’t lose them. As an alternative, your employer can pay you for unused hours at year-end and front-load a fresh balance that meets or exceeds the legal minimum.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-372 – Accrual of Earned Paid Sick Time
If you transfer to a different division or location of the same company, your accrued time goes with you. If you leave and are rehired by the same employer within nine months, your previously unused balance is reinstated.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-372 – Accrual of Earned Paid Sick Time
One important limit: Arizona does not require employers to pay out unused sick time when you quit, are fired, or retire. If you have hours banked and leave, those hours are gone unless you come back within nine months.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-372 – Accrual of Earned Paid Sick Time
Retaliation Is Prohibited
Your employer cannot fire you, demote you, suspend you, cut your hours, or take any other adverse action because you used or requested earned paid sick time. The same protection covers filing a complaint, cooperating with an investigation, or telling a coworker about their rights under the law.4Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-374 – Exercise of Rights Protected; Retaliation Prohibited
Attendance policies cannot treat earned paid sick time as an unexcused absence or assign points for it. If your workplace uses a points-based attendance system, sick time taken under this law has to be left out of it.4Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-374 – Exercise of Rights Protected; Retaliation Prohibited And if you report a violation you genuinely believed happened but were mistaken, you are still protected from retaliation.
What Your Employer Must Tell You
At the start of employment, your employer has to give you written notice explaining your right to earned paid sick time and how much is available, the terms of its use, the prohibition on retaliation, your right to file a complaint, and contact information for the Industrial Commission of Arizona. The notice must appear in English, Spanish, and any other language the Commission designates.5Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-375 – Notice
Each paycheck must include, on the stub or attached to it, the amount of sick time available to you, how much you’ve used so far in the year, and how much you’ve been paid for sick leave.5Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-375 – Notice If that information is missing, that is a violation you can raise with your employer or the Industrial Commission.
If Your Employer Offers PTO Instead
An employer that already offers paid time off can skip providing a separate sick-time bank, but only if the PTO plan matches or beats the law on three fronts: the accrual rate, the annual usage amount, and the full list of reasons the law allows you to use the time for. A plan that accrues at one hour per 30 hours worked and lets you use leave for your own illness, family care, public health situations, and domestic violence situations satisfies the statute.
Problems come up when the accrual looks fine but the usage rules are narrower than the law. A PTO policy that does not cover absences related to domestic violence or a public health emergency does not fully replace the statutory sick-time benefit, even if the hours add up.
How Sick Time Works with FMLA
If you qualify for unpaid leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, your employer can require you to use your Arizona earned paid sick time at the same time. You get paid from your sick time bank while FMLA guarantees job protection for up to 12 weeks.6U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28 – The Family and Medical Leave Act Your sick-time balance drains faster because the hours count against both. If an FMLA-qualifying absence runs past your available sick time, the remaining FMLA leave is unpaid unless you have other leave to use.
Filing a Complaint
If your employer refuses to provide earned paid sick time, retaliates against you for using it, or fails to meet the notice requirements, you can file a complaint with the Industrial Commission of Arizona. The Commission investigates alleged violations and can order remedies, including payment of unpaid sick time and civil penalties. Employers that violate the notice requirements under ARS 23-375 face civil penalties as well.5Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 23-375 – Notice Filing information is on the Industrial Commission’s website at azica.gov.