How to Calculate Paid Sick Leave Rate in California

To calculate the paid sick leave rate in California, start with how you’re paid. If you earn a single fixed hourly wage, your sick leave rate is that wage. If your pay varies because of commissions, piece rates, shift differentials, or multiple hourly rates, you use a 90-day lookback: total wages earned (excluding overtime premiums) divided by total hours worked in the full pay periods of the prior 90 days. Salaried exempt employees are paid for sick leave the way their employer pays them for other forms of paid leave. In every case, the rate cannot fall below the applicable minimum wage, which in California is $16.90 per hour as of January 1, 2026.¹

Fixed Hourly Wage: Use Your Regular Rate

If your paycheck shows the same hourly wage every period, that wage is your sick leave rate. Someone earning $22 an hour is paid $22 an hour for sick time. There is no formula, no lookback, and no averaging. This is how most hourly employees in California are paid for sick leave.

The only wrinkle is the floor. Your sick pay rate cannot drop below California’s minimum wage, and some cities set higher local minimums that raise the floor further depending on where you work.

Variable Pay: The 90-Day Lookback Formula

When your earnings shift from pay period to pay period, California uses a 90-day average to set your sick leave rate. The formula is:

Total wages earned (excluding overtime premiums) ÷ Total hours worked in the full pay periods of the prior 90 days = Sick pay rate per hour

Two details matter. First, exclude the overtime premium, meaning the extra half in time-and-a-half, but keep the base hours in the denominator. Second, “full pay periods” means only complete pay periods that fall inside the 90 days count. Partial pay periods at either edge of the window are left out.²

This formula applies whenever your pay is not a single flat hourly figure. That includes commission-based work, piece-rate work, jobs with shift differentials or bonuses tied to hours, and situations where you work at more than one hourly rate for the same employer.

Example: Commission-Based Employee

You are paid on commission and earned $5,940 over the last 90 days across 400 hours in full pay periods. The math: $5,940 ÷ 400 = $14.85 per hour. That is below the 2026 state minimum wage, so your employer must pay you $16.90 per hour for sick time instead.¹

Example: Two Hourly Rates for the Same Employer

You work one position at $18 per hour and a second at $24 per hour for the same employer. Across the full pay periods in the prior 90 days you earned $8,400 for 420 hours. Your sick leave rate is $8,400 ÷ 420 = $20 per hour. Note that this is neither the lower rate nor the higher rate on its own; it is the blended average of what you actually earned.

A Note on Timing Around Commissions

Because the formula averages the prior 90 days, sick leave taken right after a high-commission stretch produces a higher rate than sick leave taken after a slow stretch. The California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement has addressed this pattern in guidance.² The rate is what the formula produces from the actual 90-day window; there is no separate averaging beyond that.

Salaried Exempt Employees

Exempt employees are paid for sick leave in the same way their employer calculates pay for other kinds of paid leave, such as vacation.² In practical terms, a full sick day should pay the same as a regular workday.

For a full-time exempt employee, the daily rate is usually the annual salary divided by 52 weeks and then by 5 days. An employee earning $78,000 per year has a daily sick leave rate of $78,000 ÷ 52 ÷ 5 = $300. Converted to an hourly figure, $78,000 ÷ 2,080 hours = $37.50, which produces the same $300 for an eight-hour day.

If your employer is deducting more than the proportional daily or hourly amount when you take sick leave, the calculation is off and worth raising.

The Minimum Wage Floor Applies to Everyone

Whatever calculation method applies to you, your sick leave rate cannot fall below the minimum wage that applies at your worksite. California’s state minimum is $16.90 per hour effective January 1, 2026.¹ Cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Oakland set higher local minimums, and when a local minimum is higher, it becomes your floor.

This floor is the reason the commission example above resolves at $16.90 rather than $14.85. Run the formula first; if the result is below the applicable minimum wage, the minimum wage is what you get.

When the Rate Must Be Paid

Sick leave pay must appear on your regular paycheck for the pay period in which you took the leave. Your employer cannot push it to a later cycle.³ For variable-pay employees, that means the 90-day calculation has to be done in time for the paycheck covering the sick day.

Your pay stub or a separate written statement provided with your paycheck must also show your available sick leave balance.⁴ Since 2024, state law preempts local ordinances on how sick pay is calculated and on paystub requirements, so the state calculation rules apply uniformly across California even where a city has its own paid sick leave ordinance.

One Boundary: Unused Sick Leave Isn’t Paid Out at Termination

The rate calculation matters while you are employed and using sick leave. It does not come into play when you leave. California does not require employers to cash out unused sick leave when you quit, get laid off, or are fired.⁴ Banked hours simply disappear at separation. If you return to the same employer within 12 months, previously accrued and unused sick leave must be restored, unless it was paid out as part of a combined PTO policy when you left.³

1
California Department of Industrial Relations. California’s Minimum Wage Set to Increase to $16.90 Per Hour
2
California Department of Industrial Relations. Healthy Workplace Healthy Families Act – Calculating Payment of Paid Sick Leave
3
California Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions
4
California Legislative Information. California Labor Code LAB 247.5