If you work in unincorporated Los Angeles County, the LA County sick leave policy (LA County Code Chapter 8.11) requires your employer to give you paid sick leave regardless of the company’s size, and California’s statewide law layers on top of it so that the more generous rule applies on each point. In practice, you earn at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours you work, you can use up to 48 hours per year, and your balance can carry over up to at least 80 hours.
Who the Ordinance Covers
Coverage turns on where you physically work, not where your employer is headquartered. If you put in at least two hours in a single week inside unincorporated LA County, you qualify. Full-time, part-time, temporary, and seasonal workers all count, and so do employees placed through staffing agencies who meet the same two-hour threshold. There is no small-employer carve-out. Every employer operating in the covered territory is subject to the ordinance.
The hard part is confirming your worksite actually sits in unincorporated territory. Mailing addresses can mislead you, because unincorporated pockets are scattered between and around dozens of incorporated cities. LA County’s Department of Regional Planning runs a jurisdiction lookup tool on its website where you can enter an address and check.
Independent contractors are not covered. Whether you truly are one depends on the working relationship rather than the label on your paperwork, and California’s ABC test is stricter than the federal standard. If your employer controls your schedule, provides your tools, and your work is central to their business, you may legally be an employee entitled to sick leave no matter what your contract says.
How Much Sick Leave You Earn
You accrue at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Accrual starts on your first day, though your employer can require you to wait until your 90th calendar day of employment before you actually use any of it.
Employers can skip hour-by-hour accrual by front-loading the year’s leave instead. Under California law, a front-loading employer must give you at least 40 hours (five days) at the start of each benefit year. Front-loading avoids carryover tracking because you receive a fresh allotment annually.
If your employer uses the accrual method, unused hours roll over from one year to the next. The county ordinance originally capped the total accrual at 48 hours, but California’s statewide law, as amended by SB 616 in 2024, now sets the minimum accrual cap at 80 hours (10 days). Local ordinances cannot fall below the state floor, so the effective carryover cap for workers in unincorporated LA County is at least 80 hours.
How Much You Can Actually Use in a Year
State law lets employers cap annual usage at 40 hours. The county ordinance is more generous and allows up to 48 hours of usage per year, so 48 hours is the cap that applies in unincorporated LA County. A quick summary of the rules that matter most:
- Accrual rate: one hour per 30 hours worked, under both state and county law.
- Maximum accrual (carryover cap): at least 80 hours, the state floor.
- Annual usage cap: 48 hours, under the more generous county rule.
- Waiting period before use: up to 90 days from the start of employment.
- Employer size threshold: none.
Reasons You Can Use Sick Leave
You can use accrued sick leave for your own health needs, including doctor’s visits, preventive care, and recovery from illness or injury. Mental health care counts the same as physical health care.
The ordinance also covers time caring for a family member with a health condition. Family member is defined broadly and includes your child, parent, spouse, registered domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild, and sibling. California’s kin care law reinforces this: if your employer provides sick leave, they must let you use it for family care in at least the amount you would accrue over six months at your current rate.
Sick leave also covers “safe time.” If you are a survivor of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, you can use accrued hours to seek legal help, attend court proceedings, relocate, or take other safety-related steps. You are paid your regular rate for that time, just as you would be for a medical absence.
How to Request Leave
When you know about an absence in advance, such as a scheduled surgery or a court date, give your employer as much notice as is reasonable. For sudden illness or an emergency, notify them as soon as you can, either verbally or in writing depending on your workplace’s procedures.
Employers can ask for documentation only when an absence lasts more than three consecutive workdays. Even then, a medical certification confirming you needed time off is the limit. Your employer cannot demand a specific diagnosis. Any medical information your employer does receive must be kept confidential and stored separately from regular personnel files.
Pay Stubs and When You Get Paid
California Labor Code Section 246 requires your employer to show your available paid sick leave balance either on your itemized wage statement or in a separate written notice given on each payday. Employers who offer unlimited sick leave can meet this rule by writing “unlimited” on the statement.
When you use sick leave, your employer must pay you for those hours no later than the payday for the next regular payroll period after you took the leave. These pay stub and payment timing rules come from state law and apply uniformly across California.
Retaliation Is Illegal
Using your sick leave, or asking about your rights, cannot legally cost you your job. California Labor Code Section 233 prohibits employers from firing, threatening, demoting, suspending, or otherwise punishing you for using sick leave for yourself or a family member. An employer who retaliates can be ordered to reinstate you and pay your actual damages or one day’s pay, whichever is greater, plus attorney’s fees if you win in court.
Retaliation is not always as blunt as a termination. Cutting your hours, changing your shifts, eliminating premium pay, issuing write-ups timed suspiciously close to your leave, or making conditions so unbearable that you feel forced to quit can all qualify. You can file a complaint with the California Labor Commissioner or bring a civil action in court. Pursuing one path does not close off the other.
What Happens When You Leave the Job
California employers are not required to pay out accrued, unused sick leave when you resign, are terminated, or retire. This rule applies in unincorporated LA County too. One exception: if your employer bundles sick leave into a broader paid time off (PTO) bank, the entire PTO balance counts as earned wages and must be paid out at separation.
If you leave a job and are rehired by the same employer within 12 months, your previously accrued sick leave must be reinstated, even if you did not receive a payout when you left.
County Ordinance vs. City of Los Angeles Ordinance
The City of Los Angeles has a separate sick leave ordinance that applies to workers inside city limits. The county ordinance covers only unincorporated areas. If your worksite is in another incorporated city, such as Long Beach or Pasadena, you would look to that city’s own ordinance if one exists, or to California state law as the baseline. Check your work address against the county’s jurisdiction lookup tool before you assume which rules apply. In a county this geographically patchworked, mistaken jurisdiction is one of the most common errors on both sides.
How to File a Complaint
The Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs (DCBA) enforces county labor ordinances in unincorporated areas. If your employer is denying sick leave, retaliating against you for using it, or ignoring accrual and payment requirements, you can file a complaint with the DCBA. You can also file a wage claim with the California Labor Commissioner’s office, which enforces the statewide sick leave law.
Keep your own records. Save pay stubs showing your sick leave balance, any written requests for leave, and any communications where your employer denied or discouraged time off. Federal law requires employers to preserve payroll records for at least three years, but having your own copies protects you if a dispute comes down to competing accounts of what was accrued or used.