Los Angeles Paid Sick Leave Laws and Requirements

If you work in Los Angeles, paid sick leave gives you up to 48 hours per year, provided you work at least two hours per week inside city limits for the same employer for 30 days or more within a year of your start date.¹ That is eight hours more than California’s statewide minimum, and the extra hours come with their own accrual, carryover, and enforcement rules under the city’s ordinance.²

Who Qualifies and When You Can Use It

The ordinance covers anyone who performs at least two hours of work in a given week within the city’s geographic boundaries, regardless of where the company is headquartered.³ Full-time, part-time, temporary, and seasonal workers all count.

Two timing rules matter. Sick time begins accruing on your first day of work, but you cannot actually use it until your 90th day of employment.¹ Short-term workers get caught by that 90-day wait. If you are a mobile worker crossing city lines during a shift, only hours physically inside Los Angeles count toward eligibility and accrual, and the employer is responsible for tracking them.

How the Hours Build Up

Employers can satisfy the ordinance one of two ways. They can let you accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours you work, or they can front-load the full 48 hours at the start of each year of employment, calendar year, or 12-month period.¹ Either way, you can take up to 48 hours per year.

If you accrue time and don’t use it all, unused hours carry over into the next year. Your employer can cap the total balance at 72 hours, though they can set a higher cap or none at all.¹ Even if carryover pushes your balance above 48, you still can only use 48 hours in a single year. Carryover protects the bank; it does not expand the annual allowance.

Employers who already provide a paid time off or paid leave policy worth at least 48 hours per year do not need to offer anything additional, as long as that existing policy can be used for sick leave purposes.¹

California law requires your employer to show the amount of paid sick leave available on your itemized wage statement or in a separate written notice provided on payday.⁴ If your pay stub does not show a balance, that alone is a compliance problem.

What You Can Use It For

You can use paid sick leave for your own health needs or to care for a family member. The LA ordinance defines family broadly by referencing California Labor Code Sections 246.5(a) and 245.5(c), which cover a child, parent, spouse, registered domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling.⁵ The ordinance goes further than many local laws by also covering anyone related to you by blood or by a close personal bond equivalent to a family relationship.¹ A close friend you consider family could qualify.

Under state law, qualifying reasons include preventive care like checkups and vaccinations, treatment of an existing condition, and time needed to deal with domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Those safe-time provisions let you seek legal help, visit a shelter, or take similar steps without losing pay.

Requesting Leave and Documentation

You can request paid sick leave either orally or in writing.¹ When the need is foreseeable, give reasonable advance notice. For emergencies, notify your employer as soon as you can.

Employers may require “reasonable documentation” for an absence.¹ The ordinance does not set a specific day threshold before documentation kicks in, so “reasonable” is doing real work in that sentence. Demanding a doctor’s note for a single day of a common cold is hard to justify, and an employer who uses documentation requests to discourage leave risks a retaliation complaint. The Office of Wage Standards can help you assess a request you think crosses the line.

Leaving and Coming Back

Your employer does not have to pay out your unused sick leave balance when you quit, get laid off, or otherwise leave the job.¹ Sick leave is not vacation, which California does require employers to pay out at separation.

If you leave and return to the same employer within one year, your previously accrued and unused sick time must be reinstated.¹ The 90-day waiting period does not restart, since you already satisfied it during your original stint. Useful protection for seasonal workers and anyone who cycles through the same employer.

Retaliation Protections

LAMC Section 187.06 makes it illegal for an employer to fire you, cut your pay, or otherwise punish you for requesting or using paid sick leave. The protection also covers participating in any proceeding related to the ordinance or trying to enforce your rights under it.⁶ Cutting your hours, reassigning your duties, or creating a hostile environment after a sick leave request all fall within prohibited retaliation.

The Office of Wage Standards actively investigates retaliation claims, and the agency accepts complaints regardless of immigration status.²

Filing a Complaint

If your employer denies sick leave, retaliates against you, or fails to follow the accrual rules, you can file a complaint with the Office of Wage Standards through its online portal or by mail.² Include your employer’s information and a description of the violation. An investigator then reviews the claim and gathers payroll records from the business.

Investigations can take several months. If the office finds a violation, it can order back wages, sick time restitution, and administrative fines.⁷ Under LAMC Section 188.08, an employer that violates the ordinance faces fines of up to $500 per violation for each day the violation continues, capped at $5,000 per violation.⁸ A single missed sick day can look minor, but daily accrual turns patterns of noncompliance into significant liability quickly.

1
Los Angeles Municipal Code. LAMC Chapter XVIII – SEC 187.04 Sick Time Benefits
2
Office of Wage Standards. Office of Wage Standards
3
City of Los Angeles. Rules and Regulations Implementing the Minimum Wage Ordinance
4
California Legislative Information. California Code Labor Code LAB 246
5
City of Los Angeles Bureau of Contract Administration. City of Los Angeles Minimum Wage and Sick Time Benefits Frequently Asked Questions
6
Los Angeles Municipal Code. LAMC Chapter XVIII – SEC 187.06 Retaliatory Action Prohibited
7
Bureau of Contract Administration. Wage Standards
8
Los Angeles Municipal Code. LAMC Chapter XVIII Article 8 – Los Angeles Office of Wage Standards Ordinance