Maryland Sick and Safe Leave: Eligibility, Accrual, and Use

Maryland sick and safe leave is a statewide benefit that gives most workers one hour of protected leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year, capped at a 64-hour bank. Whether that leave is paid or unpaid depends on the size of your employer: 15 or more employees means paid leave, 14 or fewer means unpaid. The law, known as the Maryland Healthy Working Families Act, has been in effect since February 11, 2018.¹²

Who Is Eligible

Two thresholds decide whether the law applies to you. You must be at least 18 years old at the start of the year, and you must regularly work at least 12 hours per week. Miss either one and you do not accrue leave.¹

Employer size is measured by the average monthly headcount during the prior calendar year, and every worker counts, including part-time, temporary, and seasonal staff.²

Some workers are excluded from the law entirely, regardless of hours:

Independent contractors working under a contract for services rather than as employees.
Licensed real estate associate brokers and salespersons.
Certain agricultural workers on farms using fewer than a combined 360 person-days of labor in a calendar year.
Anyone under 18 at the start of the year.¹

How You Earn Leave

Accrual starts on your first day of work. You earn one hour of sick and safe leave for every 30 hours worked. If you are a salaried worker exempt from federal overtime rules, the law assumes a 40-hour workweek for accrual, or your normal workweek if it’s shorter.²

Two caps limit how fast leave builds up. You cannot earn more than 40 hours in a single year, and your total balance cannot exceed 64 hours at any point. You also stop accruing during light pay periods: no accrual in a two-week pay period where you worked fewer than 24 total hours, or in a one-week pay period where your combined hours from the current and previous period fall below 24.²

Your employer may skip the hour-by-hour math and instead front-load the full 40 hours at the start of each benefit year. That’s an allowed alternative and, from your side, works the same way.

When You Can Start Using It

Your hours start accruing on day one, but you can’t spend them right away. An employer is not required to let you use sick and safe leave during your first 106 calendar days on the job.² Your balance builds during that stretch, but it’s frozen for use until you cross the 106-day mark. After that, whatever you’ve accrued is available.

What You Can Use It For

The law recognizes two categories of qualifying reasons.

Sick Leave

You can use sick leave for your own physical or mental health, including treatment, recovery, and preventive care such as routine checkups. Maternity and paternity leave are covered. You can also use it to care for a family member with the same kinds of health needs. Family member includes your child, spouse, parent, grandparent, and sibling.³¹

Safe Leave

Safe leave covers absences tied to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking affecting you or a family member. Qualifying activities include getting medical or mental health treatment related to the incident, working with a victim assistance organization, pursuing legal remedies, and temporarily relocating for safety.³

Requesting Leave

For foreseeable absences, give your employer at least seven days’ notice. For emergencies, notify your employer as soon as reasonably possible. You do not have to share specific medical details when you make the request.¹

If your absence lasts more than two consecutive scheduled shifts, your employer can ask for verification. For sick leave, that usually means a note from a healthcare provider. For safe leave, it might be a police report or court filing. Refusing to provide requested verification lets the employer deny future leave for the same reason.¹

Employers have narrow grounds to refuse a request. If you skip the required advance notice for a foreseeable absence and the absence would disrupt operations, the request can be denied. An employer can also deny leave if there’s evidence of a pattern of abuse, such as repeatedly calling out around weekends without a medical reason.⁴

Your employer can also require you to take leave in a minimum increment, but that increment cannot exceed four hours.⁴ So a two-hour doctor’s appointment could cost you four hours of your balance if that’s the increment your employer has set. Many employers pick a smaller step, like one or two hours.

How You’re Paid

Paid leave is compensated at your normal hourly rate. Tipped employees get at least the applicable minimum wage for leave hours, not the lower tipped wage. For commission or piecework, the rate is calculated by dividing your total earnings from the previous pay period by the hours you worked in that period.²¹

Leave pay has to be processed in the regular pay period covering the time you took. Your current leave balance must appear on each pay stub or be viewable through an accessible electronic system.¹

Leaving and Coming Back

Maryland does not require employers to cash out your unused sick and safe leave when you leave the job, whether you resign or are terminated. Some employers offer a payout voluntarily through their own policies or contracts, but the statute doesn’t require one.⁴

If the same employer rehires you within 37 weeks, any unused leave you had at separation must be restored to your balance. The one exception is if the employer already paid it out when you left. Return after more than 37 weeks and you start from zero.²

Carryover From Year to Year

Unused hours can roll into the next benefit year, up to 40 hours of carryover. The 64-hour overall cap still applies, so any amount that would push your balance past 64 is forfeited.²

Two situations remove the carryover right. If your employer front-loads 40 hours at the start of each year, no carryover is required. And if you work for a nonprofit or government entity on a one-year, non-renewable grant, carryover is also not required.²

Even with carryover, you can use at most 64 hours in a single benefit year. That’s eight full days, no matter how long you’ve been at the job.

Retaliation and How to File a Complaint

Your employer cannot fire you, demote you, threaten you, or otherwise change the terms of your employment because you used or requested sick and safe leave in good faith. Protected leave also cannot be counted against you under any attendance point system or progressive discipline policy.⁵ The prohibition reaches any retaliatory move that would discourage a reasonable employee from exercising their leave rights, including subtler ones like shifting someone to a worse schedule or passing them over for a raise.

If you believe your employer has violated the law, you can file a written complaint with Maryland’s Commissioner of Labor and Industry. The intake email is ssl.assistance@maryland.gov.⁶

The Commissioner can order the employer to pay the full value of any unpaid leave, plus up to three times your hourly wage per violation, and can impose a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for each affected employee. If the employer ignores the order, you can bring a private lawsuit in which a court may award triple the value of your unpaid leave, punitive damages, attorney’s fees, and injunctive relief.⁷

Montgomery County’s More Generous Rules

Working in Montgomery County adds a local ordinance on top of the state law. All Montgomery County employers must provide leave regardless of size. Employers with five or more workers must provide up to 56 hours of paid leave per year. Employers with fewer than five must provide up to 32 hours of paid leave and 24 hours of unpaid leave per year. Both tiers allow up to 80 hours of total use annually, above the state’s 64-hour cap.⁸ Where the county rules are more generous, they apply; the state law fills any gaps.

1
Maryland Department of Labor. Maryland Healthy Working Families Act Frequently Asked Questions
2
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Labor and Employment 3-1304
3
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Labor and Employment 3-1305
4
Maryland Department of Labor. Maryland Sample Earned Sick and Safe Leave Policies
5
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Labor and Employment 3-1309
6
Maryland Department of Labor. Maryland Earned Sick and Safe Leave Employee Notice
7
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Labor and Employment 3-1308
8
Montgomery County Government. Montgomery County’s New Earned Sick and Safe Leave Law