Michigan Earned Sick Time Act: Coverage, Accrual, and Use

Under the Michigan Earned Sick Time Act, which took effect on February 21, 2025, almost every employer in the state must give workers paid sick time. You earn at least one hour for every 30 hours you work. How much you can use each year depends on your employer’s size: up to 72 hours if your employer has more than 10 employees, or up to 40 hours if your employer has 10 or fewer. Part-time, seasonal, and temporary workers are covered alongside full-time staff.¹

The law replaced Michigan’s narrower Paid Medical Leave Act after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in Mothering Justice v. Attorney General that the Legislature’s 2018 changes to the original voter-initiated statute were unconstitutional.²

Who Is Covered

Any employer with one or more employees has to comply. That includes private businesses, corporations, LLCs, schools, and state and local government. The only employer excluded entirely is the U.S. federal government.³

Employer size sets the annual usage cap but does not exempt anyone. A small business is one with 10 or fewer employees. Counting toward that 10 includes full-time, part-time, and temporary workers, including people supplied through staffing agencies. Once an employer has had more than 10 employees for at least 20 calendar workweeks in the current or prior year, it cannot claim small-business status even if headcount later drops.³

A few worker categories are not covered:

Federal employees.
Unpaid trainees and interns.
Youth workers employed under Michigan’s Youth Employment Standards Act.
Workers who set their own hours under a policy that prohibits the employer from penalizing them for not scheduling a minimum number of hours.
Railway workers covered by the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act.

On-call and per diem employees whose schedules are controlled by the employer do not qualify for the self-scheduling exemption.⁴

How Much Sick Time You Earn

Every covered employee accrues at least one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Both large and small employers accrue at that same rate; the difference is only in how many hours you can actually use in a year.¹

More than 10 employees: up to 72 hours per year.
10 or fewer employees: up to 40 hours per year.

If your employer tracks accruals in the standard way, it can make new hires wait up to 120 calendar days after their start date before using any accrued time. The hours still accrue from day one; you just cannot draw on them yet. That waiting period does not apply if the employer frontloads sick time.⁴

You can use sick time in increments as small as one hour, or in whatever smaller increment your employer’s payroll system already uses to track absences.⁴

Frontloading and Carryover

Instead of tracking accruals, an employer can frontload the full annual amount at the start of the benefit year: 72 hours for larger employers, 40 hours for small businesses. Frontloaded time must be available for immediate use.⁴

Employers that frontload do not have to allow unused hours to carry over, and they are not required to pay out unused time. Employers that use the accrual method must let unused hours roll into the next year, up to 72 hours (large) or 40 hours (small). Carryover preserves the bank; it does not raise the annual usage cap.¹

Part-time frontloading can be prorated based on expected hours, but only if the employer gave written notice of expected hours at hiring. If you end up working more than expected, the employer has to top up your sick time at the standard accrual rate.⁴

What You Can Use Sick Time For

Qualifying reasons go well beyond your own illness:

Your own physical or mental illness, injury, or health condition, including diagnosis, treatment, and preventive care.
The same health-related needs for a covered family member.
Medical care, counseling, legal services, court proceedings, relocation, or help from a victim services organization, if you or a family member is affected by domestic violence or sexual assault.
Meetings at your child’s school or place of care about the child’s health, disability, or the effects of domestic violence.
Closure of your workplace or your child’s school by public order, or when a health authority determines that you or a family member should stay out of the community because of exposure to a communicable disease.

⁵

Who Counts as a Family Member

The definition is broad. It covers your spouse or domestic partner; biological, adopted, foster, and stepchildren; legal wards; and children of a domestic partner. It also includes parents (biological, step, foster, and adoptive), grandparents, grandchildren, and siblings. A catch-all extends coverage to anyone whose close relationship with you is the equivalent of a family tie, even without a blood or legal connection.⁶

Notice and Documentation

When you know about a need for leave in advance, your employer can require up to seven days’ notice. If the need is unexpected, you only have to give notice as soon as reasonably possible.⁵

Employers can ask for documentation only when the absence lasts more than three consecutive days. Even then, they cannot demand details about a diagnosis or the specifics of a domestic violence situation. A note from a health care provider confirming the need for leave is enough.⁵

When a PTO Policy Counts

An employer’s existing paid time off policy can satisfy the act, but only if it meets every requirement. The PTO must accrue at least as fast as one hour per 30 hours worked, provide at least the same annual hours, and be usable for all the same qualifying reasons. If those boxes are checked, you are not owed additional sick time on top of PTO. A policy that gives enough hours but limits the reasons for use, or accrues more slowly, does not comply.⁴

Transfers, Rehires, and New Owners

If you move to a different division, location, or entity within the same company, your accrued sick time goes with you. When a successor employer takes over, it must honor whatever balance employees built up under the previous employer. The only exception in either case is if the outgoing employer pays out the value of unused accrued sick time at the time of the transfer.⁷

If you leave a job and are rehired by the same employer within two months, your previously accrued sick time has to be reinstated.⁷

Retaliation Protections

An employer cannot take adverse action against you for exercising any right under the act. That includes using sick time, filing a complaint, cooperating with an investigation, or telling a coworker about their rights. Counting a legitimate sick-time absence as an unexcused absence under an attendance policy is also prohibited.⁸

The statute creates a rebuttable presumption of retaliation if an employer takes adverse action within 90 days after you file a complaint, inform someone of a violation, cooperate with an investigation, oppose a prohibited practice, or tell someone about their rights. Once that presumption applies, the employer has to prove the action was not retaliatory.⁹

Filing a Complaint

If you think your employer has violated the act, you can file an administrative complaint with the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity or bring a civil lawsuit. There is no fee to file with the state. Remedies can include reinstatement, back pay, and additional damages, and the department can impose civil fines on noncompliant employers.

Every covered employer also has to display the department’s Earned Sick Time Act poster in a conspicuous place accessible to employees. The poster is free from the department’s website and must be posted in English.¹⁰ If your workplace does not have one up, you can download a copy and bring the requirement to your employer’s attention.

1
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 408.963 – Earned Sick Time; Accrual; Use; Carry Over
2
Justia Law. Mothering Justice v Attorney General
3
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 408.962 – Earned Sick Time Act
4
Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. Earned Sick Time Act Frequently Asked Questions
5
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 408.964 – Earned Sick Time; Permissible Uses; Notice; Documentation
6
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 408.962 – Earned Sick Time Act Definitions
7
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 408.965 – Transfer; Retention of Earned Sick Time; Successor Employer
8
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 408.966 – Exercise of Rights; Retaliation Prohibited
9
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 408.966 – Exercise of Rights; Retaliation Prohibited
10
Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. Earned Sick Time Act – Required Poster