The Michigan Paid Medical Leave Act no longer governs sick leave in the state. On February 21, 2025, the Michigan Supreme Court struck down the 2018 legislative amendments that created the PMLA and restored the original Earned Sick Time Act (ESTA), which now applies to every Michigan employer regardless of size.1State of Michigan. Earned Sick Time Act – Effective Feb. 21, 2025 If you came here looking for PMLA rules, the practical answer is that they’ve been replaced. Employees at businesses with 10 or more workers can now earn up to 72 hours of paid sick time a year; employees at smaller businesses can earn up to 40.
What Happened to the Paid Medical Leave Act
The PMLA started life in 2018 as a citizen initiative called the Earned Sick Time Act. The legislature adopted the initiative before it reached the ballot, then amended it in the same session, renaming it the Paid Medical Leave Act and narrowing its reach: coverage was limited to employers with 50 or more employees, annual leave was capped at 40 hours, and several categories of workers were excluded.2Michigan Legislature. Act No. 369 Public Acts of 2018
The Michigan Supreme Court held that the adopt-and-amend maneuver violated the state constitution and restored the original ESTA. The rest of this article describes the law as it stands now.
Who Is Covered
Every Michigan employer must now provide earned sick time. The old 50-employee threshold is gone. What differs is how much time employees can earn and use:3Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 408.963 – Earned Sick Time Act
- Employers with fewer than 10 employees must provide up to 40 hours of paid sick time per year. Small businesses had until October 1, 2025 to begin tracking accruals.
- Employers with 10 or more employees must provide up to 72 hours of paid sick time per year.
The law does not cover the United States government, other states, or political subdivisions of other states.
On the employee side, ESTA covers a much wider pool of workers than the PMLA did. The PMLA excluded employees who averaged fewer than 25 hours per week, seasonal workers, and those employed for 25 weeks or fewer. ESTA dropped those exclusions. If you work for a Michigan employer and federal income taxes are withheld from your pay, you are generally covered. Employees exempt from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act are also covered, and for accrual purposes they are assumed to work 40 hours per week unless their normal schedule is shorter.
How You Earn Sick Time
Employees accrue one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Under the PMLA, the rate was one hour per 35 hours worked, so accrual now happens faster.
Annual usage is capped at 40 hours for small-business employees and 72 hours for everyone else. Unused hours carry over from one year to the next, up to those same caps. Employers are not required to allow usage above the caps in any single year, even with carryover, unless they voluntarily set a higher limit.4State of Michigan. Earned Sick Time Act Frequently Asked Questions
Instead of tracking hour-by-hour accrual, an employer can front-load the full annual amount at the start of the year. A small business would provide at least 40 hours up front; a larger employer would provide at least 72. Employers that front-load are not required to allow carryover into the next year.
If you leave a job and are rehired within six months, your previously accrued sick time must be reinstated. The PMLA did not require this.
What You Can Use Sick Time For
ESTA allows paid sick time for a broader range of situations than many people expect. Accrued time can be used for any of the following:5Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 408.964 – Earned Sick Time Act
- Treatment, diagnosis, or recovery from a physical or mental illness, injury, or health condition, as well as preventive care.
- The same health-related purposes for a family member.
- Medical care, counseling, victim services, relocation, legal services, or related court proceedings connected to domestic violence or sexual assault, for the employee or a family member.
- Meetings at a child’s school or place of care related to the child’s health, disability, or the effects of domestic violence or sexual assault.
- Public health emergencies, including workplace closure ordered by a public official, caring for a child whose school has closed for a public health emergency, or situations where a health authority determines the employee’s or family member’s presence in the community would risk spreading a communicable disease.
For absences longer than three consecutive days, employers can require reasonable documentation that the leave was used for a permitted purpose. The documentation requirement cannot be so burdensome that it effectively discourages employees from using their time.
What Changed From the PMLA
Michigan employers who built handbooks and payroll systems around the PMLA are working from an outdated framework. The changes that matter most:
- Employer coverage: PMLA applied only to employers with 50 or more employees; ESTA covers all employers.
- Accrual rate: one hour per 35 hours worked under PMLA; one hour per 30 hours worked under ESTA.
- Annual cap: 40 hours under PMLA; up to 72 hours under ESTA for employees of larger businesses (40 for small-business employees).
- Employee exclusions: PMLA excluded part-time workers averaging under 25 hours per week, seasonal employees, and other categories; ESTA eliminated most of those exclusions.
- Recordkeeping: one year under PMLA; three years under ESTA.
- Rehire: PMLA did not require restoring accrued time upon rehire; ESTA requires reinstatement within six months.
Employer Duties and Penalties
Employers must display a poster from the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) in a conspicuous, accessible location. LEO provides the poster as a free download. Willfully failing to post it carries a $100 fine per violation, and each location and each day without a posted notice can count separately.6State of Michigan. Earned Sick Time Act Required Poster
Employers must keep records of hours worked and sick time taken for at least three years. In a dispute, the employer bears the burden of producing those records.
Retaliation is where enforcement actions tend to hit hardest. An employer cannot fire, demote, discipline, or otherwise discriminate against an employee for using earned sick time, filing a complaint, cooperating with a state investigation, or informing others about their rights.7Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 408.966 – Earned Sick Time Act An attendance policy cannot count ESTA-protected sick time as an unexcused absence or feed it into progressive discipline. Point-based attendance systems that assign points for any absence, regardless of reason, are a common source of violations. The protections extend to employees who allege a violation in good faith, even if they turn out to be mistaken. An employer can still take adverse action against an employee who uses sick time for a purpose the law does not cover or who violates the employer’s written notice procedure for requesting leave.
Enforcement is handled by LEO’s Wage and Hour Division. Employees can file a complaint within three years of the alleged violation. When a violation is found, remedies include payment of improperly withheld sick time, damages, back pay, and reinstatement if the employee was fired. Beyond employee-specific relief, the employer faces a $1,000 administrative fine plus a potential civil fine of up to eight times the employee’s normal hourly wage.
How ESTA Fits With Federal Leave Laws
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year, but only for employers with 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius, and only for employees who have worked at least 1,250 hours in the preceding 12 months.8U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28 The Family and Medical Leave Act ESTA applies to all Michigan employers and does not impose a minimum hours-of-service requirement.
The two can run at the same time. If an absence qualifies under both laws, the employer can count ESTA-covered paid sick time toward the FMLA entitlement. An absence that does not meet FMLA’s “serious health condition” threshold still has full ESTA protection.
The Americans with Disabilities Act can require additional unpaid leave as a reasonable accommodation even after an employee has used all available ESTA and FMLA time. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has said that exhausting leave under other programs does not end the ADA obligation; the employer must still consider more leave unless it can show undue hardship. Indefinite leave, where the employee cannot say whether or when they will return, qualifies as an undue hardship and does not have to be granted.9U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Employer-Provided Leave and the Americans with Disabilities Act