Oakland’s paid sick leave law gives you one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours you work in the city, up to a cap of 40 or 72 hours depending on the size of your employer. You start earning from your first day, you can begin using the time after 90 days on the job, and you can use it for your own illness, a family member’s care, preventive appointments, or safe leave related to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. The rules come from Measure FF, codified in Oakland Municipal Code Chapter 5.92.
Who Is Covered
If you work at least two hours inside Oakland’s city limits in any workweek, you’re covered. Full-time, part-time, and temporary workers all qualify. The law tracks California’s minimum wage coverage, so independent contractors fall outside it, but the two-hour threshold is low enough to pull in workers who only occasionally set foot in Oakland for a job.
Accrual begins on day one of employment. Use is a different question: you have to be on the payroll for 90 calendar days before you can actually draw on any hours. That clock counts your total time with the employer, not just the hours worked inside Oakland. Once you clear 90 days, everything you’ve banked becomes available at once.
How Hours Build Up
You earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Overtime counts. If you’re an exempt salaried employee, accrual is calculated on a 40-hour workweek unless your regular schedule is clearly shorter.
How much you can bank depends on how many people work for your employer:
- Small employers with fewer than 10 employees may cap accrual at 40 hours.
- Employers with 10 or more employees may cap accrual at 72 hours.
When you hit the cap, accrual pauses. Use some leave, drop below the cap, and you start earning again at the same rate. Unused hours carry over year to year, so a calendar reset doesn’t erase what you’ve earned.
What You Can Use It For
Sick leave covers your own physical or mental health needs, including preventive care like checkups and vaccinations. You can also use it to care for a family member with any of the same needs. The ordinance defines family broadly: biological, adopted, foster, and stepchildren, legal wards, and any child you stand in loco parentis to; parents and stepparents, including your spouse’s or partner’s parents; spouses and registered domestic partners; grandparents, grandchildren, and siblings.
If you don’t have a spouse or registered domestic partner, you can name one designated person for whom you may use sick leave. Your employer must give you the chance to make this designation within 30 days of when you start accruing leave, and you have 10 workdays to respond. After that, you can update or replace the designation once a year during a 10-workday window.
Safe leave is part of the law too. If you or a covered family member is dealing with domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, you can use accrued hours to seek legal help, get a restraining order, relocate, appear in court, or reach counseling and victim services.
What You Get Paid
Hourly workers are paid at their current regular rate when they take the leave, not the rate that was in effect when the hours were earned. If you hold two jobs with the same employer at different rates, you’re paid at the rate scheduled for the shift you missed.
Salaried employees are paid by dividing annual salary by 52 weeks and then by the hours in a regular workweek. Non-exempt salaried workers use 40 hours as the divisor, even if they routinely work more. Tipped workers are paid based on the employer’s wages only; tips don’t factor into sick pay.
Notice and Doctor’s Notes
If you know in advance you’ll need time off, such as a scheduled procedure, give your employer reasonable advance notice. For unexpected illness, notify them as soon as you reasonably can.
Your employer can require a doctor’s note only if you’re out for more than three consecutive workdays. For shorter absences, no medical documentation can be demanded. A one-day cold doesn’t require a clinic visit.
How Oakland Fits with California State Law
California’s statewide paid sick leave law, updated by SB 616, requires at least 40 hours (five days) of paid sick leave per year with an 80-hour accrual cap. When Oakland’s rules are more generous, the employer follows Oakland. When state rules are more generous, state law wins.
For larger Oakland employers, the 72-hour cap exceeds the state’s 40-hour annual use limit, so those workers get the Oakland standard. For small employers on the 40-hour Oakland cap, the local carryover and accrual rules can still matter in specific situations.
A few areas are governed by state law regardless: pay stub requirements, how sick pay is calculated, rules about lending sick leave before it accrues, and whether unused sick leave has to be paid out when you leave the job. On those points, the state standard controls.
If your employer already offers a PTO or vacation policy that covers everything Oakland’s sick leave law covers, including safe leave, and accrues at least as fast with at least the required cap, a separate sick leave bank isn’t required.
What Your Employer Has to Post and Track
Employers must post a workplace notice about sick leave rights and give written notice of the law’s provisions to every current employee and every new hire. Each pay period, your pay stub or a separate document should show your accrued balance and how much you’ve used.
Employers have to keep records of wages, accrual, and usage for at least three years. You can request a copy, and they have to provide it within a reasonable time. If your balance is ever in dispute, those records are the evidence.
Retaliation Protections
Your employer cannot fire you, cut your hours, demote you, or otherwise punish you for using sick leave, filing a complaint, or cooperating with a city investigation. If any negative action lands within 90 days of you using leave or filing a complaint, the law presumes it was retaliatory. Your employer can try to rebut that presumption by showing a legitimate unrelated reason, but the burden sits with them. If retaliation is established, remedies include reinstatement and recovery of lost wages.
Leaving the Job or Getting Rehired
Oakland does not require payout of unused sick leave when you quit, are laid off, or retire. The banked hours simply end. One exception: if your employer uses a combined PTO or vacation policy to satisfy the sick leave requirement, California’s rule requiring payout of accrued vacation at termination can still apply.
If the same employer rehires you within 12 months, your previously accrued and unused sick leave has to be restored. If you had already crossed the 90-day threshold before you left, the restored hours are available right away. If you hadn’t, your earlier time on the job counts toward the 90 days.
Filing a Complaint
Violations carry civil penalties of up to $1,000 each. You can file a complaint with Oakland’s Department of Workplace and Employment Standards, which investigates and can pull payroll records, or you can file a civil lawsuit yourself seeking back pay, reinstatement, or a court order requiring compliance going forward.