Oregon Leave Laws: OFLA, Paid Leave Oregon, and Sick Time

Oregon leave laws give workers three main stacks of protection: paid sick time that starts accruing on day one, Paid Leave Oregon for extended paid absences tied to a serious health condition or a new child, and the Oregon Family Leave Act for job-protected bereavement and pregnancy leave. Narrower laws also protect survivors of abuse, people called for jury duty, and military families. The programs have different eligibility rules and sometimes run at the same time, sometimes back-to-back, so which one applies depends on your employer’s size, your work history, and the reason you need to be out.

Oregon Sick Time

Under ORS 653.601 through 653.661, nearly every Oregon worker earns protected sick time starting the first day on the job. You accrue at least one hour for every 30 hours you work. If your employer has 10 or more employees in Oregon, that time is paid at your regular rate. Smaller employers must still let you accrue the time, but it can be unpaid.¹

Portland has a lower threshold. Because state law sets a different bar for cities with populations above 500,000, Portland employers with six or more employees statewide must provide paid sick time. Portland employers with fewer than six follow the unpaid rules that apply to small employers elsewhere.²

You can start using accrued time on your 91st calendar day of employment. Employers can cap accrual at 40 hours per year and cap your total bank at 80 hours. You can carry up to 40 unused hours into the next year, though an employer can limit actual usage to 40 hours annually regardless of your balance.¹

Qualifying reasons include your own illness, injury, or preventive care, caring for a sick family member, and absences tied to a public health emergency. Oregon preempts local governments from creating separate sick leave rules, so the state law is both the floor and the ceiling for local mandates.²

Paid Leave Oregon

Paid Leave Oregon, established under ORS 657B, is a state-run insurance program that replaces part of your wages when you need extended time away for a serious health condition, family caregiving, or safety reasons.³ Where sick time covers a day or two for a cold, Paid Leave Oregon is built for events that keep you out for weeks or months.

Who Qualifies and Who Pays

To qualify for benefits, you must have earned at least $1,000 in Oregon wages during your base year, defined as the first four of the five completed calendar quarters before you file.⁴ Funding comes from payroll contributions. For 2026, the total rate is 1% of gross wages on earnings up to $184,500. At employers with 25 or more employees, workers pay 60% and the employer pays 40%. At smaller companies, workers pay the full 1%.⁵

How Much You Get

Benefits use a sliding scale that replaces a larger share of income for lower-wage workers. You receive 100% of the portion of your weekly wages at or below 65% of the state average weekly wage, plus 50% of any wages above that threshold. The maximum weekly benefit is capped at 120% of the state average weekly wage, and the Oregon Employment Department recalculates that cap each July.⁶ Someone earning minimum wage gets close to full replacement; higher earners see a smaller percentage.

What It Covers and for How Long

Paid Leave Oregon covers three categories:

Medical leave for your own serious health condition, including surgery recovery, chronic illness, or mental health treatment.
Family leave for bonding with a new child in their first year, whether by birth, adoption, or foster placement, or caring for a family member with a serious health condition.
Safe leave for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, harassment, bias crimes, or stalking to seek safety, legal help, or medical treatment.

You can take up to 12 weeks per benefit year. If you gave birth and have pregnancy-related complications, you may receive two additional weeks on top of the 12.³

Oregon defines “family member” more broadly than most states. The definition reaches a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, and the spouses or domestic partners of all those relatives. It also covers “any person who you are connected to like a family member,” which captures close relationships that don’t fit a legal category.⁷ You don’t necessarily need a biological or legal relationship to qualify.

Oregon Family Leave Act

The Oregon Family Leave Act, in ORS 659A.150 through 659A.186, provides job protection rather than wage replacement.⁸ It guarantees you can return to the same position or an equivalent one after qualifying leave. Legislative updates in 2024 narrowed OFLA so it doesn’t overlap with Paid Leave Oregon, meaning it now focuses on leave categories the insurance program doesn’t cover.

Eligibility is stricter than Paid Leave Oregon. Your employer must have at least 25 employees, and you must have worked there for at least 180 calendar days while averaging 25 or more hours per week.⁹ If you don’t meet those thresholds, you may still qualify for Paid Leave Oregon, which has a much lower earnings bar.

After 2024, OFLA mainly protects two categories:

Bereavement leave: up to two weeks per family member who dies, with a maximum of four weeks total in a leave year.⁹
Pregnancy disability leave: up to 12 weeks of job-protected time for prenatal care or recovery from childbirth. Oregon law defines pregnancy as a serious health condition for OFLA purposes.¹⁰

OFLA uses a rolling-forward leave year: a consecutive 52-week period that begins on the Sunday immediately before your leave starts. Employers cannot deny OFLA leave to an eligible employee or retaliate against anyone who requests it, asks about it, or takes it.¹¹

How the Programs Stack

This is where Oregon leave gets confusing, and where mistakes cost people weeks of benefits. Three programs can potentially apply to the same absence: federal FMLA, OFLA, and Paid Leave Oregon. They do not all run on the same clock.

Federal FMLA provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year if your employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles, you’ve worked there for 12 months, and you’ve logged at least 1,250 hours in the past year.¹² When FMLA and OFLA both apply to the same event, they run concurrently; the time counts against both banks at once.⁹

Paid Leave Oregon works differently. OFLA and Paid Leave Oregon do not run at the same time. You use Paid Leave Oregon benefits first, and OFLA leave (if you qualify) runs separately afterward. That sequence can effectively extend your total protected time if you qualify for both. An employer may provisionally designate qualifying leave as OFLA while a Paid Leave Oregon claim is pending, but the OFLA clock does not start until the paid benefits end.⁹

When more than one law applies, employers must follow whichever is most favorable to the employee. Both OFLA and the sick time law let you take leave to care for a sick child, for example, but the sick time law has a more lenient standard for when your employer can demand medical documentation. In that situation the employer has to use the sick time standard.⁹

Leave for Survivors of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, or Stalking

ORS 659A.270 through 659A.285 create a separate category of leave for employees who are victims of domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault, bias crimes, or stalking, and for parents or guardians of minor victims.¹³ These protections apply to every Oregon employer regardless of size.

You can take reasonable time off to obtain a restraining order, appear in court, relocate to a safe location, or get medical treatment for injuries from abuse. You don’t have to burn through sick time or other leave balances first.

Employers must also provide reasonable safety accommodations on request. The law lists examples like a schedule change, a workspace reassignment, a new work phone number, an installed lock, or any other adjustment that responds to an actual or threatened safety situation. An employer can refuse only by showing the accommodation would create an undue hardship.¹⁴

Jury Duty

Oregon law makes it an unlawful employment practice to fire, threaten, or coerce an employee because of jury service. Your employer cannot force you to use vacation, sick time, or annual leave for the days you spend responding to a jury summons. You’re entitled to unpaid leave for jury duty, and the statute doesn’t disturb existing employer policies that voluntarily pay during jury service.¹⁵

If your employer has 10 or more employees, it must also continue your health, disability, and life insurance coverage while you serve, provided you elected to keep that coverage and gave proper notice. If the employer advances any premium costs that were your responsibility, it can recover them by deducting up to 10% of your gross pay per pay period after you return until the balance is repaid.¹⁶

Self-Employed Workers and Independent Contractors

Paid Leave Oregon doesn’t cover self-employed people or independent contractors automatically. You can opt in voluntarily if your work is based in Oregon and you earned at least $1,000 in Oregon net self-employment income in the previous tax year.¹⁷ Once enrolled, you pay the full 1% contribution yourself and qualify for the same benefits as any covered employee.

Filing a Paid Leave Oregon Claim

You apply through Frances Online, the state’s centralized portal for payroll reporting and benefit claims.¹⁸ Before you file, notify your employer. For planned leave like a scheduled surgery or an expected due date, give at least 30 days’ notice. For unexpected events, tell your employer verbally within 24 hours of starting leave, then follow up in writing within three days. Skipping the written notice can reduce your first weekly benefit by 25%.¹⁹

What you submit depends on the type of leave. Medical claims require certification from a licensed healthcare provider describing your condition and the expected time away. Family bonding claims call for a birth certificate, hospital record, or adoption or foster placement paperwork. Safe leave claims may require a police report, protective order, or statement from a victim services provider. Forms and checklists are available through the Paid Leave Oregon portal.¹⁸

Once filed, the state reviews your documentation and issues a decision. Approved claims pay out weekly by direct deposit or a state-issued debit card. If your claim is denied, the denial letter includes instructions and deadlines. In most cases involving missing or incomplete documentation, you have 60 days to submit corrected paperwork for another review.²⁰ Don’t sit on a denial. The most common reason claims fail is incomplete paperwork, and that 60-day window is a hard deadline.

1
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 653.606 – Employee Count; Paid and Unpaid Sick Time; Rules
2
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 653 – Minimum Wage
3
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 657B – Family and Medical Leave Insurance
4
Paid Leave Oregon. Paid Leave Oregon
5
Paid Leave Oregon. Employers – Paid Leave Oregon
6
Paid Leave Oregon. Common Questions – Paid Leave Oregon
7
Paid Leave Oregon. Applying for Family Leave
8
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 659A
9
Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. Oregon Family Leave Act – For Workers
10
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 659A.150 – Definitions for ORS 659A.150 to 659A.186
11
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 659A – Section 659A.183
12
U.S. Department of Labor. Family and Medical Leave Act
13
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 659A.270 – Definitions for ORS 659A.270 to 659A.285
14
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 659A.290 – Prohibited Conduct by Employer; Records Confidential
15
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 10 – Juries – Section 10.090
16
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 10 – Juries – Section 10.092
17
Paid Leave Oregon. Self-Employed and Independent Contractors – Paid Leave Oregon
18
Paid Leave Oregon. Forms – Paid Leave Oregon
19
Paid Leave Oregon. Employees and Paid Leave Oregon
20
Paid Leave Oregon. What to Expect – Paid Leave Oregon