Oregon Sick Time Law: Accrual, Use, and Retaliation Rules

Oregon’s sick time law covers almost everyone who works in the state. You earn one hour of protected sick time for every 30 hours you work, starting on your first day. You can begin using it on your 91st calendar day of employment. Whether those hours are paid depends on how many people your employer has on staff in Oregon: 10 or more anywhere in the state (or 6 or more with at least one Portland location) means paid; below those thresholds means unpaid but still job-protected.¹

Who the Law Covers

If you perform work in Oregon, the law almost certainly applies to you. Full-time, part-time, seasonal, temporary — it doesn’t matter. Even a few hours of work per month triggers coverage, and your employer doesn’t need to be headquartered in Oregon.¹

A short list of workers falls outside the statute:

Federal government employees, who follow federal leave rules.
Independent contractors, because no employer-employee relationship exists.
Participants in secondary or post-secondary work-study programs.
Participants in state or federal assistance-related work training programs.
Railroad workers covered by the federal Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act.
Individuals employed by their own parent, spouse, or child.

If you’ve been labeled an independent contractor but your employer controls your schedule and how you do your work, you may be misclassified and actually entitled to sick time. Oregon uses an analysis similar to the federal “economic reality” test.² You can raise the question with Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI).

How Hours Accrue and When You Can Use Them

Accrual starts day one at a rate of one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked. All hours count, including overtime. For salaried employees who are exempt from federal overtime, the law presumes a 40-hour week unless you actually work fewer hours.³

The catch is timing. You can’t actually use accrued hours until your 91st calendar day of employment. An employer can allow earlier use but isn’t required to. Hours build in your bank during those first three months; you just can’t tap them yet.¹

Some employers skip the accrual math and frontload the full 40 hours at the start of the benefit year. If they do that, the standard accrual and carryover rules don’t apply, and new hires can be prorated.³

Caps and Carryover

Three separate limits shape your balance:

Your employer can cap annual accrual at 40 hours.
Your employer can cap your total banked hours at 80.
Your employer can cap annual use at 40 hours, even if you have more banked from carryover.

Unused hours carry over from one year to the next, up to 40 hours. You can build a modest cushion, but your employer can hold your total at 80 and your yearly use at 40.³

Paid or Unpaid

Whether you get a paycheck for sick time depends entirely on your employer’s Oregon headcount:

10 or more employees anywhere in Oregon: sick time must be paid.
6 or more employees anywhere in Oregon with at least one Portland location: sick time must be paid.
Anything below those thresholds: sick time is still required but can be unpaid.

The count includes every employee working in Oregon across all of your employer’s locations, not just the site where you work.¹

Job protection applies either way. Whether your time is paid or unpaid, your employer cannot fire you, demote you, or cut your hours because you used accrued time for a qualifying reason.

When time is paid, you must receive your regular hourly rate — what you would have earned for the scheduled shift. For commission or piece-rate workers, the employer must apply a consistent method to calculate an equivalent hourly rate.

What You Can Use Sick Time For

The statute lists specific qualifying reasons, and they cover more ground than the name suggests.

Your Own or a Family Member’s Health

Any mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition qualifies. That includes diagnosis, ongoing treatment, preventive care like physicals and vaccinations, and recovery time when a condition keeps you from performing at least one essential function of your job.⁴ The same reasons apply when you’re caring for a family member. Oregon defines family broadly under the Oregon Family Leave Act, typically including your spouse, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, parent-in-law, and someone in an equivalent relationship.¹

Safe Time After Violence or Abuse

If you, your minor child, or your dependent is a victim of domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault, a bias crime, or stalking, you can use accrued hours to seek legal help, participate in court proceedings, get medical care or counseling, or relocate to a safe home.¹

Public Health Closures and Exclusions

Sick time covers absences triggered by a public health emergency: a public official ordering your workplace or your child’s school closed, a health authority or doctor determining that your presence in the community would endanger others, or your employer being legally required to exclude you from work.⁴

Notice and Documentation

For foreseeable absences (a scheduled surgery, a recurring therapy appointment), your employer can require up to 10 days’ advance notice, and you should make a reasonable effort not to disrupt operations. For unforeseeable absences, you just have to notify your employer as soon as you reasonably can, following their normal call-in procedure.⁵

Documentation rules are narrow. If you miss more than three consecutive scheduled workdays, your employer can request medical verification, and you have 15 calendar days to provide it. For foreseeable absences expected to run more than three days, verification can be requested before the leave. If your health plan doesn’t cover the cost of getting that documentation — a doctor’s note fee, for instance — your employer must pay any reasonable cost.⁶

What Your Employer Owes You in Information

Employers must post a sick time notice in the workplace and give written notice of your rights. They must also tell you your accrued and used balance at least once per quarter. Many meet this obligation by printing the balance on your pay stub.¹ If your employer runs a general paid time off (PTO) policy that meets or exceeds the law’s requirements, they can use it in place of a separate sick time policy, but they still have to track your first 40 hours of PTO use and report the balance quarterly.

Retaliation and Filing a Complaint

Your employer cannot retaliate against you for using or requesting sick time. Retaliation includes termination, demotion, cut hours, discipline, or any other adverse action tied to your use of the law. An employer can still discipline you for failing to follow legitimate call-in procedures, but a properly reported sick time absence cannot be counted as an “occurrence” under an attendance policy.¹

If your employer denies your sick time, refuses to pay for it when required, or retaliates, you can file a complaint with BOLI. Civil penalties can reach $1,000 per offense, and BOLI can order reinstatement, back wages, and payment of the penalty.

Leaving a Job and Coming Back

Oregon does not require employers to pay out unused sick time when you quit, get laid off, or are fired. Unless your employer has a written policy or established practice of paying it out, your balance is forfeited at separation.

If the same employer rehires you within 180 days, any sick time on the books when you left has to be restored. That closes the loophole of cycling workers out and back in to reset their balance.³

How Sick Time Fits with FMLA and OFLA

If you qualify for the federal Family and Medical Leave Act — generally 12 months of employment and 1,250 hours worked for an employer with 50 or more employees — Oregon sick time and FMLA can run at the same time. You or your employer can apply your accrued paid sick time to an FMLA absence, so what would otherwise be unpaid federal leave becomes paid. When that happens, the hours count against both banks.⁷

Oregon has its own family leave law (OFLA) with different employer-size thresholds and some situations FMLA doesn’t reach. The overlap between sick time, OFLA, and FMLA gets genuinely tangled for longer absences. If you’re looking at more than a week or two off for a serious medical situation, contact BOLI or talk to an employment attorney about which protections apply and how to stack them.

1
State of Oregon. Sick Time
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Employee or Independent Contractor Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
3
Oregon Public Law. Oregon Code 653.606 – Employee Count; Paid and Unpaid Sick Time; Rules
4
Oregon Public Law. Oregon Code 653.616 – Allowable Uses of Sick Time
5
Oregon Public Law. Oregon Code 653.621 – Minimum Use Increments; Notice to Employer; Rules
6
Cornell Law School. Oregon Administrative Code 839-007-0045 – Verification and Certification for Sick Time Use
7
U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Frequently Asked Questions