Pennsylvania Paid Sick Leave Requirements by City

Pennsylvania’s paid sick leave law is local, not statewide. No Pennsylvania statute requires employers to provide paid or unpaid sick leave,¹ so whether you earn sick days depends on where you work. Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Allegheny County each have their own ordinances with different thresholds, accrual rates, and caps. Everywhere else in the state, sick leave is whatever your employer or your contract says it is.

What Federal Law Covers, and What It Doesn’t

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act applies in Pennsylvania, but it is not a sick leave law. FMLA gives eligible workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for a serious health condition, childbirth, or caring for a close family member with a serious illness.² It only applies to employers with at least 50 employees within 75 miles, and you must have worked at least 1,250 hours in the prior 12 months to qualify.³ It does not pay you, and it does not cover the short, routine absences that local sick leave ordinances are designed for.

Philadelphia: Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces

Philadelphia’s ordinance has been in effect since 2015 and covers anyone who performs at least 40 hours of work per year for an employer within city limits.⁴ You accrue one hour of sick time for every 40 hours worked, capped at 40 hours per calendar year.⁵

Whether that time is paid depends on how large your employer is. If your employer has 10 or more employees, the time is paid at your regular rate. If your employer has fewer than 10 employees, the time still accrues and you can still use it, but it can be unpaid. Unused hours carry over to the next year unless the employer frontloads the full 40 hours at the start of the year, but you cannot use more than 40 hours in any calendar year no matter how much has carried over.⁵

Workers covered by a bona fide collective bargaining agreement are exempt unless the agreement expressly incorporates the ordinance.⁵

Pittsburgh: Paid Sick Days Act

Pittsburgh’s ordinance, Chapter 626 of the City Code, was substantially expanded effective January 1, 2026. It covers any employee who works at least 35 hours within the city during a calendar year.⁶

Under the 2026 rules, all covered workers accrue one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked in the city, up from the prior rate of one hour per 35. The annual caps also went up:

If your employer has 15 or more employees, you can accrue at least 72 hours of paid sick time per calendar year, up from 40.
If your employer has fewer than 15 employees, you can accrue at least 48 hours of unpaid sick time per year, up from 24.

Unused time carries over subject to the cap unless the employer frontloads the full amount.⁶

Several categories of workers are excluded from the Pittsburgh ordinance: independent contractors, state and federal government employees, members of a construction union covered by a collective bargaining agreement, and seasonal employees.⁷ These exclusions are specific. An office worker under a non-construction union contract still qualifies. A freelancer paid on a 1099 does not, regardless of hours worked in the city.

Allegheny County

Allegheny County enacted a paid sick leave ordinance in September 2021 that covers the parts of the county outside Pittsburgh’s city limits.⁸ Coverage is narrow: only employers with 26 or more employees are subject to it. If you work for a smaller business in unincorporated Allegheny County or one of its smaller municipalities, the ordinance does not guarantee you sick leave. The Allegheny County Health Department administers the law and handles complaints.

What You Can Use Sick Time For

Both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh let you use accrued sick time for your own physical or mental health, including diagnosis, treatment, and preventive care such as routine checkups. You can also use it to care for a family member facing any of those same needs. Both ordinances cover absences tied to public health emergencies, such as when a workplace or school is closed by order of a health authority, or when an official determines that a family member’s presence in the community would risk spreading a communicable disease.

Safe Time in Philadelphia

Philadelphia’s ordinance also lets workers use accrued time for situations involving domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking. Covered uses include seeking medical care for injuries, getting help from a victim services organization, attending counseling, pursuing legal assistance or court proceedings, and taking safety steps like relocating. The protection covers both direct victims and workers caring for a family member who is a victim.⁹

If your employer asks for documentation of a safe-time absence, a police report, a court order, or a signed statement from a victim services organization is enough. The employer cannot demand details about the nature of the violence.⁹

Notice and Documentation

The rules on notifying your employer differ by city, and slipping on them can give the employer grounds to challenge the absence.

Philadelphia

You can request sick time orally or in writing. When you know about the absence in advance, notify your employer ahead of time and make a reasonable effort to schedule it so it does not disrupt operations. The ordinance does not set a minimum advance notice period. For unexpected absences, notify your employer before your shift starts, or as soon as possible if the need arises right around your shift time.⁹

Employers can require documentation only for absences of more than two consecutive days. A signed note from a health care professional confirming the need for leave is enough; the employer cannot require the note to name the illness or diagnosis. Employers also cannot require you to find a replacement worker as a condition of using sick time.⁹

Pittsburgh

You must make an oral request when using sick time, including the expected duration if you know it. For foreseeable absences like a scheduled appointment, employers can require up to seven days’ advance notice. For unexpected absences, make a good-faith effort to notify your employer as soon as you can. If the employer has no notification policy of its own, the default is that you must call in at least one hour before your shift.⁷

Employers can require documentation for absences of three or more consecutive full days. As in Philadelphia, a signed note from a health care professional is sufficient, and the employer cannot require it to state the specific illness.⁷

Retaliation Protections

Both cities prohibit employers from punishing workers for using protected sick time. Pittsburgh’s ordinance spells it out: an employer cannot fire, demote, suspend, or discipline you for using sick time, and counting a lawful sick day as an unexcused absence under an attendance policy is itself a violation. The law also protects workers who file complaints, cooperate with investigations, or tell coworkers about their rights.⁷

Both ordinances include a 90-day presumption. If your employer takes any adverse action against you within 90 days of your exercising a protected right, the law presumes it was retaliation, and the burden shifts to the employer to prove otherwise.

How to File a Complaint

In Pittsburgh, the Office of Equal Protection enforces the Paid Sick Days Act. You must file a complaint within six months of when you knew or should have known about the violation. The office can investigate, mediate, order full restitution for lost wages, order reinstatement, and impose fines of up to $100 per willful violation.⁷

Philadelphia handles enforcement through the city, not the state Department of Labor and Industry, so complaints go directly to the City of Philadelphia.¹ Allegheny County complaints go to the county Health Department.⁸

A Statewide Bill Is Pending

Senate Bill 13, introduced in the 2025–2026 legislative session, would create a mandatory employer-paid sick leave requirement across all of Pennsylvania.¹⁰ As of mid-2025 it had been referred to the Senate Labor and Industry Committee with no votes recorded. Until something passes at the state level, the three local ordinances are the only guaranteed sick leave protections in Pennsylvania.

1
Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. Wage FAQs
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Family and Medical Leave
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U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Frequently Asked Questions
4
City of Philadelphia. Paid Sick Leave Resources
5
American Legal Publishing. Philadelphia Code 9-4104 – Accrual of Paid Sick Time
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City of Pittsburgh. Guidelines v 4.1 for Administering Pittsburgh City Code Chapter 626 Paid Sick Days Act
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City of Pittsburgh, PA. City of Pittsburgh Code Chapter 626 – Paid Sick Days Act
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Allegheny County, PA. Paid Sick Leave Act
9
American Legal Publishing. Philadelphia Code 9-4105 – Use of Paid Sick Time
10
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Senate Bill 13 Information