Pittsburgh Paid Sick Leave: Accrual, Usage, and Notice Rules

If you work in Pittsburgh, paid sick leave is governed by the city’s Paid Sick Days Act (Chapter 626 of the city code). Under amendments that took effect January 1, 2026, covered employees earn one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked in the city, up to 72 hours a year at employers with 15 or more employees and 48 hours a year at smaller employers.¹ Those caps are nearly double what the ordinance required before 2026, and the accrual rate itself sped up from one hour per 35 worked to one per 30.

Who the Law Covers

You qualify once you have worked at least 30 hours inside Pittsburgh’s city limits in a calendar year. Most part-time and full-time workers hit that threshold quickly.²

Four groups are carved out of the ordinance:

Independent contractors and other non-employees.
Employees of state and federal government agencies.
Construction workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
Seasonal employees hired for no more than 16 weeks in a calendar year who received written notice of that seasonal status at hire.

These exclusions are set by the ordinance itself, not by employer choice.¹

How Much Time You Earn

Every 30 hours of work in Pittsburgh adds one hour to your sick time balance. The annual cap depends on your employer’s size:

At employers with 15 or more employees, you can accrue and hold up to 72 hours of paid sick time.
At employers with fewer than 15 employees, you can accrue and hold up to 48 hours.

Your available balance cannot exceed the applicable cap unless your employer voluntarily allows more.¹

One wrinkle for workers at small businesses: the ordinance calls the large-employer benefit “paid sick time,” and the city’s administrative guidelines describe sick time at small employers as unpaid.² If you work for a business under 15 employees, confirm the pay treatment with your employer or the city’s enforcement office before you rely on it.

Carryover

Unused sick time rolls into the next calendar year, but it never pushes your balance past the annual cap. An employer can skip the carryover process by front-loading the full annual allotment (72 or 48 hours) at the start of each year.³

If You Leave and Come Back

Employers do not owe you a payout for unused sick time when you quit, are fired, or retire. But if the same employer rehires you within six months, your prior balance is restored and you can start using and accruing time again right away.¹

What You Can Use Sick Time For

Covered reasons fall into three categories:

Your own illness, injury, medical or mental health appointments, or preventive care.
The same kinds of care for a family member.
A public health emergency, including when a public official closes your workplace or your child’s school, or when a health authority determines that a family member’s presence in the community would endanger others due to exposure to a communicable disease.¹

“Family member” is defined broadly. It includes children (biological, adopted, foster, step, or legal ward), parents (including in-laws and step-parents), spouses, domestic partners, grandparents, grandchildren, and siblings, as well as the spouse or domestic partner of a grandparent. It also includes any individual your employer gives you oral permission to care for when you request the leave.¹

Notice and Documentation

For a foreseeable absence such as a scheduled appointment or planned procedure, give your employer at least seven days’ notice. For sudden illness or an emergency, notify your employer as soon as reasonably possible.¹

Your employer can ask for documentation only if you are out three or more consecutive days. Acceptable documentation is a signed statement from a healthcare provider confirming the leave was for a covered reason. The provider does not have to disclose your diagnosis.¹

How You Get Paid for Sick Time

Sick time is paid at your regular base rate of pay, with the same benefits (including health care) you would have earned during those hours. You are only paid for hours you were actually scheduled to work.¹

Tipped and commissioned workers are treated differently. Lost tips are not reimbursed. Sick time pay for these workers must be at least the Pennsylvania minimum wage, which for many servers and bartenders will be lower than a typical shift’s take-home.⁴

When Your Employer’s PTO Policy Counts Instead

An existing paid time off, vacation, or personal day policy can satisfy the ordinance, but only if it provides at least as much time, accrues at the same rate or faster, and lets you use the time for every reason the ordinance covers.

The 2026 guidelines added restrictions that disqualify many common PTO rules. A policy does not satisfy the ordinance if it requires advance or written notice for unforeseeable absences, requires you to find your own replacement before taking leave, or subjects your leave to employer approval.² A PTO policy that looked compliant in 2025 may not clear the bar in 2026.

Retaliation Protections

Your employer cannot discipline, discharge, demote, or suspend you for using sick time you are entitled to, and cannot count that leave as an absence that triggers discipline, so long as you followed the notice and documentation rules. Attendance point systems that penalize sick time taken under Chapter 626 likely violate this provision.¹

Protection also extends to filing a complaint, telling coworkers about potential violations, and informing others about their rights under the ordinance.¹

Filing a Complaint

If your employer denies you sick time, retaliates against you, or otherwise violates the ordinance, you can file a complaint with the enforcement agency designated by the Mayor’s Office. You have six months from the date you knew or should have known about the violation.¹

The agency investigates and may attempt mediation. If a violation is confirmed, remedies can include full restitution of lost wages and benefits, reinstatement, or both. Willful violations carry fines of up to $100 per offense, and each affected hour or employee can count as a separate offense.¹

If a dispute goes to enforcement and your employer failed to keep adequate records of hours worked and sick time used, the ordinance presumes a violation, and the employer must produce clear and convincing evidence to overcome that presumption.¹

How Pittsburgh Sick Leave Works With FMLA

Pittsburgh’s ordinance runs alongside the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. When an absence qualifies under both, the leave can run concurrently, and federal law allows you or your employer to apply accrued paid sick time to an FMLA-covered absence. The leave stays FMLA-protected while you draw down your Pittsburgh balance.⁵

In practice, that means using your Pittsburgh sick time during a serious health event covered by FMLA gets you paid for at least part of what would otherwise be unpaid federal leave. FMLA has its own eligibility floor, though: 12 months of employment and 1,250 hours worked. Plenty of workers qualify for Pittsburgh sick time long before they qualify for FMLA.

1
City of Pittsburgh, PA. Pittsburgh Code of Ordinances – Chapter 626 Paid Sick Days Act
2
City of Pittsburgh. Guidelines v. 4.1 for Administering Pittsburgh City Code Chapter 626, Paid Sick Days Act
3
City of Pittsburgh, PA. Pittsburgh Code Title 6 – Paid Sick Days Act
4
EngagePgh. Paid Sick Days Act Enforcement
5
U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Frequently Asked Questions