Seattle’s Paid Sick and Safe Time ordinance requires every employer with at least one employee working in the city to provide paid leave that workers can use for their own or a family member’s health needs, or for safety emergencies like domestic violence or a public-health closure. Leave starts accruing on your first hour of work, and the accrual rate, carryover cap, and some uses depend on how large your employer is. The rules are codified in Seattle Municipal Code 14.16 and enforced by the city’s Office of Labor Standards.
Who the Ordinance Covers
Seattle sorts employers into three tiers based on the average number of full-time equivalent employees worldwide during the prior calendar year. Tier 1 is 1 to 49 FTEs, Tier 2 is 50 to 249, and Tier 3 is 250 or more, no matter where the company is based.1City of Seattle. Paid Sick and Safe Time
You qualify as a covered employee by performing work inside Seattle city limits. Full-time, part-time, and temporary workers all count. If you only come to Seattle occasionally for work, you become eligible once you hit 240 hours of work in the city within a single benefit year. From that point forward, your employer owes you leave at the rate matching its tier.
How Much Leave You Earn
Accrual starts your first hour on the job, though an employer can require you to wait 90 days before actually using the leave. Tier 1 and Tier 2 employees earn one hour of PSST for every 40 hours worked. Tier 3 employees earn faster: one hour for every 30 hours worked.1City of Seattle. Paid Sick and Safe Time
An employer can skip hour-by-hour tracking by frontloading the full expected amount at the start of the benefit year. If they do, they have to tell you the amount, show the math, and name the accrual year. If the frontloaded hours turn out to be less than you would have earned by regular accrual, the employer must true up the difference within 30 days of discovering the shortfall. If you use more than you would have accrued, the employer cannot ask for the hours back.2City of Seattle. Paid Sick and Safe Time Model Policy
There is no annual cap on how much PSST you can use. As long as you have accrued and unused hours, you can draw on them.3City of Seattle. Paid Sick and Safe Time Ordinance – Questions and Answers
What Carries Over Year to Year
Unused PSST rolls into the next benefit year, with a cap that depends on your employer’s tier:
- Tier 1: up to 40 hours
- Tier 2: up to 56 hours
- Tier 3: up to 72 hours, or up to 108 hours if the employer uses a combined paid time off plan1City of Seattle. Paid Sick and Safe Time
Employers can offer more generous carryover than these minimums, but they cannot offer less. At the end of a benefit year, an employer may cash out any balance above the carryover cap instead of letting it roll.4City of Seattle. Paid Sick and Safe Time Ordinance – Questions and Answers
What You Can Use PSST For
Sick time covers physical and mental health needs for yourself or a family member: doctor appointments, preventive care, diagnosis, treatment, and recovery from illness or injury. The ordinance defines family member broadly to include a child (adopted, foster, and stepchildren included), spouse, registered domestic partner, parent, parent-in-law, grandparent, grandchild, and sibling.5City of Seattle. Paid Sick and Safe Time Ordinance – Questions and Answers If you are overtime-eligible, Washington State law adds anyone who regularly lives in your home and depends on you for care, and your Seattle employer must honor the broader state definition.
Safe time covers situations that are not strictly medical. You can use it when your workplace or your child’s school or place of care is closed by a public official for health reasons. For Tier 3 employers, closures for any health or safety reason qualify.1City of Seattle. Paid Sick and Safe Time Safe time also covers absences tied to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking affecting you, a family member, or a household member, including seeking legal help, relocating, getting a protection order, and accessing counseling. You do not have to specify which type of violence or threat prompted the leave.
Giving Notice and Showing Verification
When you know about an absence in advance, like a scheduled surgery or a court date, give your employer at least ten days’ notice or as much as reasonably possible. For sudden illness or an unexpected safety emergency, notify your employer as soon as feasible before your shift starts. Most workplaces spell out the preferred contact method in a written policy.
An employer can only ask for documentation, like a doctor’s note, if you miss more than three consecutive work days. When verification is required, the employer has to cover any out-of-pocket cost you incur to get it, such as a copay.1City of Seattle. Paid Sick and Safe Time
If you are overtime-eligible, your employer must let you take PSST in whatever increment it uses for timekeeping, up to a maximum of one hour. So if payroll runs in 15-minute blocks, you can take PSST in 15-minute blocks. Your employer cannot deduct more PSST than the actual scheduled time you missed, even if that time overlaps with overtime hours.4City of Seattle. Paid Sick and Safe Time Ordinance – Questions and Answers
Leaving a Job, Rehire, and the Construction Exception
Employers do not have to pay out unused PSST when you resign, are fired, or retire. A cash-out at separation is allowed if you and the employer agree to it in writing. One industry-specific exception: under a statewide rule effective March 2024, construction employers must pay out accrued unused paid sick leave when a construction worker’s employment ends within 90 calendar days of being hired.4City of Seattle. Paid Sick and Safe Time Ordinance – Questions and Answers
If the same employer rehires you within seven months, any previously accrued PSST must be reinstated.
How PSST Fits With State and Federal Leave Laws
Washington State’s paid sick leave law applies to every employer in the state, with no size tiers, and requires one hour of leave per 40 hours worked. Where Seattle’s rules give you more, Seattle controls; where the state law is more generous, your Seattle employer has to follow the state law.6Washington State Department of Labor and Industries. Paid Sick Leave The clearest overlap is the family-member definition described above.
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act is a separate program that offers up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave if you have worked for your employer at least 12 months, logged 1,250 hours in the past year, and work at a site with 50 or more employees within 75 miles.7U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #28 – The Family and Medical Leave Act When an absence qualifies under both laws, your employer can run them concurrently. PSST then provides pay during leave that would otherwise be unpaid, but you don’t get PSST hours on top of the full 12 FMLA weeks.
What Your Employer Has to Give You in Writing
Every pay period, your employer must show your accrued, used, and remaining PSST hours on your wage statement or an attachment to it. Businesses also have to post the Office of Labor Standards’ annual PSST workplace poster where employees can see it.1City of Seattle. Paid Sick and Safe Time Payroll and leave records have to be kept for at least three years, matching the federal recordkeeping requirement.8eCFR. 29 CFR Part 516 – Records to Be Kept by Employers Missing a required record costs the employer $500 per record.
Penalties and Retaliation Protections
The Office of Labor Standards enforces the ordinance with penalties that climb for repeat violations. A first violation involving unpaid or underpaid leave carries a discretionary penalty of up to $500 per affected employee. A second violation within ten years brings a mandatory penalty of $1,000 per employee or ten percent of total unpaid wages, whichever is greater. Third and later violations carry mandatory penalties of up to $5,000 per employee, capped at $20,000 per employee.9City of Seattle. Paid Sick and Safe Time Ordinance – Questions and Answers
Poster and notice violations are penalized separately. Willfully failing to display the required workplace poster brings a $750 fine for the first offense and $1,000 for each one after. Failing to give employees a written PSST policy or to show leave balances on wage statements can each draw $500 fines.9City of Seattle. Paid Sick and Safe Time Ordinance – Questions and Answers
Retaliation carries the stiffest consequences. Firing, demoting, cutting hours, or otherwise punishing you for using PSST triggers a mandatory penalty of up to $5,000 paid directly to you, plus a $1,000 civil fine paid to the city. You are also entitled to reinstatement or front pay of up to three times the wages you lost. Interest on any unpaid wages accrues at 12 percent per year, calculated monthly.9City of Seattle. Paid Sick and Safe Time Ordinance – Questions and Answers
How to File a Complaint
If you think your employer is violating the ordinance, you can file a complaint with the Office of Labor Standards online, by phone at (206) 256-5297, or in person at 810 3rd Avenue, Suite 375, Seattle, WA 98104, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.10City of Seattle. Worker Resources – File a Complaint You do not need a lawyer to file. OLS staff handle the investigation, which looks at the employer’s payroll records and leave practices. The same retaliation penalties that protect workers who use PSST also protect workers who file complaints.