Vermont Sick Leave Law: Accrual, Notice, and Retaliation

The Vermont sick leave law, formally the Earned Sick Time Act, requires every employer in the state to give qualifying employees paid sick leave. Workers earn one hour of paid time for every 52 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year, and can use that time for their own health, a family member’s health, or certain safety-related situations. There is no minimum company size, and employees are protected from retaliation for using the time they have earned.

Who Is Covered

The law reaches every employer operating in Vermont, whether a business, a nonprofit, or a government agency. A sole proprietor with one part-time worker is covered on the same terms as a large corporation.¹ The single exception is for brand-new employers: a business is exempt during the first year after it hires its first employee. Vermont blocks workarounds where a company shifts workers between commonly owned businesses to restart that clock.²

To qualify as a covered employee, you have to average at least 18 hours of work per week over a year.¹ Part-time and seasonal workers who clear that threshold are covered, along with agricultural workers, domestic workers, nonprofit employees, and unionized employees.³

Three groups of workers fall outside the law:

Federal employees, who are covered by separate federal leave programs.
Per diem or intermittent healthcare workers, meaning those who work only on an as-needed basis at healthcare or residential care facilities.
Short-term temporary workers who work 20 weeks or fewer in a 12-month period in a job scheduled to last 20 weeks or fewer. Both conditions must be met before the exemption applies.¹

How Sick Time Accrues

Accrual starts on your first day. You earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 52 hours worked, and your employer can cap total accrual at 40 hours in a 12-month period. For a full-time schedule, that pace works out to roughly one hour every six and a half weeks, so building the full 40-hour balance takes most of the year.⁴

New hires face one wrinkle. An employer can impose a waiting period of up to one year before you can actually use any accrued time. Hours still accumulate during that window; you just cannot draw on them yet.⁴

What You Can Use Sick Time For

You can use earned sick time for your own illness, injury, or medical condition, including routine and preventive visits like check-ups, dental appointments, and vaccinations.⁵

It also covers caring for a family member who is sick or needs help getting to a medical appointment. The statutory list is broader than many workers assume. It includes a spouse, parent, grandparent, parent-in-law, child, grandchild, foster child, brother, or sister. Accompanying a parent, grandparent, spouse, or parent-in-law to a long-term care appointment counts as well.⁵

Sick time is also available in situations involving domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. If you or a covered family member is a victim, you can use accrued hours to seek medical care or counseling, arrange legal services, or relocate.⁵

Giving Notice to Your Employer

Employers can require you to give notice before using sick time. The standard is “as soon as practicable,” which is flexible by design. A few days’ heads-up is reasonable for a scheduled doctor’s appointment. Waking up with the flu usually calls for a message before your shift starts.⁶

Your employer can also ask you to make reasonable efforts to schedule routine or preventive care outside working hours. That does not let them deny a Tuesday afternoon dental cleaning, but it does mean you should not deliberately stack every routine visit into peak business hours when evening or weekend slots exist.⁶

The statute itself does not set a threshold, such as three consecutive days, that triggers a required doctor’s note. Some employers write documentation rules into their own policies, but the law does not mandate them.

PTO Plans and Frontloading

Not every employer tracks sick leave one hour at a time. The law gives businesses two alternatives. One is to offer a paid-time-off policy or collective bargaining agreement that lets employees take time off for all the same reasons the sick leave law covers and accrues at an equal or better rate. The other is to frontload the full amount of required time at the start of each annual period.⁷

Frontloading comes with a practical benefit for the employer: when the full 40 hours are provided upfront, unused time does not have to carry over to the next year. The trade-off is that a worker who quits in February has already received the year’s full allotment.⁷

In unionized workplaces, a collective bargaining agreement satisfies the law as long as the benefits are equivalent or better. If you use PTO on vacation and later get sick, the employer does not have to provide extra sick time on top, provided the original allotment met or exceeded the statutory floor.⁷

Carryover, Leaving a Job, and Rehire

Under the standard accrual method, unused sick time carries over from one year to the next. Employers can still cap annual usage at 40 hours, so a carryover balance gives you a head start rather than extra days off.⁴

When you leave a job, Vermont does not require your employer to cash out any unused sick time. Accrued time has no cash value at separation unless the employer’s own policy says otherwise.⁴

Rehire rules depend on who ended the job. If you were fired and are rehired by the same employer within 12 months, you can skip the waiting period and begin accruing and using sick time right away, though your old balance carries over only if the employer agrees. If you quit voluntarily and return within 12 months, the waiting period and any old balance are up to the employer’s discretion.⁴

Recordkeeping and the Workplace Poster

Employers have to keep accurate records of hours worked, sick time accrued, and sick time used, and hold them for at least three years. The Vermont Commissioner of Labor can request those records, and the employer has 10 days to produce copies. Employees who ask for their own records must receive them within five days and can inspect the originals at a reasonable time and place.⁸

There is no required format. Payroll software, spreadsheets, and paper logs all satisfy the rule as long as the information is accurate and accessible. Outsourcing payroll to a third party does not shift responsibility away from the employer.

Vermont also requires employers to display the mandatory Earned Sick Leave poster in the workplace. The poster is available from the Vermont Department of Labor in English and Spanish.⁹

Retaliation Protections

Employers cannot punish you for using or requesting earned sick time. Prohibited retaliation includes firing, demotion, cutting hours, disciplinary write-ups, and threats tied to your use of protected leave. A worker who is granted the time off but written up every time they call in sick still has grounds for a complaint.

The Vermont Department of Labor handles enforcement. Employees who believe they have faced retaliation can file a complaint with the Department, and employers found to have retaliated may be ordered to pay lost wages and other damages.

How It Works With Family Leave and FMLA

Vermont earned sick time can run at the same time as leave under the Vermont Parental and Family Leave Act. The Vermont Department of Labor has confirmed that use of earned sick time may count toward concurrent leave under state law.³

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for qualifying conditions at employers with 50 or more employees. Where FMLA and Vermont sick leave both apply to the same absence, they generally run concurrently. If your paid state sick leave runs out first, FMLA job protection continues for the rest of the 12-week entitlement.

Penalties for Employers Who Break the Rules

The Vermont Department of Labor enforces the Earned Sick Time law. Employers that deny earned sick leave, fail to keep required records, or retaliate against workers can be held liable for lost wages and damages owed to affected employees. Civil penalties may apply for willful or repeated violations, with the size of the fine tied to the scope of the problem and the number of workers involved.

1
Vermont General Assembly. Vermont Code Title 21 Chapter 5 Section 481 – Definitions
2
Vermont General Assembly. Vermont Code Title 21 Section 486 – New Employer Exemption
3
Vermont Department of Labor. Earned Sick Time FAQ
4
Vermont General Assembly. Senate Proposal of Amendment H 187 – Relating to Earned Sick Time
5
Vermont General Assembly. Vermont Code Title 21 Chapter 5 Section 483 – Use of Earned Sick Time
6
Vermont General Assembly. Vermont Code Title 21 Section 483 – Use of Earned Sick Time
7
Vermont General Assembly. Vermont Code Title 21 Section 484 – Compliance with Earned Sick Time Requirement
8
Vermont Department of Labor. Vermont Earned Sick Time Rules
9
Vermont Department of Labor. Mandatory Workplace Posters Vermont