What Is the New Sick Pay Law in California? Hours, Uses, and Pay

The new sick pay law in California, created by Senate Bill 616, entitles most employees to 40 hours or five days of paid sick leave each year. That’s up from the 24 hours or three days the state required before January 1, 2024. The legislature has kept expanding what the leave can be used for, adding jury duty and court-witness appearances in 2025 and crime-victim court proceedings in 2026.

Here is what the law gives you and how it works in practice.

How Much Paid Sick Leave You Get

If you work for the same employer for at least 30 days in a year, you qualify. Full-time, part-time, and temporary workers are all covered.¹ You begin accruing leave on your first day, but you can’t actually use any of it until you’ve been on the job 90 days.

Two caps apply:

An annual usage cap of 40 hours or five days per year.
An accrual cap of 80 hours or ten days total in your bank, up from the old 48-hour ceiling.¹

The accrual cap matters because unused hours roll over. You can only spend 40 in a given year, but anything you don’t use stays in the bank for the future, up to 80 hours total.

How You Earn Your Sick Leave

Employers pick one of two methods, and the choice determines whether unused time carries over.

Accrual Method

You earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, starting on day one.¹ Unused hours carry into the next year, subject to the 80-hour cap. If you end the year with 50 banked hours, those 50 hours are still yours in January.

Front-Loading Method

Instead of tracking hours, your employer can simply give you the full 40 hours or five days at the start of each benefit year. Under front-loading, the employer is not required to carry unused time over, because you get a fresh allotment each period.²

What You Can Use Sick Leave For

The leave covers a wide range of health and safety needs for you or a family member: treating an illness, recovering from an injury, scheduling preventive care, and similar medical uses.¹

“Family member” is defined broadly. It includes your child, parent, spouse, registered domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild, and sibling. You can also designate one additional person per year, such as a close friend or roommate, for whom you can use your leave.

Survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking can use sick leave to get medical treatment, obtain services from a crisis center, attend counseling, or plan for safety and relocation.²

New Uses Added for 2025 and 2026

Starting January 1, 2025, you can use paid sick leave to serve on a jury or to appear in court as a witness under a subpoena or court order.²

Starting January 1, 2026, the law adds another category: attending judicial proceedings related to certain serious crimes where you or a family member was the victim. Covered hearings include bail, plea agreements, sentencing, and post-conviction release decisions.²

How Your Sick Pay Is Calculated

Sick leave is paid at your regular, non-overtime hourly rate. For hourly workers, your employer picks one of two formulas:²

Workweek method: your total non-overtime pay for the week you used sick leave, divided by the total non-overtime hours worked that week.
90-day method: your total pay (excluding overtime premiums) over the previous 90 days, divided by the non-overtime hours worked during the full pay periods in that window.

For salaried exempt employees, sick leave is calculated the same way the employer handles other paid leave like vacation. In practice, that means your normal salary rate applies.

California’s minimum wage floor still applies, so sick pay can’t drop below it. Some industries (such as fast food and healthcare) have higher wage schedules.

Requesting and Using Your Leave

Notice. For foreseeable needs like scheduled surgery, you must give reasonable advance notice. For unexpected needs, you must notify your employer as soon as practicable.¹

Minimum increment. Your employer can require you to use the leave in blocks of up to two hours. They cannot require blocks larger than that.

No doctor’s note required. Your employer generally cannot deny leave just because you didn’t provide medical certification. You can request leave orally or in writing. Where an employer has evidence that a request isn’t legitimate, asking for documentation may be considered reasonable in limited circumstances.²

No replacement worker. Your employer cannot make you find someone to cover your shift as a condition of taking sick leave. This rule applies even under a collective bargaining agreement.²

Pay stub. Every pay stub (or a separate document issued on payday) must show your available sick leave balance. If your employer offers unlimited PTO, the stub can simply say “unlimited.”² A missing balance is worth asking about.

What Happens When You Leave the Job

Unlike vacation, California does not require your employer to pay out unused sick leave when you quit, are laid off, or are terminated.³ The bank has real value while you’re employed, but it doesn’t convert to cash on the way out.

One exception: if your former employer rehires you within 12 months, they must restore your previously accrued and unused sick leave. The catch is that if your employer used a PTO policy covering sick leave and cashed you out at separation, they don’t have to restore it.²

Who Is Covered Differently

Nearly everyone is covered, but a few groups have different rules.

Construction workers under a union contract. Construction employees are fully exempt from the state paid sick leave law if their collective bargaining agreement includes specific sick leave provisions.²

Other unionized workers. Employees in other industries get a partial exemption if the agreement covers wages, hours, and working conditions; includes paid sick leave or PTO usable for illness; provides premium overtime rates; and guarantees a regular hourly rate at least 30% above the state minimum wage. Even then, anti-retaliation protections and the no-replacement-worker rule still apply.

IHSS providers. In-Home Supportive Services providers follow a separate schedule. For fiscal year 2025–2026, IHSS providers receive 40 hours of paid sick leave beginning July 1, 2025. They must work 100 hours after their initial hire date to accrue the leave, then work another 200 hours or wait 60 calendar days before using it. Unused hours expire June 30.⁴

Local Ordinances Can Give You More

Several cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Oakland, have their own paid sick leave ordinances that may be more generous than state law. Where a local ordinance provides a greater benefit, your employer must give you the higher amount.²

SB 616 did draw some firm lines. On specific topics (how sick leave pay is calculated, pay stub requirements, lending of sick leave, notice rules for foreseeable absences, timing of payment, and whether leave must be paid out at termination), state law overrides any conflicting local rule. A city can require more sick days, but it can’t change the mechanics.

Protection Against Retaliation

It is illegal for your employer to punish you for using or requesting sick leave. An employer cannot fire, threaten to fire, demote, suspend, or otherwise discriminate against you for exercising your rights.⁵

Retaliation doesn’t always arrive as a termination letter. Cutting your hours after you call in sick, moving you to a worse shift, or writing you up for an “unexcused absence” when you used protected leave can all count. If something negative happens shortly after you use sick leave, the timing alone can be evidence.

The Labor Commissioner can order back pay, reinstatement, and financial penalties against employers who deny leave, retaliate, or otherwise interfere with your rights. Penalties can reach up to $4,000 per violation depending on the type of harm.⁶

How to File a Complaint

If your employer denies your sick leave, retaliates against you for using it, or fails to show your balance on pay stubs, you can file an online wage claim with the California Labor Commissioner’s Office.⁷ You have three years from the date of the violation to file. The office investigates, usually schedules a settlement conference between you and your employer first, and if that doesn’t resolve the dispute, a hearing officer reviews the evidence and issues a decision.

1
California Legislative Information. California Labor Code LAB 246
2
California Department of Industrial Relations. California Paid Sick Leave: Frequently Asked Questions
3
California Department of Industrial Relations. Final Pay
4
California Department of Social Services. Sick Leave – IHSS Provider Resources
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California Legislative Information. California Labor Code LAB 246.5
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California Legislative Information. California Labor Code LAB 248.5
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California Department of Industrial Relations. How to File a Wage Claim