Delaware: Paid Sick Leave Requirements
The short answer
No. Delaware does not require private employers to provide paid sick leave or earned paid leave. Any sick-time benefit comes from the employer's policy, contract, or collective bargaining agreement. Delaware does, however, require every employer to make its sick-leave and vacation policies available to employees in writing, and if an employer agrees to provide sick or vacation pay it must pay that supplement when due. Delaware's separate paid family and medical leave insurance program is a different law and is not covered here.
Ask Ezel about your situation
This is the general rule in Delaware. Ezel applies current Delaware law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and local interaction | No statewide private-sector paid sick leave or earned paid leave mandate. Title 19 (Labor) has no earned-sick-time chapter — its general provisions run from Chapter 11 (Wage Payment and Collection) to Chapter 13, with no Chapter 12 — and the separate Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program (ch. 37, benefits from Jan. 1, 2026) is paid family/medical leave insurance, not employer sick leave, and is outside this survey. Bills to create earned sick and safety leave (HB 409 in 2021-22; HB 17 in 2023-24) failed. State law is silent on local sick-leave ordinances. |
|---|---|
| Employer and employee coverage | No general sick-leave mandate, so there is no paid-sick-leave employer-size threshold, hours- or days-worked test, or covered-employee class. The employer's policy, contract, or CBA sets any coverage; the separate PFML program, federal FMLA, and workers' compensation are outside this survey. |
| Accrual and annual entitlement | N/A No statutory accrual rate, annual entitlement, or service waiting period for private-sector paid sick leave; any accrual and amount come from the employer's policy or agreement. |
| Frontloading, caps, and carryover | N/A No statutory frontload option, annual use cap, bank cap, or carryover rule. A use-it-or-lose-it policy is permitted, and the employer's policy supplies the terms. |
| Qualifying uses and family | N/A No statewide list of qualifying employee-health, family-care, safety, closure, or bereavement uses and no family definition for a paid-sick benefit; the governing policy or agreement controls. |
| Requests, notice, documentation, and increments | N/A No statutory request method, notice standard, documentation limit, replacement-worker rule, confidentiality rule, or minimum increment for a private-sector sick benefit; policy or agreement controls, subject to separately applicable law. |
| Pay, payout, reinstatement, and records | No sick-leave-specific pay, payout, reinstatement, or record duty, and no requirement to provide the benefit at all. But if an employer is party to an agreement to provide sick or vacation pay, 19 Del. C. § 1109 treats it as a 'benefit or wage supplement' the employer must pay within 30 days after it is due; final earned wages are due on the later of the next regular payday or three business days after the last day worked (§ 1103). |
| Posting, retaliation, enforcement, and remedies | No paid-sick-leave-specific poster or retaliation rule. But every employer must make its vacation-pay, sick-leave, and comparable policies available to employees in writing or by posted notice (19 Del. C. § 1108(3)). Once wages or agreed supplements are due, the Wage Payment and Collection Act (ch. 11) is enforced by the Department of Labor or a private action recovering costs and attorney's fees (§§ 1112, 1113); other laws supply their own remedies. |
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What Delaware actually requires
Delaware does not require an ordinary private employer to provide paid sick
leave or earned paid leave. Title 19, the labor code, has no earned-sick-time
chapter — its general provisions run from Chapter 11 (Wage Payment and
Collection) straight to Chapter 13, with no Chapter 12. Lawmakers have tried
repeatedly to create one: an earned sick time and safety leave bill was
introduced as HB 409 in 2021–2022 and again as HB 17 in 2023–2024, and both
died without becoming law.
Delaware does have a separate Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program
(Title 19, Chapter 37), whose paid benefits begin January 1, 2026. That is a
state-run paid family and medical leave insurance program funded by payroll
contributions, not an employer-provided sick-leave benefit, and it is a
different subject from this survey.
Because there is no statewide sick-leave floor, sick time in Delaware is
whatever the employer's handbook, employment agreement, or collective bargaining
agreement provides. Delaware law is also silent on local sick-leave ordinances,
so a city or county rule — if one existed — would have to be checked separately.
What trips people up
The employer must still disclose its sick-leave policy. Even without a
mandate, 19 Del. C. § 1108(3) makes it the duty of every employer of more than
three employees to make its "employment practices and policies with regard to
vacation pay, sick leave and comparable matters" available to employees in
writing or by a posted notice. The law does not dictate what the policy says,
but it must be disclosed.
An agreed sick-pay or vacation-pay benefit is enforceable. Once an employer
is party to an agreement to provide sick, vacation, separation, or holiday pay,
19 Del. C. § 1109 counts that as a "benefit or wage supplement" the employer
must pay within 30 days after it is due. So a promise made in a handbook or
contract has teeth, even though the underlying benefit is voluntary.
Final earned wages have a firm deadline. When employment ends for any
reason, wages already earned are due on the later of the next regular payday or
three business days after the last day worked (§ 1103). That deadline covers
earned wages, not a discretionary leave balance the policy does not promise to
pay out.
Common questions
Must a Delaware employer give paid sick days?
No. Delaware sets no private-sector paid-sick-leave minimum. Any paid sick days
come from the employer's policy, contract, or collective bargaining agreement.
Isn't there a new Delaware paid leave law?
Delaware's new program is paid family and medical leave insurance (Title 19,
Chapter 37), with benefits starting January 1, 2026. It replaces income during
qualifying family and medical leave through a state insurance program; it is not
an employer duty to provide ordinary paid sick days, which is the subject here.
Do I get paid for unused sick leave when I leave?
Only if the employer's policy or agreement promises it. Delaware has no statute
requiring a payout of unused sick leave, but if a payout was agreed, § 1109
requires the employer to pay it within 30 days after it is due.
Can a Delaware city require paid sick leave?
Delaware law does not address local sick-leave ordinances, and no statewide
mandate exists. If a local rule is in place where you work, check it directly.
Statutes and sources
- 19 Del. C. Title 19 (Labor), chapter index. No earned-sick-time chapter
exists (general provisions skip from Chapter 11 to Chapter 13); Chapter 37 is
the separate Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program. Delaware Code
Online, Title 19 (accessed
July 23, 2026). - 19 Del. C. § 1108(3). Employers of more than three employees must make
their vacation-pay and sick-leave policies available in writing or by posted
notice. Delaware Code Online, Title 19 ch.
11 (accessed July 23,
2026). - 19 Del. C. § 1109. Agreed benefits or wage supplements — including
vacation, separation, or holiday pay — must be paid within 30 days after due.
Delaware Code Online, Title 19 ch.
11 (accessed July 23,
2026). - 19 Del. C. § 1103. Final earned wages due on the later of the next regular
payday or three business days after the last day worked. Delaware Code
Online, Title 19 ch. 11
(accessed July 23, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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