Georgia: Paid Sick Leave Requirements
The short answer
Georgia has no statewide law requiring a private employer to provide paid sick leave or general earned paid leave. One related statute does not create leave: if an employer with 25 or more employees already provides sick leave, an employee who works at least 30 hours a week may use up to five earned days of it per year to care for an immediate family member, and that statute creates no new cause of action. Georgia also preempts local governments from requiring paid sick leave, so no city or county can fill the gap by ordinance.
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This is the general rule in Georgia. Ezel applies current Georgia law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and local interaction | No statewide statute requires private employers to provide paid sick leave or earned paid leave. The only sick-leave statute, O.C.G.A. § 34-1-10, is a use rule that expressly does not 'require an employer to offer sick leave' (§ 34-1-10(b)); its former sunset was repealed in 2023 (2023 Ga. Laws Act 90), so it is now permanent. Local paid-sick-leave mandates are preempted: a 'wage or employment benefit mandate' — defined to include 'sick leave' — 'adopted by any local government entity' is preempted, and no local entity may adopt or enforce one (§ 34-4-3.1(a)(3), (a)(6), (b), as amended 2022 Ga. Laws Act 823). No public-health-emergency leave supplement exists. |
|---|---|
| Employer and employee coverage | No coverage framework for a duty to provide leave, because none exists. For the § 34-1-10 family-care use right only: 'employer' means an individual or entity employing 25 or more employees (including the State and its subdivisions); 'employee' means someone working for pay at least 30 hours per week; and the section does not apply to an employer offering its employees an employee stock ownership plan (§ 34-1-10(a)(1), (a)(3), (e)). |
| Accrual and annual entitlement | Not applicable — no statutory accrual rate, annual entitlement, waiting period, or alternative accrual method, because no statute requires providing leave. The one statutory number is a use limit, not an entitlement: an employee may use up to five days of already-earned sick leave per calendar year for family care, and only after the leave 'has been earned' under the employer's policy (§ 34-1-10(b), (c)). |
| Frontloading, caps, and carryover | Not applicable — no statutory frontloading rule, bank cap, or carryover requirement. Whether leave is frontloaded, capped, or carried over is set entirely by the employer's own policy. The only statutory cap is the five-days-per-calendar-year limit on using earned sick leave for family care under § 34-1-10(b). |
| Qualifying uses and family | No statutory list governs an employee's own sick leave; those terms are the employer's policy. The single statutory use right: where an employer provides sick leave, the employee may use it to care for an 'immediate family member,' defined as the employee's child, spouse, grandchild, grandparent, or parent, or any dependents shown on the employee's most recent tax return (§ 34-1-10(a)(4), (b)). |
| Requests, notice, documentation, and increments | No statutory request method, notice standard, documentation limit, confidentiality rule, or minimum increment. An employee using family-care sick leave 'shall comply with the terms of the employer's employee sick leave policy' (§ 34-1-10(c)); notice, proof, and increment rules are whatever that policy sets. |
| Pay, payout, reinstatement, and records | No statutory pay rate, separation payout, rehire-restoration, balance-statement, or record duty. 'Sick leave' is defined as time off for which the employee 'receives his or her regular salary, wages, or other remuneration' and excludes short- or long-term disability (§ 34-1-10(a)(5)), but the amount, payout, and records are governed by the employer's own policy; no statute requires paying out unused leave at separation. |
| Posting, retaliation, enforcement, and remedies | No paid-sick-leave poster, individual-notice, anti-retaliation, or agency-remedy provision. The family-care statute states that 'nothing in this Code section shall be construed to create a new cause of action against an employer' (§ 34-1-10(d)), so it adds no private claim; a dispute over promised sick pay runs through ordinary contract or wage channels for compensation actually owed. |
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How paid sick leave works in Georgia
Georgia has no statewide law requiring a private employer to provide paid sick
leave or any general earned paid leave. Whether you get paid sick days — and on
what terms — is set by your employer's own policy or contract. Two Georgia
statutes shape the edges of that gap, but neither creates a duty to provide
leave.
First, a "kin care" statute lets you spend sick leave you already have on a sick
family member. If your employer provides sick leave and employs 25 or more
people, you may use up to five earned days a year of that leave to care for an
immediate family member (O.C.G.A. § 34-1-10). It does not require any employer
to offer sick leave in the first place, and it adds no new right to sue.
Second, Georgia forbids its cities and counties from filling the gap. A separate
statute preempts any local "wage or employment benefit mandate," and its
definition of employment benefits expressly includes "sick leave"
(§ 34-4-3.1). So unlike states that let a city require paid sick leave, Georgia
keeps the answer uniform statewide: no mandate.
Requirements one by one
The family-care use right (O.C.G.A. § 34-1-10)
This is a use right, not an entitlement to leave. It applies only when your
employer already provides sick leave and employs 25 or more people. If it
applies, you may use that leave to care for an "immediate family member" —
defined as your child, spouse, grandchild, grandparent, or parent, or any
dependents shown on your most recent tax return.
Two limits keep it narrow. The leave must be earned first: you are "not entitled
to use sick leave under this Code section until that leave has been earned," and
you must follow the terms of your employer's sick-leave policy. And the employer
need not let you use more than five days of earned sick leave per calendar year
for family care. Employers that offer their employees an employee stock
ownership plan are excluded entirely, and the statute creates no new cause of
action against an employer.
The statute once carried a sunset clause that would have repealed it
automatically. The General Assembly repealed that sunset in 2023 (2023 Ga. Laws
Act 90), so the family-care right is now permanent.
Local governments cannot add a mandate (O.C.G.A. § 34-4-3.1)
Georgia preempts local paid-leave mandates directly. The statute defines a "wage
or employment benefit mandate" as any local requirement that an employer provide
"employment benefits" — a term whose list expressly includes "sick leave" —
"not otherwise required under this Code or federal law," and then declares that
"any and all" such mandates "are hereby preempted." No county, city, school
board, or other local entity may adopt or enforce one. A local government may
still offer benefits to its own employees; it just cannot impose a benefit
mandate on private employers.
What trips people up
"No mandate" is not "no rights at all." If your employer's written policy or
contract promises paid sick leave, that promise governs and the employer must
honor what it agreed to. The absence of a statute controls only what an employer
must offer.
The five-day figure is a ceiling on family-care use, not an award of leave.
Section 34-1-10 does not grant you five paid days. It lets you spend up to five
days of sick leave you have already earned on caring for a family member, and
only if your employer provides sick leave at all.
The kin-care statute gives you no separate lawsuit. It states plainly that it
creates no new cause of action. A dispute over sick pay you actually earned is
pursued through ordinary contract or wage-payment channels, not a paid-leave
claim.
A Georgia city cannot require paid sick leave. Because state law preempts
local wage and benefit mandates — sick leave included — a municipal or county
paid-sick-leave ordinance is not a source of rights here.
Other laws can still apply. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act can
provide unpaid, job-protected leave at larger employers, and disability,
pregnancy, or workers' compensation rules may apply to a specific situation.
Those are separate from a paid-sick-leave mandate.
Common questions
Does any Georgia employer have to give paid sick days?
No. No Georgia statute requires a private employer to provide paid sick leave.
Employers may offer it voluntarily and set their own terms.
If my employer gives sick leave, can I use it for my sick child?
Yes, within limits. If your employer provides sick leave and has 25 or more
employees, you may use up to five earned days a year to care for an immediate
family member, which includes your child (O.C.G.A. § 34-1-10). The leave must
already be earned, and you must follow the employer's policy.
Can a Georgia city require employers to provide paid sick leave?
No. State law preempts local wage and employment-benefit mandates, and its
definition of employment benefits expressly lists sick leave (O.C.G.A.
§ 34-4-3.1), leaving no room for a city or county mandate.
Is unused sick leave paid out when I leave a job in Georgia?
Only if the employer's written policy or contract says so. No Georgia statute
requires paying out unused sick leave at separation.
Statutes and sources
- O.C.G.A. § 34-1-10 (Use of sick leave for care of immediate family
members). Defines the 25-employee employer, the 30-hour employee, and the
immediate-family list; lets an employee use up to five earned sick days a year
for family care where the employer provides sick leave; requires the leave to
be earned; excludes ESOP employers; and creates no new cause of action.
Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Title
34
(accessed July 22, 2026). - 2023 Ga. Laws Act 90 (SB 61). Amended § 34-1-10 "by repealing subsection
(f)," removing the sunset and making the family-care right permanent.
Georgia General Assembly
(accessed July 22, 2026). - O.C.G.A. § 34-4-3.1 (Wages and employment benefits by local government
entities). Preempts "any and all" local wage or employment-benefit mandates,
with employment benefits defined to include sick leave, so no local government
may require paid sick leave. Enacted text as revised by 2022 Ga. Laws Act 823
(SB 331). Georgia General
Assembly (accessed July 22, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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