Paid Sick Leave Requirements in Idaho

At a glance

What Idaho actually requires

Idaho does not require an ordinary private employer to provide paid sick leave or earned paid leave. The official Title 44 labor index is the practical starting point: it lists Idaho's labor chapters, including employment contracts, hours worked, minimum wage, child labor, and right to work, but no private sick-leave or earned-leave act.

The sick-leave statute a search is most likely to surface, Idaho Code § 67-5333, is not a general employment law. It applies to eligible classified and nonclassified officers and employees earning credited state service. Public-school sick leave is also governed separately. Neither provision creates a benefit for an ordinary private employee.

Without a statewide private-sector mandate, the employer's policy, employment contract, or collective bargaining agreement determines whether sick time exists and sets its amount, accrual, frontloading, carryover, uses, family coverage, requests, proof, pay, and payout. Separate federal and state laws can still protect a particular absence or prohibit discrimination, but they do not turn Idaho into a general paid-sick-leave state.

What trips people up

The public-employee statute is not a private-employer rule. Idaho Code § 67-5333 has detailed accrual, use, and separation terms, but its own text limits the benefit to state personnel earning credited state service.

A failed bill is not current law. House Bill 641 would have restricted how an employer that already offered earned sick leave could administer it. The House rejected the bill 24-46 on February 25, 2026, and the session later adjourned, so it created no employee right.

A policy benefit and a state mandate are different. An employer may promise paid sick leave or PTO without Idaho prescribing a statewide minimum. If an amount becomes wages due under the governing policy and law, Idaho Code § 45-606 supplies the final-pay timing; that wage rule does not itself require the employer to create a sick-leave balance.

Common questions

Must an Idaho private employer give a set number of sick days?

No. Idaho sets no general private-sector minimum. Any number comes from the employer's policy, a contract, or a collective bargaining agreement.

Does Idaho require sick time to carry over?

No general private-sector statute does. The employer's policy or agreement controls whether unused time carries over, is capped, or expires.

Can an employer require notice or a doctor's note?

Idaho has no sick-leave-specific notice or documentation limit for an ordinary private benefit. The policy controls, subject to separately applicable disability, family-leave, discrimination, privacy, and other laws.

Must unused sick leave be paid when employment ends?

Not merely because it is sick leave. Check the policy or agreement to determine whether any amount is due; if it qualifies as wages then due, Idaho's final-pay deadlines apply.

Statutes and sources

• Idaho Code Title 44. Complete official labor-chapter index; it contains no general private-sector sick-leave or earned-paid-leave act. Idaho Legislature (accessed July 23, 2026).
• Idaho Code § 67-5333. Sick leave for eligible state personnel, not an ordinary private-employer mandate. Idaho Legislature (accessed July 23, 2026).
• Idaho Code §§ 45-601 and 45-606. Wage-claim definitions and the final-pay deadline for wages then due. Idaho Legislature (accessed July 23, 2026).
• Idaho Department of Labor, Labor Laws FAQ. Policies, contracts, and union agreements remain subject to Idaho wage-payment law; the law does not require pay for time not worked absent the company's policy. Idaho Department of Labor (accessed July 23, 2026).