Paid Sick Leave Requirements in Iowa
At a glance
| Governing law and local interaction | No statewide general private-sector paid sick leave or earned paid leave mandate in current Iowa Code ch. 91A. Local mandates are preempted: cities and counties may not impose employment-leave terms exceeding or conflicting with federal or state requirements (§§ 364.3(12), 331.304(12)). |
|---|---|
| Employer and employee coverage | No general mandate, so there is no paid-sick-leave employer-size threshold, hours-worked test, or covered-employee class. Any voluntary benefit is governed by employer policy, contract, or CBA; state employees, public-school employees, and other specialized classes have separate statutes outside this survey. |
| Accrual and annual entitlement | N/A No statutory private-sector paid-sick-leave accrual rate, annual entitlement, or use waiting period; any accrual and amount are set by the employer's policy or agreement. |
| Frontloading, caps, and carryover | N/A No statutory frontloading option, annual use cap, bank cap, or carryover rule for general private-sector sick leave; the employer's policy or agreement supplies those terms. |
| Qualifying uses and family | N/A No statewide general paid-sick-leave list of employee-health, family-care, safety, closure, bereavement, or other qualifying uses, and no family definition for such a benefit; the governing policy or agreement controls. |
| Requests, notice, documentation, and increments | N/A No general paid-sick-leave request method, notice standard, documentation limit, replacement-worker rule, confidentiality rule, or minimum increment; policy or agreement controls, subject to separately applicable law. |
| Pay, payout, reinstatement, and records | No statutory sick-leave pay rate, accrual record, balance statement, payout formula, or rehire-restoration rule. Sick-leave payments due under an employer agreement or policy are wages; amounts due and earned at separation are payable by the next regular payday (§§ 91A.2(7)(b), 91A.4). The policy decides whether unused sick time is due. |
| Posting, retaliation, enforcement, and remedies | No sick-leave-specific poster, notice, retaliation rule, or remedy scheme. For sick-leave payments actually due as wages, ch. 91A allows unpaid wages, costs and attorney fees, plus liquidated damages for intentional nonpayment; § 91A.10 protects a wage claimant from discharge or discrimination. These remedies enforce a policy-created payment, not a statewide leave entitlement. |
What Iowa actually requires
Iowa does not require an ordinary private employer to create a general bank of paid sick leave or earned paid leave. Current Chapter 91A addresses wage payment, policy-created benefits, a narrow Veterans Day provision, adoptive parent treatment, and enforcement, but it contains no general private-sector paid-sick-leave accrual or use mandate.
The practical starting point is the employer's handbook, employment agreement, or collective bargaining agreement. That document determines whether sick time exists, who receives it, how it accrues, when it may be used, whether unused hours carry over, what notice or proof is required, and whether a balance is payable when employment ends.
Iowa's wage law gives those policy terms legal significance without creating the benefit. Section 91A.2(7)(b) treats sick-leave payments as wages only when they are due under an agreement or employer policy. If a policy makes a sick-leave payment due and earned at separation, § 91A.4 requires it by the next regular payday.
What trips people up
Cities and counties cannot fill the gap. Sections 364.3(12) and 331.304(12) bar local employment terms that exceed or conflict with federal or state law and expressly include “any form of employment leave.” Pre-2017 local measures that violate those subsections are void and unenforceable.
A wage definition is not a leave mandate. Section 91A.2 includes sick-leave payments only when they are already due under an agreement or policy. It does not require an employer to create sick time, set an accrual rate, or promise a cash-out.
Wage remedies begin only after a payment is due. Under § 91A.8, a claim may include unpaid wages, costs and attorney fees, with liquidated damages for intentional nonpayment. Under § 91A.10(5), the law separately protects an employee who files or helps with a wage claim. Neither provision creates sick leave that the policy did not promise.
Common questions
Must an Iowa employer provide five paid sick days?
No. Iowa sets no general private-sector paid-sick-leave minimum. Any fixed number of days comes from the employer's policy, contract, or collective bargaining agreement.
Can Des Moines or an Iowa county require paid sick leave?
Cities and counties may not impose an employment-leave term that exceeds or conflicts with federal or state requirements. The Iowa Code states that rule in § 364.3(12) for cities and § 331.304(12) for counties.
Do unused sick days carry over?
State law sets no general sick-leave carryover rule. The employer's policy or agreement decides whether unused time carries forward, expires, or is capped.
Must unused sick leave be paid when employment ends?
Only if the employer's agreement or policy makes the payment due. A due sick-leave payment counts as wages under § 91A.2(7)(b); the statute does not make every unused balance payable.
Statutes and sources
- Iowa Code ch. 91A. Current Wage Payment Collection Law, which addresses policy-created sick-leave payments as wages but contains no general paid-sick- leave mandate. Official 2026 chapter PDF (accessed July 23, 2026).
- Iowa Code §§ 91A.2(7)(b), 91A.4, 91A.8 and 91A.10. Policy- or agreement-based sick payments as wages, separation timing, wage damages, and wage-claim retaliation protection. Official § 91A.2 PDF and official chapter text (accessed July 23, 2026).
- Iowa Code § 364.3(12). Preempts city employment-leave terms exceeding or conflicting with federal or state law. Official text (accessed July 23, 2026).
- Iowa Code § 331.304(12). Applies the same employment-leave restriction to counties. Official text (accessed July 23, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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