Paid Sick Leave Requirements in Kentucky
At a glance
| Governing law and local interaction | No statewide general paid sick leave or earned paid leave mandate in current KRS Chapter 337. The chapter contains wage-payment, wage-and-hour, posting, and specialized leave provisions but no paid-sick-leave act. No sick-leave-specific local preemption or stronger-local-law clause was identified in Chapter 337; check any applicable local rule separately. |
|---|---|
| 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 the employer's policy, an employment agreement, or a collective bargaining agreement; separate event- or public-employee-specific leave statutes use their own coverage rules. |
| Accrual and annual entitlement | N/A No statutory paid-sick-leave accrual rate, annual entitlement, or waiting period; any accrual and amount are set by employer policy. |
| Frontloading, caps, and carryover | N/A No statutory frontloading option, annual use cap, bank cap, or carryover rule for general paid sick leave; those terms are set by employer policy. |
| 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 statutory family definition for such a benefit; employer policy controls. |
| Requests, notice, documentation, and increments | N/A No general paid-sick-leave request form, foreseeable-notice rule, documentation limit, replacement-worker rule, confidentiality requirement, or minimum increment; employer policy controls, subject to separately applicable laws. |
| Pay, payout, reinstatement, and records | No sick-leave-specific pay rate, payment deadline, separation payout, rehire restoration, balance statement, or record duty. KRS 337.010(1)(c)1 defines wages to include vested vacation pay and other similar advantages agreed upon or provided by established policy, so a policy can make compensation due; the statute does not automatically vest or cash out unused sick leave. |
| Posting, retaliation, enforcement, and remedies | No general paid-sick-leave poster, individual notice, retaliation rule, complaint procedure, private action, damages, or penalty. Kentucky wage remedies may apply if an employer withholds compensation that is actually due under the governing policy, but they do not create leave the employer never promised. |
What Kentucky actually requires
Kentucky does not require an ordinary private employer to create a general bank of paid sick leave or earned paid leave. The current official KRS Chapter 337 index covers wage payment, wage-and-hour rules, posting, penalties, and several specialized employment protections, but it contains no enacted paid-sick-leave act.
The practical starting point is the employer's handbook, employment agreement, or collective bargaining agreement. That document decides 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 what happens when the employment ends.
Kentucky's current wage definition confirms why the policy matters. KRS 337.010(1)(c)1 includes vested vacation pay and other similar advantages that the parties agreed upon or the employer provided as an established policy. It does not separately create sick leave or say that every unused sick-time balance vests.
What trips people up
A proposed mandate did not become law. The 2026 General Assembly considered HB 771, which would have created an earned paid sick leave requirement in Chapter 337. The official bill page shows it stopped at House committee referral on March 5, 2026, and the session adjourned sine die on April 15. It is not part of current Kentucky law.
Vested vacation is not the same as unused sick leave. Section 337.010(1)(c)1 expressly names vested vacation pay. It does not say that unused sick days automatically become wages. A sick-leave payment must first be due under the applicable policy or agreement before the general wage law can enforce it as promised compensation.
The final-pay deadline does not create a payout right. KRS 337.055 requires earned wages to be paid after a quit or discharge. It governs when an amount already due must be paid; it does not make a noncashable sick-time balance cashable.
Common questions
Must a Kentucky employer give five paid sick days?
No. Kentucky sets no general private-sector annual paid-sick-leave minimum. Any fixed number of days comes from the employer's policy or agreement.
Can an employer set its own doctor's-note rule?
Kentucky has no general paid-sick-leave statute limiting notice or documentation for a voluntary policy. The policy normally supplies those terms, subject to other laws that may apply to a particular medical condition or absence.
Do unused sick days carry over?
State law sets no general carryover rule. The employer's policy or agreement decides whether unused hours carry forward, expire, or are capped.
Must unused sick leave be paid when employment ends?
Not automatically. Kentucky's wage definition expressly covers vested vacation and similar advantages due under an agreement or established policy. Whether sick leave becomes payable therefore depends on the policy's own terms.
Statutes and sources
- KRS Chapter 337 index. Current official wage-and-hour chapter, updated July 22, 2026, with no enacted general paid-sick-leave section. Official index (accessed July 23, 2026).
- KRS 337.010(1)(c)1. Defines wages to include vested vacation pay and similar advantages agreed upon or supplied by established policy. Official text (accessed July 23, 2026).
- KRS 337.055. Sets the separation deadline for wages already earned. Official text (accessed July 23, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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