Kentucky: Paid Sick Leave Requirements
The short answer
No. Kentucky does not require ordinary private employers to provide general paid sick leave or earned paid leave. The employer's policy, contract, or collective bargaining agreement therefore controls any sick-time amount and conditions; Kentucky's wage law can enforce compensation that becomes due under an established policy, but it does not automatically create or vest unused sick leave.
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This is the general rule in Kentucky. Ezel applies current Kentucky law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| 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. |
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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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