Pennsylvania: Paid Sick Leave Requirements
The short answer
Pennsylvania has no statewide law requiring a private employer to provide paid sick leave or general earned paid leave; the state labor agency confirms no Pennsylvania law requires paying an employee for time not worked. Whether you get sick leave depends on your employer's own policy or contract — and, unlike some states, Pennsylvania lets its cities go further: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Allegheny County have their own local sick-leave laws that the state does not enforce. Where no policy or local ordinance applies, sick pay is owed only if the employer promised it in writing.
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This is the general rule in Pennsylvania. Ezel applies current Pennsylvania 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 state labor agency states 'there is no Pennsylvania labor law which requires an employer to pay an employee not to work,' and sick leave is owed only if the employer has a policy or contract to pay it. Pennsylvania does not preempt local sick-leave laws: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Allegheny County have enacted their own (e.g., the Pittsburgh Paid Sick Days Act, 2015). The state agency 'does not enforce city ordinances,' so within those jurisdictions the local law controls and can require paid sick leave. |
|---|---|
| Employer and employee coverage | Not applicable — with no statewide paid-leave law there is no employer-size threshold, days-worked test, or covered/excluded employee class under state law. Any coverage is defined by the employer's own policy or by a local ordinance where the employee works. |
| Accrual and annual entitlement | Not applicable — no statutory accrual rate, annual entitlement, waiting period, or alternative accrual method under state law. Any rate or annual amount is set by employer policy (or by a local ordinance in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, or Allegheny County). |
| Frontloading, caps, and carryover | Not applicable — no statutory frontloading rule, annual use cap, bank cap, or carryover requirement under state law. Whether leave is frontloaded, capped, or carried over depends on the employer's policy or the applicable local ordinance. |
| Qualifying uses and family | Not applicable — no statutory list of qualifying reasons and no statutory definition of covered family members under state law. An employer's own policy, or a local ordinance where it applies, defines when and for whom leave may be used. |
| Requests, notice, documentation, and increments | Not applicable — no statutory request method, advance-notice standard, documentation limit, confidentiality rule, or minimum use increment under state law. Notice and proof rules are set by the employer's policy or by the applicable local ordinance. |
| Pay, payout, reinstatement, and records | No statutory paid sick leave, so no statewide pay rate, separation payout, reinstatement, or record duty. Paid leave an employer chooses to offer is governed by its own policy or contract, which it must follow. Sick-leave pay is protected under the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law only when expressly promised in official business documents such as an employee handbook or memo; absent such a promise, no payout is owed. |
| Posting, retaliation, enforcement, and remedies | No statewide paid-sick-leave poster, notice, retaliation, or agency remedy; the state labor department does not administer or enforce paid sick leave. A written promise of paid leave is enforced as wages under the Wage Payment and Collection Law. Where a local ordinance applies (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County), that locality — not the state — sets and enforces posting, retaliation, and remedy rules. |
Compare this rule across all 50 states + DC →
How paid sick leave works in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania has no statewide paid sick leave law. The state Department of Labor
& Industry puts it plainly: "There is no Pennsylvania labor law which requires an
employer to pay an employee not to work," and sick leave, vacation pay, and
severance are "payments to an employee not to be at work." An employer therefore
"only has to pay these benefits if the employer has a policy to pay such benefits
or a contract with you," and it must follow its own rules.
That makes the employer's written policy the practical source of any sick-leave
right for most Pennsylvania workers. When an employer promises paid leave, the
promise has teeth: paid sick leave is protected under the Pennsylvania Wage
Payment and Collection Law when it is "expressly promised in official business
documents, like an employee handbook or memo." If the policy is silent, no payout
is required.
Pennsylvania differs from states that block their cities from adding leave rights.
Here, local governments may require paid sick leave, and several do — Philadelphia,
Pittsburgh, and Allegheny County. The Pittsburgh City Council passed its
Paid Sick Days Act in 2015, and the ordinance is enforced by the city. The state
agency "does not enforce city ordinances," so if you work in one of those places,
the local law — not the state — sets your accrual, caps, uses, and remedies.
The result is a patchwork: a real local mandate inside those jurisdictions, and
employer policy everywhere else.
What trips people up
"No state law" does not mean "no local law." If you work in Philadelphia,
Pittsburgh, or Allegheny County, a local ordinance may require your employer to
provide paid sick leave even though the state does not. Check the rule for the
place where you actually perform the work.
A written promise is enforceable; silence is not. Paid sick leave becomes a
protected wage under the Wage Payment and Collection Law only if it is expressly
promised in an official document such as a handbook or memo. Without that, the
state provides no payout right.
The state agency will not enforce a city ordinance. The Department of Labor &
Industry handles the state Wage Payment and Collection Law, not the Philadelphia
or Pittsburgh sick-leave ordinances. A local-ordinance complaint goes to the city.
Separate 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 laws may apply to a specific situation. Those
are different from a paid-sick-leave mandate.
Common questions
Does any Pennsylvania employer have to give paid sick days?
Not under state law. Pennsylvania has no statewide paid sick leave requirement.
An employer must provide it only if it has adopted a policy or contract to do so,
or if a local ordinance (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, or Allegheny County) requires
it where the employee works.
My employer's handbook promises sick pay but won't pay it — what can I do?
Paid sick leave promised in an official document such as a handbook or memo is
protected under the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law. You can file a
wage-payment complaint with the state Department of Labor & Industry.
I work in Pittsburgh — do I have paid sick leave rights the state doesn't give?
Possibly. Pittsburgh's Paid Sick Days Act requires covered employers to provide
sick leave to employees working in the city. Because the state does not enforce
city ordinances, contact the City of Pittsburgh about a local claim.
Is unused sick leave paid out when I leave a job in Pennsylvania?
Only if the employer's written policy or contract says so. State law imposes no
payout requirement for unused sick leave; the employer must follow its own rules.
Statutes and sources
- Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry — Wage FAQs. Official state
statement that no Pennsylvania law requires paying an employee for time not
worked, that sick leave is owed only under the employer's policy or contract,
and that the Department does not enforce city ordinances.
View official text (pa.gov)
(accessed July 22, 2026). - Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry — Wage Payment and Collection
Complaint. Official page stating that paid sick leave is protected under the
Wage Payment and Collection Law only when expressly promised in official
business documents.
View official text (pa.gov)
(accessed July 22, 2026). - City of Pittsburgh — Paid Sick Days Act, Ordinance and Guidelines. Official
city page confirming the enforced local mandate (enacted August 3, 2015).
View official text (pittsburghpa.gov)
(accessed July 22, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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