Texas: Paid Sick Leave Requirements
The short answer
Texas has no statewide law requiring a private employer to provide paid sick leave or general earned paid leave; whether to offer it, and on what terms, is left to each employer. Texas Labor Code § 1.005 broadly preempts municipal and county employment-leave rules unless another statute expressly authorizes them. If an employer promises paid sick leave in a written policy or agreement, that promised pay becomes enforceable wages under the Texas Payday Law and is owed as the policy provides.
Ask Ezel about your situation
This is the general rule in Texas. Ezel applies current Texas 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's official employer guidance confirms no Texas law mandates paid or unpaid leave. Tex. Lab. Code § 1.005 broadly preempts municipal/county ordinances regulating employment leave unless another statute expressly authorizes them |
|---|---|
| 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 for paid sick leave. Any coverage is defined by the employer's own policy, if it offers one. |
| Accrual and annual entitlement | Not applicable — no statutory accrual rate, annual entitlement, waiting period, or alternative accrual method. Any rate or annual amount is set by employer policy. |
| Frontloading, caps, and carryover | Not applicable — no statutory frontloading rule, annual use cap, bank cap, or carryover requirement. Whether leave is frontloaded, capped, or carried over depends entirely on the employer's policy. |
| Qualifying uses and family | Not applicable — no statutory list of qualifying reasons and no statutory definition of covered family members. An employer's own policy defines when and for whom promised 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. Notice and proof rules are whatever the employer's policy sets. |
| Pay, payout, reinstatement, and records | No statutory paid sick leave, so no statutory pay rate, separation payout, rehire-restoration, or record duty. But sick-leave pay promised under a written agreement or written policy is 'wages' under the Texas Payday Law (Lab. Code § 61.001(7)); it must be paid as the policy provides, and unused leave is owed at separation only if the written policy so states. If a policy is silent on payout, none is required. |
| Posting, retaliation, enforcement, and remedies | No paid-sick-leave poster, individual-notice, or anti-retaliation provision. An employee owed promised, unpaid sick-leave pay may file a wage claim with the Texas Workforce Commission within 180 days under the Payday Law (Lab. Code §§ 61.051-61.053); a bad-faith employer faces an administrative penalty up to the lesser of the wages claimed or $1,000. There is no state paid-leave-specific remedy beyond wage-claim recovery of what was promised. |
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How paid sick leave works in Texas
Texas has no statewide paid sick leave law. No state statute requires a private
employer to provide paid sick days, general earned paid leave, or any other paid
or unpaid time off, and the state labor agency's own employer guidance says so
plainly. Offering paid sick leave, and setting its amount, accrual, carryover,
uses, and payout, is left to each employer.
Because there is no statutory floor, the practical rules come from the
employer's own policy. When an employer chooses to promise paid sick leave in a
written policy or agreement, that promise is not merely a courtesy: sick-leave
pay "owed to an employee under a written agreement with the employer or under a
written policy of the employer" is part of the definition of "wages" in the
Texas Payday Law (Tex. Lab. Code § 61.001(7)). Once promised in writing, the
leave is enforceable on the terms the employer set — including any conditions,
caps, or forfeiture rules the policy states.
Texas also broadly blocks cities and counties from filling the gap. Tex. Labor
Code § 1.005 says they may not regulate a field occupied by the Labor Code unless
another statute expressly authorizes it, and expressly includes “employment
leave” among those fields. The statute therefore supplies the local-law boundary
for this survey without turning every municipal ordinance into a separate
statewide rule.
What trips people up
"No law requiring it" is not "no rights at all." If your employer's written
policy or handbook promises paid sick leave, the Texas Payday Law treats that
promised pay as wages you can claim. The absence of a mandate controls what an
employer must offer, not whether a written promise is enforceable.
Unused leave is paid at separation only if the policy says so. Texas does
not require any payout of accrued, unused sick leave. Whether you are paid for a
leftover balance when you leave depends entirely on what the written policy
provides; if it is silent, no payout is owed.
Local leave regulation is broadly preempted, but read the statutory
qualification. Section 1.005 begins with an exception for authority “expressly
authorized by another statute.” Check the current state-law authorization before
assuming a local rule either applies or is displaced.
Separate laws can still apply. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act can
provide unpaid, job-protected leave at employers with 50 or more employees, and
disability, pregnancy, or workers' compensation laws may apply to a specific
situation. Those are different rules from a paid-sick-leave mandate.
Common questions
Does any Texas employer have to give paid sick days?
No. No Texas statute requires private employers to provide paid sick leave.
Employers may offer it voluntarily and set their own terms.
My employer's handbook promises sick pay but won't pay it — can I do anything?
Yes. Sick-leave pay promised in a written policy or agreement is "wages" under
the Texas Payday Law. You can file a wage claim with the Texas Workforce
Commission within 180 days of the date the pay was due (Tex. Lab. Code
§ 61.051(c)). If the employer acted in bad faith, the agency may add an
administrative penalty up to the lesser of the wages claimed or $1,000
(§ 61.053).
Can my city add its own paid-sick-leave rule?
Texas Labor Code § 1.005 broadly preempts municipal and county employment-leave
rules unless another statute expressly authorizes the local authority. Confirm
the current state and local texts before relying on a local policy.
Statutes and sources
- Tex. Labor Code § 61.001(7). Defines "wages" to include sick-leave pay
owed under a written agreement or written policy, making promised leave
enforceable. Texas Legislative
Council (accessed
July 22, 2026). - Tex. Labor Code §§ 61.051, 61.053. Texas Payday Law wage-claim deadline
(180 days) and bad-faith administrative penalty (lesser of wages or $1,000).
Texas Legislative
Council (accessed
July 22, 2026). - Tex. Labor Code § 1.005. Municipal and county preemption, expressly
including employment leave. Texas Legislative
Council (accessed
July 22, 2026). - Texas Workforce Commission, Texas Guidebook for Employers — Vacation and
Sick Leave. Official state agency statement that no Texas or federal law
requires private-sector employers to provide paid or unpaid leave.
View official text (twc.texas.gov)
(accessed July 22, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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