California Paid Sick Leave in 2026: Hours, Accrual, the Waiting Period and What Has Not Changed

Employers must allow use of at least “5 days or 40 hours, whichever is more” per year, a requirement in force since January 1, 2024¹. Section 246 lets an employer limit use of accrued days to 40 hours or five days in a year². The Labor Commissioner’s page is dated “as of the December 2025 update”; the figures here are the ones that page states, and the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) is the place to confirm any later change¹.

An employer can provide the leave in one of two ways¹².

Accrual. An employee “shall accrue paid sick days at the rate of not less than one hour per every 30 hours worked”². An employer may cap accrual at 80 hours or 10 days¹. As arithmetic only: 40 hours of leave takes 40 x 30 = 1,200 hours worked to earn, which is 30 weeks at 40 hours a week; and an 80-hour cap is reached after 2,400 hours worked.

Front-loading. The employer provides the full annual amount at the start of the year. Section 246 says “no accrual or carryover is required if the full amount of leave is received at the beginning of each year”². The Labor Commissioner describes the up-front method as the full annual amount being available at the start of the year¹.

An employee is eligible who “works in California for the same employer for 30 or more days within a year from the commencement of employment” under section 246(a)(1), and an employee “shall be entitled to use accrued paid sick days beginning on the 90th day of employment” under section 246(c)². The Labor Commissioner’s page covers part-time, per diem and temporary workers, and lists a few excluded groups, for example certain air carrier crew, retired annuitants working for government, railroad employees and certain construction workers under a qualifying collective bargaining agreement¹.

Sources disagree The Labor Commissioner’s page says employees must work at least 30 days in a year and also states a 90-day employment period before taking leave, and a reader can take those two numbers as competing waiting periods¹. In the statute they appear in different subdivisions: the 30 days within a year is in the eligibility paragraph (246(a)(1)) and the 90th day of employment is the first day accrued leave can be used (246(c))². Read together, leave accrues from the start of work, and the 90th-day rule governs when an employee can begin to take it. The statute’s wording is the one to plan around: 90 days of employment before the first use.

The Labor Commissioner’s page lists these uses¹:

• the employee’s own or a family member’s care, diagnosis, treatment or preventive care;
• jury duty or a subpoenaed court appearance (from 2025);
• certain violence-related situations;
• for some agricultural workers, smoke, heat or flooding emergencies.

Employers generally cannot require a medical certificate, and may allow use in increments as small as two hours¹. Leave must be paid no later than the next regular payday, at the regular non-overtime rate, and an employer cannot retaliate, including by counting valid use as an attendance “occurrence”¹.

Accrued leave is restored if the employee is rehired within 12 months unless it was paid out, and unused leave is generally not cashed out when employment ends¹. How final pay is handled on separation is on California final paycheck law.

The Labor Commissioner says pay stubs must show available leave, and section 246(i) requires “written notice that sets forth the amount of paid sick leave available”¹². The DIR’s page describes the alternative as a separate writing given on payday¹. An employee reading a stub can look for the balance next to the hours and deductions described in how to read a pay stub, and the nine items required on every California statement are on California pay stub requirements.

The Labor Commissioner says a local ordinance that gives more leave applies, while for accrual, carryover and payment timing state law takes precedence¹. Section 246(r) also says certain subdivisions “shall preempt any local ordinance to the contrary”². The page does not list individual cities; the city or county’s own site is the place to find a local ordinance.

Employers must display the state poster, give the employee the pay notice required by Labor Code section 2810.5, which includes sick leave rights (accrual, use, protection from retaliation and the right to file a complaint), and keep records of leave earned and used for three years¹³.