Arizona Sick Time Law: How Much Paid Leave Workers Earn

Arizona voters passed earned paid sick time in 2016 as part of Proposition 206, and it took effect July 1, 2017. This article explains who the law covers, how sick time builds up, what you can use it for, how it is paid, and what protections apply when you use it. For how sick time fits alongside minimum wage, overtime, and other workplace rules, see Arizona’s labor laws.

Who the sick time law covers

Earned paid sick time reaches nearly every employee who works in Arizona. Under A.R.S. § 23-371, an “employer” includes corporations, partnerships, LLCs, sole proprietors, and political subdivisions such as cities and counties. The definition excludes the State of Arizona and the federal government, so state and federal employees do not earn sick time under this law. Employees of private companies, and of city and county governments, do.

Coverage does not depend on how many hours you work. Full-time, part-time, temporary, and seasonal workers all accrue sick time. There is no minimum company size: a business with a single employee is covered, though the yearly cap is lower for smaller employers.

How you earn and bank sick time

All covered employees accrue at least one hour of earned paid sick time for every 30 hours worked, set by A.R.S. § 23-372. The yearly amount you can accrue and use depends on the size of your employer:

• At an employer with 15 or more employees, you can accrue and use up to 40 hours of paid sick time per year.
• At an employer with fewer than 15 employees, the cap is 24 hours per year.

An employer can choose to allow more, but not less. Salaried employees who are exempt from overtime are assumed to work 40 hours a week for accrual, unless their normal week is shorter.

Sick time carries over from one year to the next, though your use in any year is still limited by the 24- or 40-hour cap. As an alternative to carryover, an employer may pay out unused sick time at year’s end and then provide a fresh yearly amount available for immediate use. If you leave and are rehired by the same employer within nine months, previously accrued sick time that you had not used is reinstated.

What you can use paid sick time for

A.R.S. § 23-373 lists the reasons earned paid sick time must be provided. You can use it for:

• Your own mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition, including diagnosis, care, treatment, or preventive care.
• Care of a family member with an illness, injury, or health condition, or who needs diagnosis, care, treatment, or preventive care.
• A public health emergency, including closure of your workplace or your child’s school or place of care by order of a public official.
• Absence connected to domestic violence, sexual violence, abuse, or stalking affecting you or a family member.

“Family member” is defined broadly. It covers a child, parent, spouse or registered domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild, and sibling, along with anyone whose close association with you is the equivalent of a family relationship. The definition in A.R.S. § 23-371 reaches step-, foster, adoptive, and in-loco-parentis relationships.

How sick time is paid and how to request it

Earned paid sick time is paid at the same hourly rate and with the same benefits you normally earn during hours worked, and never below the Arizona minimum wage or the federal minimum wage under 29 U.S.C. § 206. This pay-rate rule sits in the definition of earned paid sick time in A.R.S. § 23-371.

You can request sick time orally, in writing, or electronically. When the need is foreseeable, such as a scheduled medical appointment, the law asks for a good-faith effort to give advance notice and to avoid unduly disrupting operations. When the need is not foreseeable, an employer can require notice only if it has given you a written policy explaining how; without that written policy, it cannot deny sick time for failing to follow one.

An employer cannot require you to find a replacement worker to cover your shift as a condition of taking sick time. Sick time can be used in hourly increments, or a smaller increment if the employer’s payroll system already tracks time that way.

What happens to unused sick time

Unused earned paid sick time carries into the next year, subject to the yearly usage cap. Under A.R.S. § 23-372, an employer is not required to pay out accrued but unused sick time when you quit, are fired, retire, or otherwise leave the job. That is separate from an employer’s own paid-time-off policy, which may promise a payout under its own terms or an employment contract.

An employer that already offers a paid leave policy, such as general PTO, does not have to provide separate sick time if the policy makes available enough leave, usable for the same reasons and under the same conditions the law requires.

Arizona’s earned paid sick time is also separate from the unpaid, job-protected leave available under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, 29 U.S.C. § 2612. FMLA covers longer absences at larger employers and does not require pay; Arizona sick time is paid but capped at 24 or 40 hours a year.

Protection from retaliation

A.R.S. § 23-374 makes it unlawful for an employer to interfere with, restrain, or deny earned paid sick time, or to retaliate against a worker for requesting or using it, filing a complaint, or helping in an investigation. An absence-control policy cannot count protected sick time as an absence that leads to discipline, discharge, demotion, or suspension. These protections extend to a person who reports a violation in good faith, even if the report turns out to be mistaken.

Employers must give written notice of sick time rights at hire, and must record the sick time you have available, the amount used, and the pay you received for it on your regular paystub, under A.R.S. § 23-375. That notice must be provided in English and Spanish. The Industrial Commission of Arizona coordinates enforcement of the law and accepts complaints from workers who are denied sick time or face retaliation.