Paid Sick Leave in Ohio: Who Qualifies and How Much You Earn

Ohio does not require private employers to provide paid sick leave. There is no statewide law that forces a private company to give you paid (or even unpaid) sick days, and no general accrual rate or annual cap set by Ohio statute for private-sector workers. If your employer offers paid sick leave, it is a voluntary benefit governed by company policy, an employee handbook, or a collective bargaining agreement — not by a state mandate. The one major exception is public-sector employees: Ohio law guarantees sick leave to state, county, and certain other government workers, and that benefit accrues at a fixed statutory rate explained below.

The Baseline: No Private-Sector Mandate in Ohio

Unlike states such as California, New York, Colorado, or neighboring Michigan, Ohio has not enacted a general paid-sick-leave law covering private employers. That means a private Ohio employer can lawfully offer zero paid sick days, can cap the days it does offer, and can set its own rules for accrual, carryover, and payout — as long as those rules are applied consistently and do not violate other laws (such as anti-discrimination or anti-retaliation statutes).

This matches the federal baseline. Federal law does not require private employers to provide paid sick leave either. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets a federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour and requires overtime after 40 hours in a workweek, but it says nothing about paid time off, vacation, or sick days. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides job-protected leave for serious health conditions, but that leave is unpaid. So in Ohio, paid sick leave for private workers is almost entirely a matter of what your employer chooses to offer and what you negotiated.

Who Does Qualify: Ohio Public Employees

Ohio reserves a statutory paid-sick-leave benefit for government workers. Under Ohio Revised Code Section 124.38, full-time state employees and many county and local public employees earn sick leave at the rate of 4.6 hours for each 80 hours in active pay status. Over a standard year of full-time work, that comes to roughly 10 days (about 80 hours) of paid sick leave per year.

Key features of the public-employee benefit include:

• No cap on total accrual. Ohio law allows covered public employees to carry unused sick leave forward and accumulate it without an overall ceiling, which is why long-tenured government workers can build very large balances.
• Broad permitted uses. Sick leave may generally be used for the employee's own illness, injury, or medical/dental appointment, and for illness, injury, or death in the employee's immediate family, as well as exposure to a contagious disease.
• Payout at separation. Many public employees who retire are eligible to convert a portion of unused sick leave to a cash payment, subject to statutory and agency rules.

Part-time public employees accrue proportionally based on hours worked. Note that individual agencies, universities, and political subdivisions may adopt their own policies that are at least as generous as the statutory minimum, so the exact terms can vary by employer within the public sector.

Local Ordinances Are Prohibited

Some workers assume a big Ohio city like Columbus, Cleveland, or Cincinnati might have its own paid-sick-leave ordinance, the way Chicago or Minneapolis do. In Ohio, that is not possible. Ohio Revised Code Section 4113.85 — enacted as part of Senate Bill 331 in 2016 — expressly prohibits political subdivisions from requiring private employers to provide paid or unpaid leave, including sick leave, as a fringe benefit. This is a statewide preemption law: it strips cities, townships, and counties of the power to mandate sick leave for private employers. As a result, you will not find a binding local paid-sick-leave law anywhere in Ohio that applies to private companies.

How Sick Leave Interacts With PTO

Many Ohio private employers fold sick time into a single combined paid time off (PTO) bank that covers vacation, personal, and sick use together. Because Ohio has no sick-leave statute for private workers, the employer controls how that PTO accrues, whether it carries over year to year, and whether unused time is paid out when you leave.

That said, once an employer promises PTO or vacation as part of your compensation, Ohio treats earned, vested time as a form of wages that the employer must honor according to its own written policy. Ohio's wage-payment and prompt-pay rules (including Ohio Revised Code Sections 4113.15 and related provisions) require employers to pay wages owed on regular paydays. So while your employer can lawfully decide not to pay out unused PTO — if its policy clearly says so — it generally cannot pocket time you have already earned where the policy promises payout. Read your handbook carefully: the policy language controls.

How Sick Leave Interacts With FMLA

The federal FMLA gives eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period for a serious health condition, to care for a family member, or for the birth or adoption of a child. To be eligible, you generally must work for a covered employer (50 or more employees within 75 miles), have worked there at least 12 months, and have logged at least 1,250 hours in the prior 12 months.

FMLA leave itself is unpaid, but the law lets you — and often lets your employer require you to — use accrued paid leave (such as PTO or sick time) to receive pay during the FMLA period. In other words, FMLA protects your job, while your employer's paid-leave policy determines whether you get a paycheck during that protected time. For Ohio public employees, statutory sick leave under R.C. 124.38 can be run concurrently with FMLA leave for qualifying reasons.

How to Enforce Your Rights

Because Ohio has no private-sector sick-leave mandate, most disputes are really about your employer keeping the promises in its own policy or about retaliation. Practical steps:

• Get the policy in writing. Save the handbook, offer letter, or PTO policy that describes accrual, caps, carryover, and payout.
• Document your accrued balances from pay stubs or HR portals, and keep records of any sick time you requested and how it was handled.
• If you are a public employee, confirm your agency is applying the R.C. 124.38 accrual rate (4.6 hours per 80 hours) and your collective bargaining terms.
• For unpaid earned wages or PTO, you can file a claim with the Ohio Department of Commerce, or pursue a wage claim in court. Small amounts may be suitable for small claims court.
• For FMLA violations, contact the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, which enforces the FMLA.
• If you were fired or disciplined for using lawful leave, consult an Ohio employment attorney about possible retaliation or discrimination claims.

Where to Verify

For wage-payment and labor-standards questions, the relevant state agency is the Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Industrial Compliance — Bureau of Wage and Hour Administration. Public-employee sick leave is governed by the Ohio Revised Code and administered through the Ohio Department of Administrative Services and individual agencies. For unemployment and certain workforce matters, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) is the lead agency.

One figure to confirm separately: Ohio's minimum wage is adjusted for inflation each year and exceeds the federal $7.25 floor (it was in the low-$10s per hour as of 2025). Because that number changes annually, verify the current rate with the Ohio Department of Commerce before relying on it. The sick-leave rules above are statutory and stable, but always check the official sources before acting on a specific claim.

Official Ohio Sources

This page is based on Ohio employment law. Rules and figures change — verify the current details directly with the official Ohio sources below. This is general legal information, not legal advice.

• Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Industrial Compliance - Bureau of Wage and Hour Administration — official Ohio agency.
• File a Minimum Wage Complaint - Ohio Department of Commerce, Wage & Hour

Federal law and local ordinances may also apply. Federal laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act set a national floor, and your city or county may add protections (such as a higher local minimum wage or paid sick leave). Check both alongside Ohio state law.