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Oregon Paid Sick Leave Explained: Two Thresholds in One Statute
Oregon requires sick time from every employer. Employees accrue one hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year. Whether those hours are paid depends on headcount: above ten employees statewide, or above six for an employer with a location in Portland. Below the line the time is unpaid, not absent.
Oregon's sick time law, ORS 653.601 and following, looks like a standard 40-hour mandate until you reach the threshold. Two numbers decide whether the hours are paid: ten employees for most of the state, and six for an employer with a location inside Portland. Both live in the state statute. Portland does not run its own ordinance.
That is a genuinely different design from the city-ordinance model used in Washington, Illinois and Pennsylvania. Oregon took the city special case into the state law, which means an Oregon employer never reads two sets of rules but does have to know which of two numbers applies to it.
What Oregon requires
| Paid sick leave mandate | None statewide for private employers |
|---|---|
| Governing rule | Your written policy, enforced as written |
| State paid family and medical leave | Yes, employer registration and withholding required |
| Minimum wage | $15.05 standard; $16.30 Portland metro; $14.05 non-urban counties |
| Overtime | Weekly over 40, plus daily rules in some mills and factories |
| Coverage below the 20-employee COBRA line | Oregon State Continuation Coverage, up to 9 months [ORS 743B.347 (formerly ORS 743.610)] |
The threshold moves the money, not the leave
Every Oregon employer provides sick time. Accrual is one hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year, for a workforce of three people or three thousand. What changes at the threshold is whether the hours are paid.
So a small Oregon business still tracks accrual, still grants the time, still allows the same uses and still cannot retaliate. It just does not pay for the absence. An employer that decided it was too small for the law and stopped tracking has a record-keeping failure on top of the leave failure, and the records are what decide the argument.
Counting employees, including the ones outside Oregon
The headcount is an average over the preceding year rather than a snapshot, and it counts the employer's employees wherever they work, not only the Oregon ones. A national company with 400 staff and two remote employees in Oregon is well above the threshold, and owes paid sick time to both of them.
This is the opposite of the intuition most out-of-state employers bring to it. The question is not how many people you employ in Oregon. It is how many people you employ.
Accrual, caps and the 90-day wait
Accrual begins on the first day of employment. Use opens after the employee has been employed for 90 calendar days. The employer may cap the total accrued balance, and must carry unused hours forward up to the annual amount, with use in any one year limited to 40 hours.
Front-loading the full 40 hours at the start of the year is permitted and removes the carryover administration. For a workforce with seasonal patterns, which describes a large share of Oregon agriculture, food processing and hospitality employment, front-loading also removes the awkward case of an employee whose accrual and whose season do not line up.
Paid Leave Oregon and OFLA are separate obligations
Paid Leave Oregon pays a wage-replacement benefit for family, medical and safe leave measured in weeks. It is funded by contributions on wages split between employer and employee, and smaller employers are relieved of the employer share while still being required to withhold and remit the employee share. That distinction is where small Oregon employers most often fall out of compliance, because concluding you are exempt from the contribution is not the same as being exempt from the filing.
The Oregon Family Leave Act runs alongside as job protection and reaches employers at a headcount below the federal FMLA threshold. Three programmes, three triggers, and one employee who may be using all three at once. Keeping the sick time accrual, the contribution remittance and the job-protection clock separate is the practical work HR outsourcing does in Oregon.
FMLA, remote-hire exposure and voluntary policy drafting: paid leave fundamentals.
For Oregon specifically: the accrual and carryover rules above are statutory in Oregon, not discretionary, the wage floor those hours are paid at is $15.05 standard; $16.30 Portland metro; $14.05 non-urban counties, and below the federal 20-employee COBRA threshold Oregon still requires continuation coverage for up to 9 months, and the state paid family and medical leave programme carries its own contribution and claim mechanics. HR outsourcing in Oregon keeps that in the handbook and in payroll.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does Oregon require paid sick leave?
No. Oregon has no statewide requirement for private employers, so whatever your handbook says is the enforceable rule, including on carryover and payout. Hours you do pay are paid at $15.05 standard; $16.30 Portland metro; $14.05 non-urban counties.
What pay rate applies to leave hours in Oregon?
Minimum wage in Oregon is $15.05 standard; $16.30 Portland metro; $14.05 non-urban counties. Overtime: Weekly over 40, plus daily rules in some mills and factories. Paid leave hours generally do not count toward the overtime threshold because they are not hours worked.
Does health coverage continue after separation in Oregon?
Federal COBRA applies at 20 or more employees. Below that, Oregon has its own continuation law, the Oregon State Continuation Coverage, running up to 9 months (ORS 743B.347 (formerly ORS 743.610)).
Does Oregon run a paid family and medical leave programme?
Yes. It is separate from sick leave, usually funded by payroll contributions, and registration and withholding are the employer's job. Federal FMLA still applies on top at 50 or more employees.
Why does Portland have a lower threshold than the rest of Oregon?
Because the state statute wrote it in. Portland does not run a separate ordinance the way Seattle or Chicago do. Oregon folded the city into its own law with a six-employee paid threshold instead of ten, so an employer with a Portland location applies a different number without leaving the state statute.
Does a small Oregon employer owe anything?
Yes. Below the paid threshold the employer still has to provide the sick time, accrued at the same rate and available for the same reasons. It is simply unpaid. Oregon is one of several states where the size threshold moves the money and not the obligation, and reading it as an exemption is the usual mistake.
How does Oregon count employees for the threshold?
By the average number of employees over the preceding year rather than a count on a single day, and the count includes employees working outside Oregon for the same employer. That second part surprises out-of-state businesses: a large national employer with two people in Oregon is above the threshold on the strength of its total workforce.
How is Paid Leave Oregon different from sick time?
Paid Leave Oregon is an insurance programme funded by contributions split between employer and employee, paying a benefit against a claim for family, medical and safe leave measured in weeks. Sick time is hours the employer accrues and, above the threshold, pays. Small employers are relieved of the employer contribution share but still withhold and remit the employee share.
Is this a PEO?
No. No co-employment and no employer-of-record change: your company stays the employer. HR outsourcing, powered by isolved.
Anthony leads HR outsourcing strategy at Business Executive Group, a national HR outsourcing firm serving employers across every state. BEG HR outsourcing is powered by isolved, with certified HR professionals building and maintaining state-correct leave policy as laws change.
Source: Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, sick time. Compare every state on paid sick leave by state. General leave information, not legal advice.
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