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Pennsylvania Paid Sick Leave Explained: The Answer Changes at the City Line
Pennsylvania has no statewide paid sick leave mandate, so your written policy is the enforceable rule across most of the state. Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Allegheny County each run their own paid sick leave ordinance, which means a Pennsylvania employer can owe nothing under state law and a full accrued entitlement one street away.
Pennsylvania is the clearest example in the country of a state where reading the state statute produces the wrong answer. There is no Pennsylvania paid sick leave law. There are three local ones, in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, and between them they cover a large share of the state's employment.
Everywhere else in Pennsylvania, from Erie to Harrisburg to the Lehigh Valley, there is no statutory entitlement and the handbook is the whole of the obligation. An employer with sites in Philadelphia and Lancaster is running two completely different regimes with one payroll.
Pennsylvania at a glance
| Paid sick leave mandate | None statewide for private employers |
|---|---|
| Governing rule | Your written policy, enforced as written |
| State paid family and medical leave | None. Federal FMLA only, unpaid, at 50+ employees |
| Minimum wage | $7.25 |
| Overtime | Weekly over 40 |
| Coverage below the 20-employee COBRA line | Pennsylvania Mini-COBRA (Act 2 of 2009), up to 9 months [40 P.S. section 764j (added by Act 2 of 2009)] |
The three local ordinances
Philadelphia's Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces ordinance is the oldest and the largest in reach. It is accrual based, ceilinged at 40 hours a year, and it distinguishes between larger and smaller employers on whether the time is paid. The city publishes the current mechanics through its worker protections service, and the figures should be taken from there rather than from a secondary summary.
Pittsburgh runs the Paid Sick Days Act, which survived a long challenge in the Pennsylvania courts before taking effect, and Allegheny County adopted its own ordinance covering employers in the county outside the city. All three are accrual-based with an annual ceiling, and none of them is identical to the others.
Coverage follows the place the employee works. A business registered in Montgomery County with staff on Philadelphia sites is covered for those staff. A business registered in Philadelphia with everyone working remotely from Berks County is not, for those employees. The registered address is not the test anywhere in this.
What applies in the rest of the state
Outside those three jurisdictions there is no accrual requirement, no annual ceiling, no carryover rule and no payout rule from any statute. What exists is whatever the written policy says, and it will be read as written.
The three failures that follow are predictable. A policy that promises to pay out unused balances without meaning to. A policy that says nothing about carryover, leaving the generous reading available. A policy that is silent on whether leave is available during a probationary period, which is the point at which the question actually gets asked. In a no-mandate state the drafting is the compliance work, because there is nothing else.
Pennsylvania sits at the federal wage floor
Pennsylvania is one of the largest states still at the federal $7.25 minimum wage, with weekly overtime above 40 hours and no daily rule. That matters to a leave policy in one specific way: the wage floor is what voluntary paid time is worth for a minimum-wage workforce, and it is also the figure against which any Philadelphia or Pittsburgh paid hour is valued for those employees.
Mini-COBRA is the obligation small employers actually miss
Below the federal 20-employee COBRA threshold, Pennsylvania has its own continuation requirement. Pennsylvania mini-COBRA, added by Act 2 of 2009 at 40 P.S. section 764j, applies to fully insured small employers with at least two and fewer than 20 employees, and runs for up to nine months for someone continuously covered for at least three months before the qualifying event.
This is where the practical exposure sits for a small Pennsylvania employer. There is no sick leave statute to breach, but there is a continuation duty that arrives the moment somebody leaves, and it is administered by the insurer and the employer together rather than by a labour agency. Getting that, the three city ordinances and the handbook drafting into one coherent set of documents is what HR outsourcing does in Pennsylvania.
FMLA, remote-hire exposure and voluntary policy drafting: paid leave fundamentals.
For Pennsylvania specifically: nothing above is statutory in Pennsylvania, so your written policy is the enforceable rule, the wage floor those hours are paid at is $7.25, and below the federal 20-employee COBRA threshold Pennsylvania still requires continuation coverage for up to 9 months. HR outsourcing in Pennsylvania keeps that in the handbook and in payroll.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does Pennsylvania require paid sick leave?
No. Pennsylvania 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 $7.25.
What pay rate applies to leave hours in Pennsylvania?
Minimum wage in Pennsylvania is $7.25. Overtime: Weekly over 40. Paid leave hours generally do not count toward the overtime threshold because they are not hours worked.
Does health coverage continue after separation in Pennsylvania?
Federal COBRA applies at 20 or more employees. Below that, Pennsylvania has its own continuation law, the Pennsylvania Mini-COBRA (Act 2 of 2009), running up to 9 months (40 P.S. section 764j (added by Act 2 of 2009)).
Does Pennsylvania run a paid family and medical leave programme?
No. Federal FMLA is the only family and medical leave floor in Pennsylvania: 12 workweeks, unpaid, at employers with 50 or more employees.
Which Pennsylvania employers owe paid sick leave?
Those with employees working inside Philadelphia, Pittsburgh or Allegheny County. Each jurisdiction runs its own ordinance with its own accrual mechanics and its own annual ceiling, and coverage follows where the employee actually works rather than where the business is registered. Elsewhere in Pennsylvania there is no statutory entitlement.
Does a Philadelphia ordinance apply to a company based outside the city?
Yes, if the employee works inside the city for enough time in a year. A company headquartered in the suburbs with staff on Philadelphia sites is covered for those employees. This is the reverse of the assumption most employers bring to it, which is that the registered address decides the rule.
What governs sick pay in the rest of Pennsylvania?
Your handbook, read as written. With no statute behind it, the policy is the whole of the obligation, so silence on carryover, payout at separation or availability during a probation period will be resolved on the wording that is there rather than on what was intended.
Does Pennsylvania require continuation of health coverage below the COBRA threshold?
Yes. Pennsylvania mini-COBRA, added by Act 2 of 2009 at 40 P.S. section 764j, reaches fully insured small employers below the federal 20-employee line and runs for up to nine months for an employee continuously insured for at least three months before the qualifying event. It is the leave-adjacent obligation Pennsylvania small employers most often miss.
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.
Sources: Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry; City of Philadelphia worker protections. Compare every state on paid sick leave by state. General leave information, not legal advice.
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