Mandatory Paid Sick Leave, PTO & Vacation Laws: 2026 Update

Navigate 2026 paid sick leave, PTO and vacation rules, compare policy options, and manage multi-state compliance with confidence.

Overview

Many states and the District of Columbia require employers to provide paid sick leave or another form of mandated paid leave, and numerous cities and counties impose additional local requirements. The rules have continued to evolve, creating new responsibilities for employers operating across multiple jurisdictions.

Alaska’s voter-approved paid sick leave law took effect on July 1, 2025. Nebraska’s Healthy Families and Workplaces Act took effect on October 1, 2025 and, following amendments, generally applies to private employers with 11 or more employees. California’s minimum paid sick leave requirement increased from 24 hours or three days to 40 hours or five days, while Connecticut’s expanded law now covers employers with at least 11 employees during 2026 and is scheduled to reach employers with one or more employees beginning January 1, 2027.

Changes are also occurring at the local level. New York City significantly expanded its Protected Time Off Law effective February 22, 2026, adding unpaid protected time and broadening the reasons for which employees may take leave. At the same time, the legal movement is not entirely in one direction. Missouri’s statewide paid sick time mandate ended on August 28, 2025. These expansions, amendments, and rollbacks make older compliance assumptions increasingly risky.

Do You Have a Federal Contract?

Employees working on or in connection with certain covered federal contracts may be entitled to paid sick leave under Executive Order 13706. Covered contractors may be required to provide up to 56 hours, or seven days, of paid sick leave annually.

Do You Have a Contract With a Municipality?

Employers should review both the terms of their municipal contracts and the laws governing the locations where their employees perform work. Paid leave obligations may arise from a local sick leave ordinance, living-wage or prevailing-wage requirements, or specific provisions contained in a government contract.

Every Law Is Different

Every state and municipal law requiring paid sick leave or broader paid leave has its own rules. Complying with several of these laws at once can create considerable confusion.

Employer coverage, employee eligibility, accrual rates, waiting periods, permitted uses, carryover requirements, covered family members, documentation standards, notice obligations, and recordkeeping rules can differ significantly from one jurisdiction to another. Some jurisdictions require leave specifically for sickness and health-related needs, while others require broader paid leave that employees can use for additional purposes. These differences directly affect PTO policies, payroll administration, attendance practices, employee communications, and handbook language.

Is Your PTO Plan Obsolete?

PTO programs that combine vacation and sick leave into one bank were the preferred approach for many organizations for years. With the continued growth of state and local leave mandates, employers are reconsidering whether a single PTO bank remains the best approach for every location.

Employers can often use an existing PTO plan to comply with a paid sick leave mandate, provided the plan supplies at least the same amount of leave, permits all legally protected uses, and follows the applicable accrual, carryover, notice, documentation, and anti-retaliation requirements. Employers must also consider how combining vacation and sick leave may affect costs and the treatment or payout of unused time under applicable state law and company policy.

In this webinar, we will review mandatory paid sick leave and broader paid leave laws currently in place, examine the differences among major requirements, and discuss how employers can transition from separate sick and vacation policies to a combined PTO policy—or move from a combined PTO plan back to separate sick and vacation banks.

Areas Covered in the Session:

• Current mandatory paid sick leave and broader paid leave laws
• Recent expansions, amendments, and rollbacks
• A review of different mandatory paid sick leave requirements
• Examples of multi-jurisdiction compliance challenges
• A comparison of PTO policies and separate sick and vacation policies
• Conducting a cost-benefit analysis for both approaches
• Planning for policy changes
• Communicating policy changes
• Action items for participants

Handouts:

Attendees will gain access to exclusive handouts, including presentation materials provided by the speaker and additional resources developed by Amorit Education to aid your teams in post-session implementation.

Why You Should Attend?

Paid sick leave and broader paid leave requirements continue to change across states and municipalities, creating serious compliance challenges for employers with employees in more than one location. Differences in accrual, carryover, eligibility, permitted use, documentation, and notice requirements can easily lead to payroll errors, inconsistent policy administration, and employee complaints.

This webinar will help you understand how current paid sick leave laws affect your existing PTO, vacation, and sick leave policies. You will learn where a combined PTO plan may still work, where separate leave banks may be more practical, and what employers should consider before changing a policy.

You will leave with a clearer approach to reviewing your leave practices, identifying compliance gaps, evaluating the cost of different policy structures, and communicating changes to employees. The session is especially valuable for employers managing remote, multi-state, or locally regulated workforces.

Who will benefit?

This webinar is designed for professionals responsible for developing, administering, and reviewing employee leave, PTO, vacation, and paid sick leave policies. It is particularly valuable for those managing multi-state employees or navigating overlapping state and local requirements, including:

• Human Resources Directors
• Human Resources Managers
• HR Compliance Managers
• Employee Relations Managers
• Benefits Managers
• Leave of Absence Managers
• Total Rewards Managers
• Payroll Directors
• Payroll Managers
• Payroll Compliance Specialists
• Compensation and Benefits Managers
• Employment Law Attorneys
• Labor and Employment Counsel
• In-House Legal Counsel
• Compliance Officers
• HR Business Partners
• HR Policy Specialists
• People Operations Leaders
• Workforce Administration Managers
• Business Owners and Employers

ABOUT PRESENTER:

Bob McKenzie, has over 40 years of human resources management experience. His background includes a wide range of hands-on experience in all areas of Human resources management in all types of industries within the public and private sectors.

Bob has been cited in a number of Human Resources trade publications. Among them are HR.com, HR Magazine, HR Florida Review, Vault.com, BNA and the Institute of Management and Administration and the Business Journal. He has been a speaker at a number of conferences as well as audio and web-based seminars.

Bob is a graduate of Rider University where he received a Bachelor of Science in Commerce Degree and double majored in Industrial Relations and Organizational Behavior.

NOTE FOR ATTENDEES:

Live attendees will receive a WebEx meeting invitation upon successfully completing the registration.

Please note that if you have registered two or more attendees, each participant will receive their own WebEx invitation from the organizer at a later time. The registered user will receive an email from the organizer requesting details for all other participants.

Participants who have opted for the recorded version of the program will receive a WebEx link within 8 hours after the event's completion. Using this link, participants can view or download the event at their convenience.