Managing the patchwork of paid sick leave laws: Your questions answered 

Paid sick leave laws continue to create complex compliance challenges for employers, especially those managing multistate teams, remote employees or overlapping state and local requirements. With no federal paid sick leave mandate, HR leaders are left to navigate a growing patchwork of laws that can affect accrual tracking, documentation requests, employee eligibility and coordination with FMLA, ADA and other leave obligations. 

During the recent Brightmine webinar, Managing the paid sick leave patchwork: What HR leaders need to do now, attendees raised practical questions about how paid sick leave laws apply in real workplace scenarios. Below, we answer some of the most common questions from the session and highlight key considerations for employers reviewing their paid sick leave policies, accrual tracking, documentation practices and leave administration. 

Q: If an employee uses their FMLA but then wants to use only their sick leave with the state, can the sick leave be used only without the federal? 

It depends. In most situations, leave that qualifies for protection under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) must be designated as such. According to a Department of Labor (DOL) opinion letter, neither employers nor employees have discretion to designate time off as covered by the FMLA. If the time qualifies for FMLA coverage, it must be designated accordingly. However, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (which covers Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington) has taken a different position, concluding that employees have the right to decline FMLA leave in FMLA-qualifying situations. The DOL opinion letter does not have the force of law, while the Ninth Circuit does for employers within that jurisdiction. Employers should consider consulting with counsel to determine which rule to follow in specific situations. 

Q: What if an employee works in St. Paul and/or Minneapolis and also works in suburban Minnesota where the state also has its own paid sick leave law? 

Generally, if an employee qualifies for leave under both a state and local law, employers must apply whichever law is more employee-friendly. Minnesota employers face unique challenges when complying with paid sick leave requirements because the statewide law and local ordinances differ in subtle ways. One of the biggest challenges is the situation you described. According to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) from the state (which do not have the force of law but signal how the state intends to enforce the law), if an employee is eligible for earned sick and safe time under both state and local law, the employer is responsible for following the requirements most favorable to employees. This may mean following some of the requirements of the state law and other requirements of the local law. It’s also worth noting that in response to this exact issue, Bloomington, Minnesota, repealed its paid sick leave ordinance in April 2026. Brightmine is continuing to monitor whether Minneapolis and St. Paul will follow suit.  

Q: If you have company accrual of sick time, can you require some sort of note in order to use it?

Whether an employer may seek documentation in connection with the use of paid sick leave depends on the state or locality in which an employer is operating. Most paid sick leave statutes and ordinances limit when an employer may seek documentation to substantiate the use of leave. For example, Colorado law allows employers to seek reasonable documentation after leave is used for four or more consecutive workdays. In contrast, Minnesota employers may require reasonable documentation for absences of more than two consecutively scheduled workdays. Paid sick leave laws also limit the kind of documentation employers may require, often allowing employees to simply submit a written statement that they used the time off for appropriate reasons under the law. Please also note that even if an employer’s policy is not covered by a paid sick leave ordinance or statute, the employer should still be cognizant of other laws that may regulate the employer’s ability to seek medical documentation, such as the medical inquiry limitations and confidentiality requirements in the Americans with Disabilities Act.  

Q: How are employers expected to manage all of these different state leave plans if they have remote employees in nearly all 50 states?

The challenges (and frustrations) for multistate employers are real. HR professionals in such organizations are tasked with tracking nuanced differences in legal requirements at the state and local levels. The work is compounded by the growing number of leaves mandated by law—from paid sick leave to paid and unpaid family and medical leave to military leave to civic duty leaves, and so on.  

Outsourcing is an expensive option—and doing so generally still leaves liability with an employer if something is missed. If an organization is going to keep leave administration in-house, that generally requires an Human Resources Information System (HRIS) system that can track matters like accrual and use of leave. Even with those systems in place, HR professionals need accurate information to track and manage these laws. That’s where Brightmine comes in. Brightmine offers a host of resources to help multistate employers track these compliance obligations. We track leave laws by state, allowing employers to quickly get up to speed on which jurisdictions require what kinds of leave. Beyond our 50-state charts, we provide more in-depth coverage through resources like our Employment Law Guide and How-To articles. These documents dig deeper into the most pressing issues employers face when actually administering leave—Does leave need to accrue on a regular basis or can it be frontloaded? What kind of documentation can an employer request? How can an employer handle leave abuse situations? Finally, for the toughest questions, we offer the Ask Our Experts service—a hotline for eligible users to submit questions to our legal editors and receive answers within two business days.  

Q: What happens if an employee keeps extending leave under the ADA? How much time is reasonable? 

Unfortunately, there is not a brightline rule regarding the amount of leave that is required as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the answer often depends on the location of the employer and the specific facts of the situation. In general, factors such as the size of the employer, the nature of the employer’s operations, and the impact of the requested leave on the employer’s business are frequently relevant to determining whether an employee’s request for leave under the ADA will be considered a reasonable accommodation. While courts consistently find that indefinite leave with no reasonable likelihood of return is not considered a reasonable accommodation under the ADA, there is not a specific amount of leave that is consistently considered unreasonable. In guidance, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has not identified a specific timeline that is reasonable, stating only that employers must grant leave unless it would impose an undue hardship. Some courts, however, have taken a different view. For example, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (which covers Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming) has taken the position that leaves beyond six months are per se unreasonable (meaning they need not be granted). Employers should consider consulting with counsel to determine how to proceed in specific situations. 

Go deeper on paid sick leave compliance 

Watch our on-demand Managing the paid sick leave patchwork: What HR leaders need to do now webinar to hear Duane Morris attorney Marc Scheiner explain the latest paid sick leave laws, common compliance risks and practical steps HR leaders can take to manage leave obligations across jurisdictions.