Can we limit paid sick leave to the number of hours employees are scheduled to work?

Q           Are we allowed to limit employees’ use of paid sick leave to the number of hours they’re scheduled to work on a given day, such as no more than six hours of paid leave for a part-time employee scheduled to work a six-hour shift?

Yes. There’s no federal law mandating paid sick leave. State laws relevant to paid sick leave generally concern the accrual of leave time. For instance, although West Virginia doesn’t have a state paid sick leave law, Virginia law requires all employees to accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. There, “paid sick leave” means leave compensated at the same hourly rate and with the same benefits. 

However, many states’ statutes are silent on an employer’s ability, or lack thereof, to limit an employee’s use of paid sick leave. To fill this gap, you should draft strong and clear policies regarding sick leave and its use.

You should compensate employees at the same rate and for the same time as they were scheduled to perform notwithstanding the sick leave. To provide clarity for both parties, you can require reasonable notice if employees know in advance they’ll use sick leave. If you schedule working shifts in advance, you can further limit ambiguity about how many sick leave hours employees may take on a given day.