AbsentEase
Delaware sick leave law & call-off rules
Delaware never mandated accrued sick days — it leapfrogged straight to insurance. Delaware Paid Leave (the Healthy Delaware Families Act) began paying benefits January 1, 2026: up to 12 weeks of parental leave and 6 weeks of medical/family-care leave at 80% of wages, job-protected. For attendance policies, that's the headline — PFML-covered absences can't take occurrences, and you can't force employees to burn PTO before drawing benefits. Here is what applies in 2026.
Delaware at a glance
| Accrued sick leave mandate | None — no state or local requirement |
|---|---|
| Delaware Paid Leave | Benefits since Jan 1, 2026 — 12 weeks parental / 6 weeks medical-family at 80% (max $900/wk) |
| Attendance points on PFML absences | Barred — job-protected leave; no forced PTO exhaustion |
| Meal break | 30 minutes at 7.5+ consecutive hours |
| PTO payout at termination | Policy controls — a promised payout becomes wages under the WPCA |
| Final paycheck deadline | Next regular payday, fired or quit |
| Employment relationship | At-will with a narrow implied covenant (Merrill v. Crothall-American) |
Is paid sick leave required in Delaware?
No accrued sick leave — but yes to paid leave insurance. Employers with 25+ employees are in the full Delaware Paid Leave program (parental, own-medical, family-care, military); 10–24 employees carry the parental line only (cappable at 6 weeks under the 2025 amendments); under 10 are exempt but may opt in. Benefits run at 80% of wages up to $900/week (2026–27). Contributions started in 2025; claims started January 1, 2026. Day-to-day sick days remain policy-driven.
How Delaware Paid Leave changes attendance policy
| Parental leave | Up to 12 weeks/year at 80% pay — employers with 10+ employees |
|---|---|
| Medical / family / military | Up to 6 weeks per 24 months — employers with 25+ employees |
| Job protection | PFML absences are protected — no occurrences, no points, no discipline |
| PTO interaction | 2025 amendments bar forcing employees to exhaust accrued PTO before drawing PFML benefits |
| What's NOT covered | Ordinary short sick days — those remain governed by your written policy and the federal floor |
The practical work for 2026: audit points policies for a PFML carve-out, and train supervisors that a multi-week medical absence is now a claim to route, not an attendance problem to manage.
The federal floor that still applies
FMLA
Employers with 50+ employees within 75 miles must give eligible employees (12+ months tenure, 1,250+ hours in the past year) up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for a serious health condition — their own or a close family member's. FMLA-protected absences can't accrue attendance points, and a call-off that mentions an ongoing condition can be notice enough to trigger your FMLA obligations, even if the employee never says "FMLA."
ADA
For employers with 15+ employees, the ADA can require modified attendance expectations or unpaid leave as a reasonable accommodation for a disability. An attendance policy applied "no exceptions" is exactly the kind that loses ADA cases — build an accommodation carve-out into the policy itself.
Call-offs, no-call no-shows, and firing in Delaware
Delaware is at-will with a narrow implied covenant of good faith, and short-absence attendance enforcement remains policy territory. What changed on January 1, 2026 is the long-absence picture: a crew member's surgery, pregnancy, or family-care stretch is now a Delaware Paid Leave claim — job-protected, 80% paid by the state program, immune from points, and insulated from forced PTO exhaustion. The failure mode to design out is the supervisor who keeps pointing a PFML-covered absence out of habit. Call-off records matter on both sides of that line: they document the short absences your policy governs and flag the long ones that should route to a claim. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off system is where that routing decision gets its facts.
PTO payout and final paychecks
| Scenario | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employee is fired or laid off | Next regularly scheduled payday; by mail on request | 19 Del. C. § 1103 |
| Employee quits | Same — next regular payday | 19 Del. C. § 1103 |
| Unused vacation / PTO | Policy or contract controls; a promised payout becomes wages under the Wage Payment and Collection Act | Policy/contract law |
| Enforcement | Delaware DOL, Office of Labor Law Enforcement | — |
Delaware exits are procedurally calm — the compliance energy belongs on the PFML side now. See how PTO accrual works.
Leave Delaware employers must (and must not) provide
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Delaware Paid Leave | Yes — insurance | Per the program table above; under-10 employers exempt but may opt in |
| Meal break | Yes | 30 unpaid minutes when working 7.5+ consecutive hours, after the first 2 and before the last 2 hours |
| Jury duty | Yes — unpaid | No discharge, threats, or coercion; fired jurors can sue within 90 days for wages, reinstatement, and fees |
| Voting | No | No voting-leave statute; employment-based voter intimidation is prohibited |
| Military | Yes | USERRA (federal) plus Delaware National Guard protections |
The Delaware employer's attendance playbook
- Put it in writing. A written policy — call-off deadline and channel, points or steps, the no-call no-show rule, and carve-outs for legally protected absences — is what makes discipline defensible. Our attendance policy guide walks through it.
- Give call-offs one channel. "Tell whoever answers" is how records get lost. One number every employee texts or calls makes the record automatic.
- Log everything with timestamps. Unemployment hearings and discrimination charges are won on contemporaneous records, not recollections.
- Enforce consistently. Uneven enforcement converts a lawful termination into a discrimination claim.
- Screen call-offs for protected reasons before applying points — sickness that could be FMLA/ADA territory gets a different track than an overslept alarm.
Comparing states? See all published guides on the state sick leave laws hub.