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 (an employer under 25 may elect, with notice to the Department and its employees, to provide half — 6 weeks — for the program's first 5 years under 19 Del. C. § 3703(f)); 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 | The Act itself (19 Del. C. § 3709(a)(3)) bars 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.
FLSA overtime and attendance bonuses
A cash bonus promised in advance for good attendance counts as wages under federal overtime law. It has to be added into the regular rate for the weeks it covers, so any of those weeks over 40 hours owes extra overtime on the bonus, usually recalculated after the bonus is paid. State overtime law can add to this, but can't go below it. See how attendance bonuses change overtime pay.
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.
After a no call, no show termination in Delaware
| Does Delaware law define job abandonment? | No statute or regulation defines job abandonment; it is set by employer policy. (Del. Code Ann. tit. 19, § 3314(1)-(2)) |
|---|---|
| Final paycheck if you treat it as a discharge | When an employee is discharged (or quits, resigns, is suspended, or is laid off), wages earned become due on the later of (a) the next date wages would have been paid for the period through the last day worked under the employer's regular pay cycle, or (b) three business days after the last day worked. An employer that fails to pay without reasonable grounds for dispute owes liquidated damages of the lower of 10% of the unpaid wages per day (excluding Sundays and legal holidays) or an amount equal to the unpaid wages (§ 1103(b)(2)). (Del. Code Ann. tit. 19, § 1103(a)(1); penalty § 1103(b)(2)) |
| Final paycheck if you treat it as a resignation | The same rule applies when the employee quits or resigns, with or without notice: wages are due on the later of the next regular payday for the period through the last day worked or three business days after the last day worked, paid through the usual channels or by mail if the employee requests. (Del. Code Ann. tit. 19, § 1103(a)(1)-(2)) |
| Accrued PTO at separation | No state requirement; owed only if your written policy promises it. No Delaware statute requires vacation payout on its own; § 1109(b) defines 'benefits or wage supplements' to include vacation, separation, and holiday pay, and § 1109(a) requires an employer that is party to an agreement to provide such benefits to pay them within 30 days after they are required to be paid, so payout is owed only where the employer's policy or agreement provides for it. (Del. Code Ann. tit. 19, § 1109(a)-(b)) |
| Unemployment claims | Del. Code Ann. tit. 19, § 3314(1) disqualifies a claimant who left work voluntarily without good cause attributable to the work, and § 3314(2) disqualifies a claimant discharged for just cause in connection with the work, in each case until the claimant has been employed in four subsequent weeks and earned four times the weekly benefit amount; the statute does not define 'just cause'. |
If a state agency later treats a "resignation" as a discharge, the discharge deadline governs, so pay by the earlier of the two when in doubt. Document each step with the no call, no show write-up and termination letter templates, which fill in Delaware's final-pay rule.
Write a no call, no show policy that fits Delaware
Start from our no call, no show policy guide and free template, or let the generator turn nine quick questions into a signature-ready policy with Delaware already selected so the protected-leave section covers the federal FMLA and ADA rules that still apply here.
PTO payout and final paychecks
| Scenario | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employee is fired or laid off | Due on the later of the next regular payday for the period through the last day worked or 3 business days after the last day worked (2022 amendment) | 19 Del. C. § 1103(a)(1) |
| Employee quits | Same rule — later of the next regular payday or 3 business days after the last day worked | 19 Del. C. § 1103(a)(1) |
| 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.