AbsentEase
Florida sick leave law & call-off rules
Florida is about as hands-off as employment law gets: no sick leave mandate, no state final-paycheck deadline, no required breaks for adults, no voting-leave law, and one of the strictest at-will doctrines in the country. The obligations that do exist are easy to miss precisely because everything else is optional — domestic-violence leave at 50+ employees, and county jury-pay ordinances in South Florida. Here is what applies in 2026.
Florida at a glance
| Paid sick leave mandate | None — and local sick-leave ordinances are preempted |
|---|---|
| Employment relationship | Strongly at-will — no common-law public-policy exception |
| Domestic violence leave | Required at 50+ employees: up to 3 working days per 12 months (FS 741.313) |
| PTO payout at termination | Not required — your written policy or contract governs entirely |
| Final paycheck deadline | No state deadline — next regular payday under federal practice |
| Meal & rest breaks | None for adults; minors get 30 minutes per 4 hours of continuous work |
| FMLA (federal) | Applies at 50+ employees within 75 miles — 12 weeks unpaid, job-protected |
Is paid sick leave required in Florida?
No. Florida law does not require private employers to provide sick leave, paid or unpaid, and a 2013 preemption statute bars cities and counties from mandating it (it was passed specifically to kill a proposed Orange County measure). Your written policy and the federal floor are the whole framework.
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 Florida
Florida employment is as at-will as it gets — the state recognizes no common-law public-policy exception, so a lawful attendance policy can be enforced right up to termination, including for a single no-call no-show. The protected categories are specific and statutory: workers' comp retaliation (FS 440.205), whistleblowing (FS 448.102), domestic-violence leave at 50+ employees (FS 741.313), and the federal FMLA/ADA floor. That short list is exactly why documentation matters here: with no state wage agency and most disputes landing in court or at the EEOC, the employer's contemporaneous records are usually the entire defense. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off system produces that record — every call-off, in the employee's own words, time-stamped.
PTO payout and final paychecks
| Scenario | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employee is fired or laid off | No Florida deadline — pay by the next regular payday (federal FLSA practice) | No state statute |
| Employee quits | Same — next regular payday | No state statute |
| Unused vacation / PTO | Payout owed only if your written policy or a contract promises it; forfeiture policies are enforceable | Policy/contract law |
| Where wage disputes go | Florida has no state wage-claim agency — claims go to the federal DOL or court, where the written policy is the evidence | — |
With no state wage agency, the written policy is effectively the law of your workplace — make the payout rule say exactly what you intend. See how PTO accrual works.
Leave Florida employers must (and must not) provide
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic violence leave | Yes at 50+ employees | Up to 3 working days per 12 months for employees with 3+ months tenure (FS 741.313); firing or pointing these absences is unlawful |
| Jury duty | Yes — unpaid statewide | No firing (FS 40.271) — but Miami-Dade and Broward ordinances require covered employers to pay full-time employees on jury duty |
| Military | Yes | USERRA (federal) plus Florida National Guard protections |
| Voting | No | Florida has no voting-leave requirement |
| Sick leave | No | Whatever your written policy provides |
The Florida 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.