AbsentEase
Indiana sick leave law & call-off rules
Indiana requires no sick leave, no breaks for adults, and not even voting leave — on paper it's one of the most employer-flexible states in the country. The two rules that actually bite Indiana employers are subtler: promised vacation is treated as deferred wages, and firing an employee in retaliation for a workers' compensation claim is actionable under the Frampton doctrine, which puts absences tied to a work injury under a microscope. Here is what applies in 2026.
Indiana at a glance
| Paid sick leave mandate | None — and local ordinances are preempted by state law |
|---|---|
| Employment relationship | At-will; the Frampton doctrine bars firing in retaliation for a workers' comp claim — neutral, consistently enforced absence policies have been upheld |
| PTO payout at termination | Promised vacation is deferred wages — payable unless a written policy clearly conditions or forfeits it |
| Final paycheck deadline | Next regular payday, fired or quit |
| Meal & rest breaks | None — Indiana dropped its minor break requirement effective April 1, 2020 |
| Voting leave | Not required — Indiana has no voting-leave law |
| FMLA (federal) | Applies at 50+ employees within 75 miles — 12 weeks unpaid, job-protected |
Is paid sick leave required in Indiana?
No. Indiana has no state law requiring private employers to provide paid or unpaid sick leave, and a preemption law in place since 2013 bars cities and counties from creating their own. Sick leave in Indiana is entirely what your written policy makes it — plus the federal floor below.
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.
This happens in Indiana: in October 2026 the U.S. Department of Labor recovered $603,953 in back overtime for 829 workers at an Indianapolis-area auto-parts manufacturer that left a non-discretionary attendance bonus out of its overtime calculations.
Call-offs, no-call no-shows, and firing in Indiana
Indiana is at-will, and attendance discipline — including termination for a no-call no-show — is generally lawful. The state-specific caution is the Frampton doctrine: terminating an employee in retaliation for filing a workers' compensation claim is retaliatory discharge, and the fight is over causation. Indiana courts have upheld terminations under neutral, uniformly applied absence policies after work injuries (Smith v. Electrical System Division of Bristol Corp., 1990; Purdy v. Wright Tree Service, 2005), so the policy has to be the real reason, applied the same way to everyone. That still means an attendance-points system should know why each absence happened before the points post — the difference between "out sick" and "out for the shoulder he hurt on the job Tuesday" is the difference between routine discipline and a retaliation claim to defend. Wage claims go to the Indiana Department of Labor, and disputes come down to the record: the written policy, the call-off log, and consistent enforcement. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off system that keeps each employee's own words, time-stamped, is what makes that record automatic.
After a no call, no show termination in Indiana
| Does Indiana law define job abandonment? | No statute or regulation defines job abandonment or sets a consecutive-days no-show threshold; it is set by employer policy. (Ind. Code § 22-4-15-1(a), (d)(2), (d)(3), (j)) |
|---|---|
| Final paycheck if you treat it as a discharge | When an employer separates an employee from the payroll, unpaid wages become due and payable at the regular pay day for the pay period in which the separation occurred (railroads excepted). (Ind. Code § 22-2-9-2(a)) |
| Final paycheck if you treat it as a resignation | If an employee voluntarily leaves employment, permanently or temporarily, the employer is not required to pay the amount due until the next usual and regular day for payment of wages as established by the employer; if the employee leaves voluntarily without the employer knowing the employee's whereabouts or address, the employer is not subject to the penalty section (§ 22-2-5-2) until 10 business days after the employee demands the wages or furnishes an address. No separate rule for quit with versus without notice. (Ind. Code § 22-2-5-1(b)) |
| Accrued PTO at separation | Owed unless a written policy clearly provides for forfeiture. No statute addresses vacation payout; the Indiana Department of Labor's FAQ says accrued vacation is a form of compensation and an employee 'may be entitled to a pro rata share' at termination, but conditions set by the employer's policy or contract apply and vacation policies are left to the employer's discretion; Indiana appellate decisions (e.g., Indiana Heart Associates v. Bahamonde, 714 N.E.2d 309 (Ind. Ct. App. 1999)) treat promised vacation as deferred wages payable at separation unless the policy clearly conditions or forfeits it. (Ind. Code § 22-2-9-1(b) (definition of 'wages'); Indiana Dept. of Labor FAQ 'When I leave my employment, is my former employer required to pay me for any accrued vacation time?'; Indiana Heart Associates v. Bahamonde, 714 N.E.2d 309 (Ind. Ct. App. 1999)) |
| Unemployment claims | An individual who voluntarily left without good cause in connection with the work, or was discharged for just cause, is ineligible until re-earning eight weeks of wages totaling eight times the weekly benefit amount (§ 22-4-15-1(a)); 'discharge for just cause' includes 'knowing violation of a reasonable and uniformly enforced rule of an employer, including a rule regarding attendance' and, if the employer has no attendance rule, 'unsatisfactory attendance, if good cause for absences or tardiness is not established' (§ 22-4-15-1(d)(2)-(3)); a resignation offered in lieu of discharge is analyzed as a discharge (§ 22-4-15-1(j)). |
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 Indiana's final-pay rule.
Write a no call, no show policy that fits Indiana
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 Indiana 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 | Final pay due by the next regular payday | Ind. Code 22-2-9-2 |
| Employee quits | Next regular payday; if a quitting employee leaves no forwarding address, penalty exposure is suspended until 10 business days after a demand for the wages, or until an address is furnished | Ind. Code 22-2-5-1 |
| Unused vacation / PTO | Accrued vacation that was promised is deferred compensation — payable at termination unless a written policy clearly conditions or forfeits it | Indiana Wage Payment Statute |
| Late or short final pay | Attorney's fees and costs on unpaid wage claims — vacation included — plus liquidated damages of twice the unpaid wages if the court finds the employer wasn't acting in good faith | Ind. Code 22-2-5-2 |
If you don't intend to pay out accrued vacation, the forfeiture language has to be explicit and in writing — silence means it's owed. See how PTO accrual works.
Leave Indiana employers must (and must not) provide
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Jury duty | Yes — unpaid | No firing or penalties, and with reasonable notice you can't force employees to burn annual leave, vacation, or sick leave on it (IC 33-28-5-24.3) |
| Military | Yes | USERRA (federal) plus Indiana National Guard protections; Military Family Leave (IC 22-2-13) at 50+ employees — up to 10 unpaid working days/year for the spouse, parent, grandparent, child, or sibling of a service member called to active duty, after 12 months and 1,500 hours |
| Voting | No | Indiana has no voting-leave requirement |
| Sick leave | No | Whatever your written policy provides |
| Vacation / PTO | No | Policy-driven — but see the deferred-wages payout rule above |
The Indiana 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.