AbsentEase
Maryland sick leave law & call-off rules
Maryland's Healthy Working Families Act gives nearly every employee earned sick and safe leave — 1 hour per 30 worked, paid at employers with 15 or more employees — with a verification rule tighter than most: no documentation until an absence spans more than two consecutive shifts. And Montgomery County keeps its own older, more generous 56-hour law on top. Here is what applies in 2026.
Maryland at a glance
| Paid sick leave mandate | Yes — 1 per 30, earn 40 hours/year (64-hour bank cap); paid at 15+ employees |
|---|---|
| Montgomery County | Stricter county law still in force — 56 paid hours at 5+ employees |
| Attendance points on sick time | Barred by LE § 3-1310 — protected absences can't drive discipline |
| Doctor's notes | Only past 2 consecutive scheduled shifts |
| PTO payout at termination | Owed unless a written forfeiture policy was communicated at hire |
| Final paycheck deadline | Next regular payday, fired or quit |
| Voting leave | 2 hours paid, with proof of voting or attempting to vote |
Is paid sick leave required in Maryland?
Yes. The Healthy Working Families Act (Md. Code, Lab. & Empl. §§ 3-1301–3-1311) covers all employers with Maryland-based employees: 1 hour per 30 hours worked, earning up to 40 hours a year (total accrual may be capped at 64 hours). At 15+ employees the leave is paid; below that it's unpaid but job-protected. Employees regularly working under 12 hours a week are excluded. Montgomery County employers also owe the county's own 56-hour standard — whichever rule is more generous wins.
How Maryland's sick leave law works
| Accrual rate | 1 hour per 30 hours worked; front-loading permitted |
|---|---|
| Caps | Earn up to 40 hours/year; total bank and annual use may be capped at 64 hours |
| Paid vs. unpaid | Paid at 15+ employees; unpaid but job-protected at 14 or fewer |
| Carryover | Up to 40 hours (subject to the 64-hour bank cap); front-loading removes the obligation |
| Covered uses | Illness or preventive care for the employee or family, parental leave, and safe leave for domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking |
| Doctor's notes | Only when leave spans more than 2 consecutive scheduled shifts (or, by agreement made at hire, for use in days 107–120 of employment) |
| Montgomery County | Separate ordinance (pre-2017, not preempted): 56 paid hours/year at 5+ employees; 32 paid + 24 unpaid below |
The anti-retaliation rule: LE § 3-1310 bars adverse action against employees exercising sick-and-safe-leave rights in good faith — which includes running their protected absences through an attendance-points policy.
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 Maryland
Maryland is at-will, and attendance enforcement — including no-call no-show terminations — is broadly lawful outside the protected categories. The two state-specific tripwires: verification timing (a doctor's-note demand on a one- or two-shift absence violates the Act — the threshold is more than two consecutive shifts) and geography (a Montgomery County crew accrues against a different, richer bank than the rest of the state). Wage and sick-leave complaints go to the Maryland Department of Labor, and they turn on the same records as everywhere: the written policy, the classification of each absence, and proof of even-handed enforcement. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off system keeps each report time-stamped and verbatim, which is what makes both tripwires manageable.
PTO payout and final paychecks
| Scenario | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employee is fired or laid off | Final pay due by the next regular payday for the closing pay period | Md. LE § 3-505 |
| Employee quits | Same — next regular payday | Md. LE § 3-505 |
| Unused vacation / PTO | Must be paid at termination unless a written forfeiture policy was communicated to the employee at hire | Md. LE § 3-505(b) |
| Unused sick and safe leave | No payout required at separation | Healthy Working Families Act |
Maryland honors forfeiture policies — but only written ones communicated at hire. A policy adopted after the fact doesn't reach time already accrued. See how PTO accrual works.
Leave Maryland employers must (and must not) provide
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sick and safe leave | Yes | Paid at 15+ employees; Montgomery County requires more |
| Voting | Yes — paid | Up to 2 hours if the employee lacks 2 continuous off-duty hours while polls are open; proof of voting required |
| Jury duty | Yes — unpaid | Job-protected; employees can't be forced to burn sick, annual, or vacation leave on jury service |
| Meal & rest breaks | Retail only | Healthy Retail Employee Act: 50+ employee retailers owe 15-minute (4–6h shifts) or 30-minute (6h+) breaks |
| Military | Yes | USERRA (federal) plus Maryland National Guard protections |
The Maryland 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 state-protected sick time or FMLA/ADA territory gets a different track than an overslept alarm.
Comparing states? See all published guides on the state sick leave laws hub.