AbsentEase
Pennsylvania sick leave law & call-off rules
Pennsylvania has no statewide sick leave law — but unlike most no-mandate states, it doesn't preempt local ordinances, and three are active: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Allegheny County, each with different accrual rates, caps, and employer thresholds. A multi-site Pennsylvania employer can owe three different sick-leave banks while owing none at all in the rest of the state. Here is what applies in 2026.
Pennsylvania at a glance
| Paid sick leave mandate | None statewide — but Philadelphia, Pittsburgh & Allegheny County ordinances are active and not preempted |
|---|---|
| Local accrual rules | Philly 1:40 (40h cap) · Pittsburgh 1:30 (72h/48h caps, new 2026) · Allegheny 1:35 (40h cap) |
| Employment relationship | At-will, with narrow public-policy exceptions (jury duty, workers' comp claims) |
| PTO payout at termination | Not required by statute — but a promised policy is enforceable as wages under the WPCL |
| Final paycheck deadline | Next regular payday, fired or quit |
| Meal & rest breaks | None for adults; minors get 30 minutes at 5+ consecutive hours |
| Jury duty protection | Job-protected — but retail/service under 15 employees and manufacturers under 40 are excluded |
Is paid sick leave required in Pennsylvania?
Not statewide. Pennsylvania law imposes no sick leave requirement — but it also doesn't block local governments from doing so, and three ordinances are in force. If you have employees working in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, or Allegheny County, you have a mandate; elsewhere in the commonwealth, your written policy is the rulebook.
The three local ordinances
| Jurisdiction | Who's covered | Accrual | Annual cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia | 10+ employees paid; under 10 unpaid | 1 hour per 40 worked | 40 hours |
| Pittsburgh (amended eff. Jan 1, 2026) | All employers | 1 hour per 30 worked in the city | 72 hours at 15+ employees · 48 hours under 15 |
| Allegheny County | 26+ employees | 1 hour per 35 worked | 40 hours |
All three prohibit retaliation — counting protected sick time as an attendance occurrence violates the ordinance itself. Philadelphia's 2025 POWER Act amendments added penalties up to $2,000 per violation and a 3-year statute of limitations, and Pittsburgh's higher accrual rate and 72-hour cap just took effect January 1, 2026. If you operate across these lines, each location's bank has to be tracked to its own ordinance.
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 Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is at-will with narrow public-policy exceptions — firing over jury service or a workers' comp claim (Shick v. Shirey) is actionable, but ordinary attendance enforcement, including no-call no-show terminations, is broadly lawful. The real complexity is geographic: an attendance-points policy that's perfectly legal in Harrisburg becomes ordinance retaliation the moment it counts protected sick time in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, or Allegheny County. Multi-site employers need the call-off record to carry not just when and why, but where — because the same absence can be protected at one site and pointable at another. Wage claims go to the PA Department of Labor & Industry's Bureau of Labor Law Compliance. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off system captures each report with the detail that classification requires.
After a no call, no show termination in Pennsylvania
| Does Pennsylvania law define job abandonment? | No statute or regulation applying to private employers defines job abandonment or sets a consecutive-days threshold; it is set by employer policy. |
|---|---|
| Final paycheck if you treat it as a discharge | Whenever an employer separates an employee from the payroll, the wages or compensation earned become due and payable not later than the next regular payday on which such wages would otherwise be due, and must be sent by certified mail if the employee requests. Where wages remain unpaid thirty days beyond the regularly scheduled payday and there is no good-faith contest or dispute, the employee may claim liquidated damages of twenty-five percent of the wages due or five hundred dollars, whichever is greater. (43 P.S. § 260.5(a) (Wage Payment and Collection Law § 5(a)); 43 P.S. § 260.10 (liquidated damages)) |
| Final paycheck if you treat it as a resignation | The same rule applies 'whenever an employe quits or resigns his employment', with or without notice: earned wages are due not later than the next regular payday on which they would otherwise be due. No distinction for notice. (43 P.S. § 260.5(a)) |
| Accrued PTO at separation | No state requirement; owed only if your written policy promises it. No statute requires vacation payout at separation; the WPCL defines 'wages' to include 'fringe benefits or wage supplements', which expressly include vacation pay, but only amounts the employer has agreed to pay, so entitlement depends on the employer's policy or agreement, and an employer that agrees to provide fringe benefits must pay them within 10 days after they are required to be paid. (43 P.S. § 260.2a (definitions of 'wages' and 'fringe benefits or wage supplements'); 43 P.S. § 260.3(b)) |
| Unemployment claims | A claimant is ineligible for any week in which unemployment is due to voluntarily leaving work without cause of a necessitous and compelling nature (§ 402(b)) or to discharge or temporary suspension for willful misconduct connected with the work (§ 402(e)); the statute does not mention absences, so a no-call, no-show is adjudicated under one of those two subsections. (43 P.S. § 802(b), (e) (Unemployment Compensation Law § 402(b), (e))) |
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 Pennsylvania's final-pay rule.
Write a no call, no show policy that fits Pennsylvania
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 Pennsylvania 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 | PA WPCL, 43 P.S. 260.5 |
| Employee quits | Same — next regular payday | PA WPCL, 43 P.S. 260.5 |
| Unused vacation / PTO | No statutory payout — but a policy or agreement that promises vacation makes it enforceable as wages under the WPCL, per its own terms | PA Wage Payment and Collection Law |
| Policy silent on payout | The terms of the policy control; ambiguity invites WPCL claims with liquidated damages | — |
The WPCL turns policy promises into wage obligations with teeth — liquidated damages and attorney's fees — so the payout language should say precisely what you intend. See how PTO accrual works.
Leave Pennsylvania employers must (and must not) provide
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Local sick leave | Yes — in 3 jurisdictions | Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Allegheny County, per the table above |
| Jury duty | Yes — unpaid | Job-protected, but the statute excludes retail/service employers under 15 employees and manufacturers under 40 (42 Pa.C.S. 4563) |
| Military | Yes | USERRA (federal) plus Pennsylvania National Guard protections |
| Voting | No | Pennsylvania has no voting-leave requirement |
| Sick leave (statewide) | No | Outside the three local jurisdictions, your written policy governs |
The Pennsylvania 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.