AbsentEase
Vermont sick leave law & call-off rules
Vermont's Earned Sick Time Act covers every employer at one of the slowest accrual rates of any mandate state — 1 hour per 52 hours worked — but with quirks that trip up policies imported from elsewhere: new hires can be made to wait up to a year to use time (while still accruing it), employees can never be required to find their own shift coverage, and a fired employee's final check is due within 72 hours. Here is what applies in 2026.
Vermont at a glance
| Paid sick leave mandate | Yes — 1 per 52 worked, 40 hours/year, every employer size |
|---|---|
| New-hire waiting period | Up to 1 year to use (time still accrues throughout) |
| Attendance points on sick time | Prohibited — retaliation under §§ 483(l)/397 |
| Shift coverage | Employees can't be required to find their own replacement |
| PTO payout at termination | Policy controls — Vermont enforces what the written policy promises |
| Final paycheck deadline | Fired: within 72 hours · Quit: last regular payday (or next Friday) |
| Meal & rest breaks | "Reasonable opportunities" to eat and use facilities — no fixed times |
Is paid sick leave required in Vermont?
Yes. Under 21 V.S.A. §§ 481–486, employees at every Vermont employer accrue 1 hour of earned sick time per 52 hours worked from day one, cappable at 40 hours per year. Excluded: workers under 18, those averaging under 18 hours a week, those employed 20 or fewer weeks a year, and certain per-diem workers. No Vermont municipality adds its own ordinance.
How Vermont's sick leave law works
| Accrual rate | 1 hour per 52 hours worked — one of the slowest mandated rates in the country |
|---|---|
| Cap | 40 hours accrual and use per 12 months, every employer size |
| New-hire waiting period | Up to 1 year before use — but time accrues the whole while, so the bank must exist the day the wait ends |
| Carryover | Required — avoidable by front-loading 40 hours or paying out unused time at year end |
| Covered uses | Own or family illness and preventive care, long-term-care appointments for family, safe leave, and caring for family when a school or business closes for public health or safety |
| Doctor's notes | The statute authorizes no routine note demands; return-to-work documentation only where industry safety rules customarily require it |
The anti-retaliation rule: § 483(l) applies Vermont's retaliation prohibitions to earned sick time — penalizing use, including through no-fault attendance points, is unlawful. And § 483(g) adds a rule worth reading twice: employees may not be required to find their own replacement for a sick-time absence.
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 Vermont
Vermont is at-will, and attendance discipline outside protected categories works normally. Two state-specific habits to unlearn: first, the "find someone to cover your shift" instruction — routine in field-service scheduling — is expressly barred for sick-time absences under § 483(g); second, the doctor's-note reflex has almost no statutory support here at any absence length. That leaves the call-off record itself as the classification evidence, same as Connecticut. The Vermont Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Program enforces both the sick-time act and wage claims, and the slow 1-per-52 accrual means balances are small and exhaust quickly — making accurate balance tracking the difference between a protected absence and a pointable one. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off system paired with live balances keeps that line clean.
After a no call, no show termination in Vermont
| Does Vermont law define job abandonment? | No statute or regulation defines job abandonment; it is set by employer policy. (21 V.S.A. § 1344(a)(1)(A), (a)(2)(A), (a)(2)(B)) |
|---|---|
| Final paycheck if you treat it as a discharge | An employee who is discharged from employment must be paid within 72 hours of the discharge. (21 V.S.A. § 342(b)(2)) |
| Final paycheck if you treat it as a resignation | An employee who voluntarily leaves employment (with or without notice; the statute draws no distinction) must be paid on the last regular payday, or if there is no regular payday, on the following Friday. (21 V.S.A. § 342(b)(1)) |
| Accrued PTO at separation | No state requirement; owed only if your written policy promises it. No Vermont statute requires payout of accrued vacation (the wage definition in 21 V.S.A. § 341(5) covers salary, commissions and incentive pay and does not mention vacation); the Department of Labor's wage-and-hour summary states an employer is not required to provide paid vacation or severance when an employee leaves, but employers party to written agreements (including handbooks) providing vacation are liable for those benefits. (21 V.S.A. § 341(5) (no vacation provision); Vt. Dep't of Labor, A Summary of Vermont Wage and Hour Laws (rev. June 2019), 'Benefits and/or Wage Supplements') |
| Unemployment claims | A claimant who left the last employing unit voluntarily without good cause attributable to the employing unit is disqualified until earning more than six times the weekly benefit amount (21 V.S.A. § 1344(a)(2)(A)); discharge for misconduct connected with the work brings a six-to-fifteen-week disqualification (§ 1344(a)(1)(A)), and discharge for 'gross misconduct' as defined in § 1344(a)(2)(B) brings the requalification disqualification. |
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 Vermont's final-pay rule.
Write a no call, no show policy that fits Vermont
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 Vermont already selected so the protected-leave section names the state law described above.
PTO payout and final paychecks
| Scenario | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employee is fired or laid off | Final pay due within 72 hours of discharge | 21 V.S.A. § 342(c)(2) |
| Employee quits | Last regular payday — or the following Friday if there is no regular payday | 21 V.S.A. § 342(c)(1) |
| Unused vacation / PTO | No statutory payout — the written policy or contract controls | Policy/contract law |
| Late payment | Double damages available | 21 V.S.A. § 347 |
The 72-hour rule after a firing sits between Massachusetts's same-day and everyone else's next-payday — close enough to catch payroll cycles off guard. See how PTO accrual works.
Leave Vermont employers must (and must not) provide
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Earned sick time | Yes — paid | Per the mechanics above |
| Town meeting | Yes — unpaid | Leave to attend annual town meeting with 7 days' notice, subject to essential operations — a genuinely Vermont institution |
| Jury duty | Yes — unpaid | Job-protected; service counts toward seniority and benefits |
| Voting | No | No voting-leave statute |
| Military | Yes | USERRA (federal) plus Vermont National Guard protections |
The Vermont 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.