The Oregon sick leave law, ORS 653.601 to 653.661, gives nearly every worker in the state up to 40 hours of protected sick time each year. You accrue one hour for every 30 hours worked. At employers with 10 or more workers that time is paid, and at smaller employers it is unpaid but your job is still protected.
Denied sick time or written up for using it? Talk to an Oregon employment lawyer today. The review is free and you owe nothing. Reach out for a free case review.
Most Oregon workers know sick time exists and almost none know how the Oregon sick leave law actually works. This page walks through the statute section by section: what you earn, what you can use it for, what your employer can demand, and what to do when sick days get held against you.
The core of the Oregon sick leave law sits in ORS 653.601 through 653.661, with enforcement rules in OAR chapter 839, division 7. Each section handles a different piece, and knowing which one governs your problem makes any complaint far stronger.
Citing the section by number in a written complaint changes how HR responds. It signals you have read the Oregon sick leave law rather than heard about it, and an Oregon employment lawyer will cite it the same way.
Up to 40 hours a year. ORS 653.606(1) sets accrual at one hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked, or 1-1/3 hours for every 40 hours worked. The statute lets employers cap accrual at 40 hours per year.
A full-time schedule reaches the 40-hour cap in roughly seven months under the Oregon sick leave law.
Employers can skip the accrual math by frontloading. ORS 653.606 permits an employer to credit all 40 hours at the start of the year instead.
Part-time work earns at the same rate, just more slowly. Someone working 20 hours a week accrues about 35 hours across a full year under the Oregon sick leave law.
ORS 653.636 allows a total accrual cap of 80 hours. What an employer cannot do under the Oregon sick leave law is refuse to let the clock start.
It turns on headcount. ORS 653.606(1)(a) requires paid sick time from employers with at least 10 employees working anywhere in the state. ORS 653.606(1)(b) requires the same 40 hours from smaller employers, but allows it to be unpaid. Employers with a location in Portland hit the paid threshold at six.
Unpaid does not mean unprotected. The time off is still a right under the Oregon sick leave law, and ORS 653.641 bars discipline for taking it.
The Oregon sick leave law pays at your regular rate, not counting overtime. Tipped workers get at least the applicable regional minimum wage for hours used.
Note the statutory language in ORS 653.606(1)(a). Headcount is measured for employees "working anywhere in this state," not per location. A chain with eight people in your store and 200 across Oregon owes paid sick time.
Nearly everyone who works in the state. The Oregon sick leave law covers full-time, part-time, temporary, and seasonal employees alike. ORS 653.601 defines employee broadly, and there is no minimum hours requirement and no small-employer exemption.
Coverage under the Oregon sick leave law does not turn on your job title or how you are paid. Hourly, salaried, and commissioned workers all accrue under the Oregon sick leave law.
Independent contractors sit outside ORS 653.601 to 653.661, but the label alone does not settle it. Oregon applies its own test, and workers labeled contractors are frequently employees under it.
If you were told you are not eligible because you are part-time, seasonal, or new, that answer is almost certainly wrong. An Oregon wage and hour lawyer can confirm it.
On day 91. ORS 653.606(5)(a) states that an employee is eligible to use sick time "beginning on the 91st calendar day of employment" and may use it as it accrues. Accrual itself starts on your first day of work.
The Oregon sick leave law counts calendar days, not days worked, so the wait runs whether or not you were scheduled.
Hours banked during those first three months are available the moment the Oregon sick leave law waiting period ends.
If you leave and are rehired within 180 days, ORS 653.636 requires your unused sick time to be reinstated rather than starting over.
More than your own illness. ORS 653.616 lists the allowable uses, and they reach your health, a family member's health, preventive care, family leave purposes, safe leave, and public health emergencies. As of 2026 the list also includes donating blood through an approved program.
Preventive care is the use workers most often overlook. ORS 653.616(1) names it directly, so a dental cleaning, an annual physical, or a child's vaccination all qualify.
A wider circle than most leave laws recognize. ORS 653.601 defines family member to include a spouse or domestic partner, parent, parent-in-law, child, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, and any individual related by blood or affinity whose close association is the equivalent of a family relationship.
That last category has no federal equivalent, which makes the Oregon sick leave law unusually broad. Chosen family and close relationships by affinity can qualify under the Oregon sick leave law.
Federal leave rules are far narrower, limited to a spouse, child, or parent. So a request denied for caring for a sibling may violate ORS 653.616(2) even when no federal claim exists.
If your request was refused because the person was not close enough family, write down exactly how the denial was worded and check it against the ORS 653.601 definition.
Only in limited situations. ORS 653.626 permits an employer to require verification when sick time is used for more than three consecutive scheduled workdays, or when the employer has evidence of a pattern of misuse. It does not allow a note for a single sick day.
ORS 653.626 also attaches a cost rule. If your employer requires verification and your health insurance does not cover the visit, the employer pays the unreimbursed cost.
The Oregon sick leave law does not let an employer require you to explain the nature of your illness as a condition of using the time.
And it cannot make you find someone to cover your shift. ORS 653.641 treats that as an unlawful condition, though it remains common in restaurants and retail.
As much as is reasonable. ORS 653.621 lets an employer require up to 10 days advance notice for foreseeable sick time, such as a scheduled appointment. For unforeseeable illness, notice is required only as soon as practicable.
Under the Oregon sick leave law, notice policies have to be in writing and applied consistently. A policy invented after you called in does not count.
The Oregon sick leave law does not let an employer deny sick time outright because you gave short notice for something genuinely unforeseeable. Waking up with the flu is not a planning failure.
ORS 653.621 also sets minimum use increments, so a two-hour appointment does not have to cost you a full day.
It carries over, but it does not get paid out. ORS 653.636 requires up to 40 unused hours to roll into the next year unless the employer frontloads. Nothing in ORS 653.601 to 653.661 requires a cash-out of unused sick time when employment ends.
That last point separates sick time from vacation. Earned vacation is treated as wages in Oregon when the employer's policy makes it earned. Sick time is not.
A company policy or union contract can promise a payout beyond what the Oregon sick leave law requires, and that promise is enforceable as a contract term.
Rehire changes the picture again. Return within 180 days and ORS 653.636 restores your balance.
They are separate programs that can work together. Paid Leave Oregon, ORS chapter 657B, provides up to 12 weeks of partially paid family, medical, and safe leave. Sick time under ORS 653.601 to 653.661 is a smaller bank you control day to day, and it can top off a Paid Leave benefit toward full wages.
The Oregon Family Leave Act, ORS 659A.150 to 659A.186, is a third system, now limited mainly to sick child leave, bereavement, and pregnancy disability after the 2024 amendments.
Employers mix these up constantly, and the mistakes usually run against the worker. A company that says your leave is exhausted may be combining banks that do not combine.
If your leave was cut off partway through, an Oregon FMLA lawyer can recount the weeks before you accept the employer's math.
Three things, all from SB 1108. Sick time can now be used to donate blood through an approved program. The bill clarified how sick time interacts with Paid Leave Oregon. And certain exemptions for unionized workforces were removed, making coverage more consistent.
The blood donation change is small but real, and most handbooks have not caught up to this part of the Oregon sick leave law.
The Paid Leave clarification matters more. It confirms that sick time can be used for bonding and certain family health needs alongside the state benefit.
Note that the published ORS edition lags the session. If you are reading ORS 653.616 online and do not see blood donation listed, you may be looking at an edition printed before SB 1108 took effect.
No. ORS 653.641 makes it an unlawful employment practice to deny, interfere with, restrain, or fail to pay for sick time an employee is entitled to. It also bars counting protected sick days against you under an absence control or attendance policy.
This is the most common violation and the hardest for workers to spot. Attendance points accumulate quietly, then a firing arrives that looks like an attendance problem rather than an Oregon sick leave law violation.
Pull your attendance records and match them against the days you were actually out sick. If protected days generated points, that is a documented ORS 653.641 violation.
Discipline that follows a sick time complaint is a second violation. That is Oregon retaliation, which stands as its own claim with its own damages.
File with the Bureau of Labor and Industries under ORS 653.651, or bring a civil action. Oregon does not require you to exhaust an agency process first. A worker who prevails can recover actual damages or a statutory minimum, whichever is greater, plus attorney fees, and ORS 653.991 allows civil penalties on top.
Start by gathering records. Your accrual balance, which ORS 653.631 requires your employer to track, plus pay stubs, the request you made, the response, attendance records, and the handbook.
Write a timeline with dates. When you requested time, what you were told, and what happened afterward. That single page does more for an Oregon sick leave law claim than anything else you can prepare.
Deadlines vary by claim, and a retaliation claim can run on a shorter clock than the underlying Oregon sick leave law violation. That is worth checking early rather than late.
Denied sick days, attendance points for protected absences, and a firing that followed are three separate violations under ORS 653.641, and most workers only recognize the last one.
An Oregon employment lawyer will check your accrual, your attendance record, and your discipline history against the Oregon sick leave law for free. No fee unless you recover money.
Fired Unfairly works with Oregon employment lawyers who represent workers, not employers. Tell us what you asked for and what happened next. That is all it takes.
Attorney Advertising | Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The information on this website is for general information purposes only. Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation. This information is not intended to create, and receipt or viewing does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
