LAST UPDATED: August 2019

Advocates and people across the country have won new laws that enable tens of millions of working people to take time away from their jobs to recover from and seek care for illnesses, and to care for new children and aging or ill loved ones.

Ten states, the District of Columbia and 22 other jurisdictions have or will soon have paid sick days laws in effect, and eight states and the District of Columbia have enacted paid family and medical leave laws. In total, more than 46 million people in the private sector workforce are legally protected by either paid leave or paid sick days laws, or both:

• More than 46 million workers are covered by paid sick days laws;
• 36 million workers are covered by paid family leave laws; and
• Almost 31 million workers are covered by both.

Use the map and interactive chart below to explore how many private sector workers are covered by paid family and medical leave or paid sick days laws in each state and locality that has passed these important protections.

Despite tremendous progress in recent years, nearly 78 million private sector workers still lack the economic protections provided by laws guaranteeing sick days or paid family and medical leave.

Sources

Except where noted below, National Partnership estimates of the number of private sector workers covered by paid sick days and paid leave laws are calculated using U.S. Census Bureau. (2018). American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates 2017, Geographies: United States, Table DP03: Selected Economic Characteristics.

• Five-year estimates are used for Emeryville, Calif., due to small population size.
• Connecticut’s paid sick day law covers workers employed in one of the 68 enumerated service occupations estimated by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2018, March 31). May 2017 State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates: Connecticut.

Notes

The following laws are not yet fully in effect:

• Paid sick days: San Antonio’s law takes effect in December 2019 and Duluth’s law takes effect in 2020. The implementation date of Pittsburgh’s law, which was delayed by legal proceedings, had not been announced as of July 2019.
• Paid family and medical leave: Programs in the District of Columbia and Washington state are expected to be in place in 2020, Massachusetts’ program in 2021, Connecticut’s program in 2022 and Oregon’s program in 2023.

* The following law is not included in estimates of total covered workers because pending litigation has halted its implementation: Austin’s ordinance was enjoined by the Texas Third Court of Appeals on August 17, 2018, pending an appeals court review.