The Paid Sick Days Act is an ordinance in the City of Pittsburgh that supports public health and wellbeing by ensuring employees covered by this ordinance don't have to choose between caring for their health or their families and making ends meet.

The City of Pittsburgh Paid Sick Days Act went into effect March 15, 2020.

This Ordinance is being enforced by the City of Pittsburgh Mayor's Office of Equal Protection (OEP).

The Paid Sick Days Act (PSDA) applies to employees who work at least 35 hours within the geographic boundaries of the City of Pittsburgh in a Calendar Year. These employees are referenced in the PSDA as “Covered Employees.”

Employers must provide each Covered Employee at least one hour of Sick Time for every 35 hours worked for the Employer within the City of Pittsburgh, unless the Employer designates a higher amount.

Employees accrue Paid Sick Time at the start of their employment. Employers may require new employees wait to use accrued Paid Sick Time until the 90th calendar day following a Covered Employee’s start of employment.

Covered Employees must be compensated for Paid Sick Time based on the same rate as they would normally earn from work, not including tips or commissions.

Tipped Employees and Commission Paid Employees must be compensated for any Paid Sick Time at a rate not less than the minimum hourly rate for hours worked, as required under the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act of 1968, 43 P.S. 333.104(a).

Read more about PSDA requirements, rights, and obligations on our website, linked here.

Workers who think an employer may have violated the PSDA can file a complaint here. If you have questions about whether or how the Act applies to you or your employer, please email the Office of Equal Protection at PaidSickLeave@pittsburghpa.gov.

Businesses can submit their sick time policy to the Mayor’s Office of Equal Protection (OEP) for review and advice at paidsickleave@pittsburghpa.gov.

OEP’s compliance coordinator carefully reviews all submitted policies to determine whether the business is providing sick day benefits in compliance with the Paid Sick Days Act (PSDA). The coordinator also provides detailed comments and suggested revisions for non-compliant policies to assist employers in bringing their policies into compliance. OEP works with each employer to make necessary changes to their policies and provide further review until they are compliant.

Businesses that have compliant policies are called “Safe Workplaces” if their policies meet the minimum requirements of the PSDA. Businesses with policies that are more generous than the law requires are called “Thriving Workplaces.”

As of July 2024 the Office of Equal Protection has received sick leave policies for more than 500 business locations and identified nearly 200 of them as in compliance.

Review guidelines for what is required and permitted in a sick leave policy in the PSDA Guidelines, linked here.

If you don’t have a written policy yet and need resources to create one, you can find helpful information here on our website, including a model policy that can be adapted to your business’s needs.

This initiative is a critical piece of the Mayor’s vision of a Pittsburgh that’s safe, welcoming, and thriving for all—protecting workers, employers, and the general public from the harms of communicable illness, loss of income, and the diminished productivity of employees’ working despite illness or injury (“presenteeism”).

Learn more about the Office of Equal Protection on the City website, linked here. Get in touch about your business’s sick leave policy by emailing paidsickleave@pittsburghpa.gov.