Sponsors (156)
Official title: To allow Americans to earn paid sick time so that they can address their own health needs and the health needs of their families.
Introduced February 12, 2026 by Rosa L. Delauro · Last progress February 12, 2026
The bill significantly expands and clarifies paid sick‑leave rights for many workers and strengthens enforcement while preserving stronger existing protections — but it does so in a patchwork way that raises costs and administrative burdens for employers, risks uneven coverage across workers and jurisdictions, and may produce legal and implementation complexity.
Millions of workers (including part-time, federal, and many rail employees) will gain a clear statutory paid sick leave benefit with defined accrual (1 hour per 30 worked), allowable uses (own illness, caregiving, medical appointments, domestic-violence-related needs), rehire crediting, and pay protections, making leave more accessible and predictable.
Workers keep stronger preexisting protections: collective-bargaining victories, employer-offered generous leave, and stronger state/local paid‑leave or anti‑discrimination laws are preserved rather than rolled back by this Act.
Employees gain stronger enforcement and anti‑retaliation tools — private lawsuits, DOL administrative enforcement, recovery of unpaid amounts, liquidated damages, and fee-shifting — improving the practical ability to secure owed leave and pay.
Small businesses and some employers face higher payroll and compliance costs (higher paid-leave pay floors, accruals, recordkeeping, and potential damages), which could lead to reduced hours, slower hiring, increased prices, or business strain.
The Act preserves multiple regimes rather than uniformizing coverage, so many workers (those without stronger contracts or in states/employers with weaker rules) will still have uneven or minimal leave protections, perpetuating disparities.
Complex, overlapping rules, garbled or fragmented definitions, and multi‑agency rulemaking with tight deadlines risk legal ambiguity, inconsistent interpretations, and increased litigation or delay in implementation.
Based on analysis of 13 sections of legislative text.
Establishes a federal paid sick leave floor: at least 1 hour earned per 30 worked (default 56-hour cap), with accrual, use, posting, anti-retaliation, enforcement, and reporting rules.
Requires most employers to provide paid sick leave earned at a rate of at least 1 hour per 30 hours worked (default cap 56 hours per year), establishes rules for accrual, use, carryover, reinstatement on rehire, permitted uses (own illness, care of family/close associates, domestic violence-related needs), recordkeeping, posting and notice, anti-retaliation protections, enforcement by the Department of Labor and private suits, data collection, and rulemaking to implement the law across federal employment categories. The Act preserves more generous employer policies and state/local laws that provide greater leave and directs public education and reporting on implementation and compliance.