Washington PTO Laws: What Employers Must Know (2026)
Washington mandates paid sick leave and funds PFML through payroll premiums, but leaves vacation entirely to your policy. Where the lines fall.
Washington sits in an unusual middle position. It regulates sick leave tightly, funds two separate statewide leave programs through payroll premiums, and then says almost nothing about vacation.
Getting this wrong in either direction is expensive. Employers who assume Washington works like California over-promise on vacation payout. Employers who assume it works like Texas under-provide on sick leave and end up owing back pay.
This is general information rather than legal advice, and the thresholds change most years — confirm current requirements with the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries or an employment attorney before finalizing a policy.
The three programs, kept straight
Washington employees encounter three distinct things that all feel like "leave" and are governed by completely different rules.
| Program | Who pays | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Paid Sick Leave (I-1433) | Employer | Illness, care, safe leave, closures |
| Paid Family & Medical Leave | Shared premium | Extended bonding, serious health conditions |
| WA Cares Fund | Employee premium | Long-term care later in life |
Only the first is something you administer as a balance. The other two are state-run benefits you contribute to. Conflating them in your handbook is the most common drafting error in the state.
Paid sick leave: the part you actually track
Accrual is one hour per 40 hours worked. This starts on day one of employment, applies to part-time and seasonal staff, and has no company-size exemption. A ten-person shop and a thousand-person employer follow the same rule.
Use begins on day 90. Employees accrue immediately but cannot draw on the balance until the 90th calendar day of employment.
Carryover is at least 40 hours. You may cap carryover at 40 hours per year, but you cannot zero the balance out at year end. Within a single year there is no accrual ceiling — someone working significant overtime keeps earning.
The rate is the employee's normal hourly rate. Not a blended or minimum rate.
As of the 2025 expansion, the reasons for use are broader than most handbooks reflect: an employee's own illness, care for a widened definition of family member, closure of a workplace or a child's school by public official order, and absences related to domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.
The 90-day trap
Vacation: your policy is the law
Washington has no statute requiring paid vacation, and no statute converting accrued vacation into protected wages. This is the single biggest difference from California, where vacation is wages the moment it is earned.
What follows from that:
- Use-it-or-lose-it is generally permissible for vacation, if the policy is written down and communicated ahead of time.
- Payout at separation is not required by statute.
- But your own words bind you. Washington courts will enforce a handbook promise as a contract. If your policy says unused vacation is paid on departure, it is — and vague phrasing is read against the employer who wrote it.
The practical consequence is that most Washington compliance problems are self-inflicted. They come from a handbook inherited from another state, or from a policy that says something the company no longer does.
How to write a PTO policy covers the drafting side, and use-it-or-lose-it PTO covers what a defensible expiry clause looks like.
Separate buckets or one combined balance
Washington permits a single combined PTO bank, but it must satisfy every sick-leave requirement — accrual rate, 90-day use rule, carryover, permitted reasons, and no requirement for a doctor's note under three days.
That is a real constraint. A combined bank means the whole balance inherits sick-leave protections, including the rule that you cannot demand documentation for short absences.
| Separate sick + vacation | One combined bank | |
|---|---|---|
| Admin overhead | Two balances to track | One balance |
| Carryover obligation | 40 hrs sick only | Whole balance must satisfy sick rules |
| Documentation requests | Allowed for vacation | Restricted across the board |
| Payout at exit | Vacation portion only, if promised | Whatever your policy says |
Smaller teams usually prefer the combined bank for simplicity and accept the wider protections. Teams with high seasonal turnover often keep them separate.
Local ordinances
Seattle and Tacoma maintain their own paid sick and safe time ordinances that in places exceed the state floor, particularly around covered family members and employer size tiers. SeaTac has separate rules for hospitality and transportation employers.
Where a local ordinance is more generous, it governs. If you have employees inside those city limits, the state minimum is not your ceiling.
What to check in your handbook today
- Does it state the accrual rate as one hour per 40 worked, rather than a flat annual grant that might come in lower for high-hours staff?
- Does it explain the 90-day waiting period for use?
- Does it cap carryover at 40 hours rather than resetting to zero?
- Does it promise a vacation payout you did not intend to promise?
- Does it demand documentation for absences under three days?
That fifth one catches people. Washington restricts when you can require verification, and a blanket "doctor's note for any absence" clause is not enforceable as written.
Tracking it without a spreadsheet
Accrual at one hour per 40 worked is genuinely awkward in a spreadsheet, because it moves with actual hours rather than a fixed monthly grant. Overtime weeks accrue faster. Part-time staff accrue proportionally. Carryover has to be capped at exactly 40 hours at year end without touching the rest.
The PTO accrual calculator will show you what a given schedule earns, and the sick leave accrual calculator handles the hours-worked conversion specifically.
If you are still running this by hand, why spreadsheets break for PTO is worth ten minutes before your next year-end rollover — carryover caps are exactly the kind of rule that silently goes wrong in a formula nobody has looked at since it was written.
Frequently asked questions
Is PTO required by law in Washington?
Paid vacation is not required. Paid sick leave is. Every Washington employer must provide at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked, with no minimum company size and no exemption for part-time staff. Vacation on top of that is entirely your choice.
Does Washington require PTO payout at termination?
No, not by statute. Unlike California or Colorado, Washington does not treat accrued vacation as wages that must be paid out. But if your handbook or offer letter promises a payout, that promise is enforceable as a contract — so the obligation usually comes from your own policy rather than the law.
Can Washington employers use use-it-or-lose-it vacation policies?
Generally yes for vacation, provided the policy is clearly written and communicated in advance. Paid sick leave is different: unused sick leave must carry over, up to at least 40 hours per year.
How much paid sick leave do Washington employees accrue?
One hour for every 40 hours worked, starting from the first day of employment. Employees may begin using it on the 90th calendar day. There is no cap on how much can be accrued within a year, and at least 40 hours must carry into the following year.
What is the WA Cares Fund?
A state long-term-care benefit funded by an employee payroll premium. It is separate from both paid sick leave and PFML, and it is deducted from employee wages rather than paid by the employer, but it is one of three Washington programs that show up on the same paycheck.