Nevada: Paid Sick Leave Requirements
The short answer
Nevada does not have a traditional sick-leave law; instead, a private employer with 50 or more Nevada employees must provide general paid leave that an employee can use for any reason. Leave accrues at 0.01923 hours for each hour worked (about 40 hours a year for full-time work), may be used starting on the 90th day of employment, and an employer may cap both annual use and carryover at 40 hours. Employers with fewer than 50 employees, and new businesses in their first two years, are not covered, though a separate law lets employees of any covered employer use existing sick leave to help an immediate family member.
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This is the general rule in Nevada. Ezel applies current Nevada law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and local interaction | Nevada's paid-leave mandate is NRS 608.0197 (added 2019, amended 2021), a general any-reason paid-leave law rather than a sick-leave-only law. It applies only to a private employer with 50 or more Nevada employees (§ 608.0197(9)(b)) and not during a business's first two years of operation (§ 608.0197(7)). The statute preserves more generous contracts and other legal rights (§ 608.0197(6)) and is silent on local ordinances. A separate provision, § 608.01975, gives kin-care rights to employees of any employer that offers sick leave. |
|---|---|
| Employer and employee coverage | Covers a private employer with 50 or more employees in Nevada (§ 608.0197(9)(b)). It does not apply to a new employer during its first two years of operation (§ 608.0197(7)), to temporary, seasonal, or on-call employees (§ 608.0197(8)(b)), or to an employer that already provides at least 0.01923 hours of paid leave or PTO per hour to all scheduled employees (§ 608.0197(8)(a)). The separate kin-care duty in § 608.01975 applies to any employer that offers paid or unpaid sick leave, regardless of size. |
| Accrual and annual entitlement | Accrues at least 0.01923 hours of paid leave for each hour worked — about 40 hours a year for a full-time schedule (§ 608.0197(1)(a)). An employer may either frontload the full year's hours on the first day of the benefit year or let leave accrue over the year (§ 608.0197(1)(b)). An employee may begin using leave on the 90th calendar day of employment (§ 608.0197(2)(a)). |
| Frontloading, caps, and carryover | Frontloading the full annual amount on day one satisfies the law and avoids carryover; otherwise accrued leave carries over, but the employer may cap carryover at 40 hours per benefit year (§ 608.0197(1)(b)-(c)). The employer may also limit annual use to 40 hours (§ 608.0197(1)(f)) and set a minimum use increment of up to 4 hours (§ 608.0197(1)(g)). |
| Qualifying uses and family | Any reason. The employee may use the leave 'without providing a reason' (§ 608.0197(2)(c)); the statute lists illness, diagnosis or medical care, preventive care, caregiving, and other personal health needs only as non-exclusive examples (§ 608.0197(2)(b)). Because it is any-reason leave, no family definition governs the primary law. The separate § 608.01975 lets an employee use accrued sick leave for an immediate family member's illness, injury, appointment, or other authorized medical need, capped at six months' worth of accrual. |
| Requests, notice, documentation, and increments | The employee must give notice 'as soon as practicable' before using the leave (§ 608.0197(2)(d)), but need not state a reason (§ 608.0197(2)(c)). The employer may not require the employee to find a replacement worker (§ 608.0197(3)(b)). The statute sets no documentation requirement; the employer may require use in increments of up to 4 hours (§ 608.0197(1)(g)). |
| Pay, payout, reinstatement, and records | Paid at the employee's rate of pay when the leave is taken, on the same payday the hours are normally paid (§ 608.0197(1)(d)); for salary, commission, or piece-rate workers, the rate is a 90-day average that includes earned bonuses but excludes discretionary bonuses, overtime, hazard, holiday pay, and tips (§ 608.0197(1)(e)). No payout of unused leave is required at separation, but if the worker is rehired within 90 days after a non-voluntary separation, unused leave is reinstated (§ 608.0197(1)(i)). Each payday the employer must give an accounting of available leave (§ 608.0197(1)(h)), and records are kept one year for Labor Commissioner inspection (§ 608.0197(5)). |
| Posting, retaliation, enforcement, and remedies | The Labor Commissioner prepares a bulletin that every covered employer must post in each workplace (§ 608.0197(4)). An employer may not deny the right to use leave, require a replacement worker, or retaliate for its use (§ 608.0197(3)). Enforcement runs through the Labor Commissioner, who may inspect the required records (§ 608.0197(5)); the section itself creates no private damages action but does not limit other remedies otherwise available (§ 608.0197(6)). |
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How paid leave works in Nevada
Nevada took an unusual route. Instead of a sick-leave law tied to illness, NRS
608.0197 requires larger private employers to provide general paid leave that
an employee may use for any reason at all. The trade-off is a size floor: the
law reaches only a private employer with 50 or more employees in Nevada
(§ 608.0197(9)(b)), and it does not apply during a business's first two years of
operation (§ 608.0197(7)).
Covered employers must give at least 0.01923 hours of paid leave for each hour
worked — about 40 hours a year for a full-time schedule (§ 608.0197(1)(a)). The
employer chooses whether to frontload the full year's leave on the first day of
the benefit year or let it accrue through the year (§ 608.0197(1)(b)). An
employee may start using leave on the 90th calendar day of employment
(§ 608.0197(2)(a)).
The defining feature is that no reason is required. An employee "may use paid
leave ... without providing a reason" (§ 608.0197(2)(c)); the statute's list of
uses — illness, diagnosis, preventive care, caregiving, other personal health
needs — is expressly non-exclusive. The employee need only give notice "as soon
as practicable" (§ 608.0197(2)(d)), and the employer may not make the employee
find a replacement worker or retaliate for using leave (§ 608.0197(3)).
Requirements one by one
Who is covered — and who is not
The 50-employee floor is strict: an employer with 49 or fewer Nevada employees
has no obligation under this section, and a brand-new business is exempt for two
years (§ 608.0197(7), (9)(b)). The law also does not reach temporary, seasonal,
or on-call employees, and it does not apply to an employer that already gives all
scheduled employees a paid-leave or PTO policy of at least the same 0.01923-per-
hour rate (§ 608.0197(8)).
Caps, carryover, and increments
An employer may cap annual use at 40 hours (§ 608.0197(1)(f)) and, when leave
accrues rather than being frontloaded, may cap carryover at 40 hours per
benefit year (§ 608.0197(1)(c)). Frontloading the full annual amount up front
removes the carryover question. The smallest block the employer can require is up
to 4 hours at a time (§ 608.0197(1)(g)).
Pay, payout, and rehire
Leave is paid at the employee's rate when taken, on the normal payday
(§ 608.0197(1)(d)). For a salaried, commissioned, or piece-rate worker, that rate
is a 90-day average that counts earned bonuses but leaves out discretionary
bonuses, overtime, hazard pay, holiday pay, and tips (§ 608.0197(1)(e)). An
employer does not have to cash out unused leave at separation — but if it
rehires the worker within 90 days after a separation that was not the worker's
own choice, the unused balance comes back (§ 608.0197(1)(i)).
Records, posting, and enforcement
Every payday the employer must show the employee how much leave is available
(§ 608.0197(1)(h)), and it must keep leave records for one year for the Labor
Commissioner to inspect (§ 608.0197(5)). The Labor Commissioner issues a bulletin
that covered employers must post in each workplace (§ 608.0197(4)). The section
prohibits denial, replacement-worker demands, and retaliation (§ 608.0197(3)); it
does not itself create a private lawsuit for damages, but it does not cut off
other remedies otherwise available (§ 608.0197(6)).
What trips people up
This is not a sick-leave law. Because the leave is usable for any reason, an
employer cannot demand a doctor's note or a medical explanation as a condition of
using it (§ 608.0197(2)(c)). It functions more like a minimum paid-time-off bank.
Small and brand-new employers are exempt. The 50-employee floor and the
two-year startup exemption mean many Nevada workers are not covered by
§ 608.0197 at all (§ 608.0197(7), (9)(b)).
A separate law covers family sick leave for everyone else. Even an employer
too small for § 608.0197 must, if it offers any paid or unpaid sick leave, let
employees use that leave to help an immediate family member with a medical need,
up to six months' worth of accrual (§ 608.01975).
Nevada also has a distinct domestic-violence leave. Section 608.0198 provides
a separate leave entitlement for employees affected by domestic violence or
sexual assault; it is its own statute with its own rules and is not part of the
general paid-leave figures above.
Common questions
Does my Nevada employer have to give me paid time off?
Only if it has 50 or more Nevada employees and has been operating more than two
years. Then it must provide about 40 hours a year of paid leave you can use for
any reason (§ 608.0197(1), (7), (9)(b)).
Do I have to tell my employer why I need the time?
No. Nevada's law lets you use the leave without giving a reason; you just have to
give notice as soon as practicable (§ 608.0197(2)(c)-(d)).
Will I be paid for unused leave when I leave the job?
Not necessarily — the employer can choose whether to pay it out. But if you are
rehired within 90 days after a separation that was not your choice, your unused
balance is restored (§ 608.0197(1)(i)).
Can I use my sick leave to care for a family member?
If your employer offers sick leave, yes. Section 608.01975 requires employers of
any size that provide sick leave to let you use accrued sick leave for an
immediate family member's illness, injury, appointment, or other medical need,
up to six months' worth of accrual.
Statutes and sources
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 608.0197. Requires a private employer with 50 or more
Nevada employees to provide 0.01923 hours of any-reason paid leave per hour
worked, usable from day 90, with 40-hour use and carryover caps, a 4-hour
maximum increment, payday accounting, one-year records, a required poster, an
anti-retaliation rule, and a two-year startup exemption. Nevada
Legislature
(accessed July 23, 2026). - Nev. Rev. Stat. § 608.01975. Requires any employer that offers paid or
unpaid sick leave to let an employee use accrued sick leave for an immediate
family member's medical need, capped at six months' worth of accrual. Nevada
Legislature
(accessed July 23, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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