North Dakota: Paid Sick Leave Requirements
The short answer
No. North Dakota does not require private employers to provide paid sick leave or earned paid leave. Any sick-time benefit — its accrual, use, carryover, documentation, pay, and payout — comes from the employer's policy, contract, or collective bargaining agreement. North Dakota does treat general all-purpose paid time off as wages that must be paid out at separation, but a benefit kept as a separate sick-leave arrangement is excluded from that rule, so a separate sick-leave balance need not be paid out.
Ask Ezel about your situation
This is the general rule in North Dakota. Ezel applies current North Dakota law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and local interaction | No statewide private-sector paid sick leave or earned paid leave mandate. Labor and Employment (N.D.C.C. Title 34) runs from ch. 34-01 to 34-16 — general provisions, employer/employee obligations, termination, minimum wages and hours, child labor, wage collection — and none creates a sick-leave benefit. State law is silent on local sick-leave ordinances, so any city or county rule would need separate review. |
|---|---|
| Employer and employee coverage | No general mandate, so there is no paid-sick-leave employer-size threshold, hours- or days-worked test, or covered-employee class. The employer's policy, contract, or CBA sets any coverage; federal FMLA, workers' compensation, and other named programs are outside this survey. |
| Accrual and annual entitlement | N/A No statutory accrual rate, annual entitlement, or service waiting period for private-sector paid sick leave; any accrual and amount come from the employer's policy or agreement. |
| Frontloading, caps, and carryover | N/A for a state sick-leave mandate. No statutory frontload option, annual use cap, bank cap, or carryover rule. A use-it-or-lose-it vacation policy is allowed only if the employee had notice and a reasonable opportunity to take the time (N.D. Admin. Code § 46-02-07-02(12)). |
| Qualifying uses and family | N/A No statewide list of qualifying employee-health, family-care, safety, closure, or bereavement uses and no family definition for a paid-sick benefit; the governing policy or agreement controls. |
| Requests, notice, documentation, and increments | N/A No statutory request method, notice standard, documentation limit, replacement-worker rule, confidentiality rule, or minimum increment for a private-sector sick benefit; policy or agreement controls, subject to separately applicable law. |
| Pay, payout, reinstatement, and records | No sick-leave-specific pay, payout, reinstatement, or record duty. Under N.D. Admin. Code § 46-02-07-02(12), general 'any purpose' paid time off, once earned or awarded, is wages that cannot be forfeited at separation and must be paid at the regular rate — but leave held under a separate sick-leave arrangement is expressly excluded from 'paid time off,' so a separate sick-leave balance need not be paid out. The state labor agency adds that a voluntary quit with under one year of service and under five days' notice can also excuse PTO payout if the limit was disclosed in writing at hire (N.D.C.C. § 34-14-09.2). |
| Posting, retaliation, enforcement, and remedies | No paid-sick-leave poster, individual notice, retaliation rule, or penalty scheme. Once a benefit is earned, the general wage duty is enforced by the Department of Labor and Human Rights through the Wage Collection chapter (N.D.C.C. ch. 34-14); other laws supply their own remedies. |
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What North Dakota actually requires
North Dakota does not require an ordinary private employer to provide paid sick
leave or earned paid leave. Title 34, the state's labor and employment code,
runs from chapter 34-01 to 34-16 and covers wages, hours, termination, child
labor, and wage collection, but none of its chapters creates a sick-leave
benefit. North Dakota also has no paid family or medical leave program.
Because there is no statewide floor, sick time in North Dakota is whatever the
employer's handbook, employment agreement, or collective bargaining agreement
provides. That document decides whether sick leave exists, who earns it, how it
accrues, when it may be used, whether unused time carries over, and what notice
or proof is required. North Dakota law is also silent on local sick-leave
ordinances, so a city or county rule — if one existed — would have to be checked
separately.
What trips people up
A separate sick-leave balance and general PTO are treated differently at
separation. North Dakota is unusual in that its wage regulation, N.D. Admin.
Code § 46-02-07-02(12), makes general "any purpose" paid time off — annual
leave, earned time, or personal days usable for any reason — count as wages the
employer must pay out at separation and may not forfeit. But that same rule
carves out leave for which "separate arrangements are made for sick leave." A
benefit an employer labels and tracks as sick leave, distinct from all-purpose
PTO, falls outside "paid time off," so an employer generally need not cash it
out when a job ends. How a policy is structured therefore drives the payout
result.
Use-it-or-lose-it is allowed, with conditions. The same regulation lets an
employer require an employee to use vacation by a date or lose it, but only if
the employee had notice of the policy and a reasonable opportunity to take the
time.
A voluntary quit can change the payout math. The Department of Labor and
Human Rights explains that even all-purpose PTO need not be paid out on a
voluntary quit if three conditions are met: the employer gave written notice of
the limit at hire, the employee worked less than one year, and the employee gave
less than five days' notice (N.D.C.C. § 34-14-09.2).
Common questions
Must a North Dakota employer give paid sick days?
No. North Dakota sets no private-sector paid-sick-leave minimum. Any number of
paid sick days comes from the employer's policy, contract, or collective
bargaining agreement.
Do I get paid for unused sick leave when I leave?
It depends on how the benefit is set up. If the employer keeps a separate
sick-leave balance, state law does not require it to be paid out. If sick time
is folded into general all-purpose paid time off, that PTO is treated as earned
wages that must be paid at separation unless a stated limitation applies.
Can an employer use a use-it-or-lose-it policy?
Yes, for vacation-type paid time off, if the employee was given notice of the
policy and a fair chance to take the time before it expired. A separate
sick-leave benefit is governed by the employer's own policy.
Can a North Dakota city require paid sick leave?
North Dakota law does not address local sick-leave ordinances, and no statewide
mandate exists. If a local rule is in place where you work, check it directly.
Statutes and sources
- N.D.C.C. Title 34 (Labor and Employment), chapter index. The code's
chapters cover wages, hours, termination, child labor, and wage collection,
but none creates a paid-sick-leave benefit. North Dakota Century
Code
(accessed July 23, 2026). - N.D. Admin. Code § 46-02-07-02(12). Defines paid time off, excludes a
separate sick-leave arrangement, makes earned PTO wages payable at separation,
and permits a noticed use-it-or-lose-it vacation policy. North Dakota
Administrative Code, ch.
46-02-07 (accessed
July 23, 2026). - North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights, Wage and Hour FAQ.
State labor agency: paid time off is generally wages at separation, subject to
a stated voluntary-quit limitation under N.D.C.C. § 34-14-09.2. North Dakota
Department of Labor and Human Rights
(accessed July 23, 2026).
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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