LeaveCalc / Sick leave / Massachusetts

Massachusetts paid sick leave calculator

Enter your hours worked and see your accrued paid sick leave under Massachusetts’s law, including any cap and your running balance, instantly and privately.

✓ Free✓ Runs in your browser, nothing uploaded✓ Uses Massachusetts’s 2026 sick leave rules

1 Your hours

How we count:
  • We multiply the hours you worked by Massachusetts's accrual rate to estimate hours earned.
  • If the law sets an annual accrual cap, we stop counting new hours once you hit it.
  • If the law sets a maximum balance, your total before subtracting used hours is capped there too.
  • This does not account for hours carried over from a previous year or usage timed partway through the period.
Not legal advice or a payroll record. These are estimates based on the accrual rules on file for Massachusetts. Always check your actual balance against your pay stub, employee handbook or HR/payroll system; real-world proration and policy exceptions are not reflected here.

The rule in Massachusetts

“1 hour per 30 hours worked; cap 40h/yr (Earned Sick Time Law)”

“1 hour per 30 hours worked; cap 40h/yr (Earned Sick Time Law)”

  • Accrual rate. Earn 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours you work.
  • Annual accrual cap. 40.0 hours a year.
  • Maximum balance you can hold. No maximum balance figure is set in the data on file.
  • Payout at termination. Sick leave payout at termination is generally not required unless your employer’s own policy promises it. (This is separate from any vacation-payout rules that may apply in Massachusetts.)
  • Carryover. MA treats earned vacation as wages under the Wage Act; forfeiture of already-earned time is not allowed. A cap on how much accrues going forward is permitted.
High confidenceOfficial source

How Massachusetts’s paid sick leave accrual works

Under Massachusetts’s paid sick leave law, earn 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours you work.

Under Massachusetts’s paid sick leave law, earn 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours you work. That works out to about 1.3 hours a week for a full-time, 40-hour-a-week employee, or about 69.3 hours over a full 2,080-hour work year, before any cap in the law is applied.

Massachusetts caps how much you can accrue in a single year at 40.0 hours (5.0 days at 8 hours a day). At 40 hours a week, it takes about 30 weeks of work to reach that ceiling; after that, you stop accruing new hours until you use some.

Sick leave you do not use is generally not paid out when you leave your job unless your employer’s own policy says otherwise; that is a separate question from Massachusetts’s rules about ordinary vacation pay at termination, which this page does not cover. On carryover: MA treats earned vacation as wages under the Wage Act; forfeiture of already-earned time is not allowed. A cap on how much accrues going forward is permitted.

Part-time employees accrue the same way, just on fewer hours: someone working 25 hours a week under this law would earn about 0.8 hours of paid sick leave every week, or roughly 43.3 hours over a full year, subject to the same cap rules described above.

FAQ

How fast does paid sick leave accrue in Massachusetts?

You earn 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours you work.

Is there a cap on how much I can earn?

Yes, you stop earning new hours once you reach 40.0 hours in a year.

Can I carry unused sick leave into the next year?

The law sets a 40.0-hour annual accrual cap rather than a separate carryover limit, so unused hours can carry into the next year subject to that same ceiling. For context, Massachusetts’s general note on ordinary vacation carryover says: MA treats earned vacation as wages under the Wage Act; forfeiture of already-earned time is not allowed. A cap on how much accrues going forward is permitted.

Does my employer’s size change my sick leave rules in Massachusetts?

No, Massachusetts’s law does not vary the accrual rate or cap by employer size in the data on file.

Is unused sick time paid out when I leave my job?

Generally, no. Paid sick leave you have not used is typically not required to be paid out when you leave a job, unless your employer’s own written policy specifically promises it. That is a separate question from any rules your state may have about ordinary vacation pay at termination, which this page does not cover.

Where is Massachusetts’s paid sick leave law?

See the official source: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-law-about-sick-leave. LeaveCalc’s confidence rating for this page is High.