Doctor's-Note & Sick-Leave Laws in California

California is one of the most employee-protective states for sick leave. The statewide Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act requires most employers to let employees accrue at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, and, since Senate Bill 616 took effect January 1, 2024, use at least 40 hours, or five days, a year, up from 24 hours or three days before that. San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego each layer their own, more generous ordinance on top of the state law. An employer generally cannot deny paid sick leave solely for lack of a doctor's note, though a verifiable note remains useful for longer absences or under a company's own attendance policy.

How California’s paid sick leave law works

California’s Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act requires most employers to let employees accrue at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Since Senate Bill 616 took effect on January 1, 2024, employers must let employees use at least 40 hours or five days of that leave each year, whichever is greater, up from the previous minimum of 24 hours or three days. Employers can cap total accrual and carryover at 80 hours or 10 days, whichever is greater, and can choose to be more generous than the law requires.

Local ordinances: San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego

San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego each layer their own ordinance on top of the state law, with their own accrual and use numbers. San Francisco’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance, in effect since 2007, uses the same one-hour-per-30-hours accrual rate, with balances able to grow to 72 hours at employers with 10 or more employees, or 40 hours at smaller employers. Los Angeles’s Minimum Wage Ordinance offers the same accrual rate or a 48-hour up-front grant, with annual use capped at 48 hours and balances able to carry over up to 72 hours. San Diego’s Earned Sick Leave and Minimum Wage Ordinance, in effect since July 2016, also uses the one-hour-per-30-hours rate, with accrual capped at 80 hours and use capped at 40 hours a year. None of these local caps reduces what state law already guarantees: for any specific point, an employee is entitled to whichever version, state or local, is more generous, so the state’s 80-hour (10-day) accrual and carryover cap and its 40-hour (5-day) minimum annual use remain the floor even where a city’s own cap number is lower.

When a doctor’s note can be required

California’s paid sick leave law does not let an employer deny leave solely because an employee has no doctor’s note, and an employer generally cannot require medical certification as a condition of using accrued sick time. That said, the law does not ban all documentation requests: it can be reasonable to ask for proof in specific circumstances, such as when an employer has a real reason to question whether leave was used for a covered purpose, and an employer can still request a note for longer absences or under an attendance policy that falls outside the sick leave law. Where a note is requested, it generally needs to confirm the dates, not a diagnosis.

The specifics above are summarized at a high level. See the linked primary sources for exact current requirements, and treat anything time-sensitive as something to confirm with the state agency, the relevant city office, or an employment attorney.