Sick Leave Accrual Calculator

What This Calculator Estimates

• Sick leave earned under the hours-worked, pay-period, or annual frontloaded method selected by the user.
• An available-hour and workday estimate after a starting balance, optional cap, and sick leave used are entered.

What This Calculator Does Not Determine

• It does not determine legal coverage, eligibility, qualifying reasons for leave, pay rate, carryover rights, or payout rights.
• It does not automatically apply state, city, employer-size, waiting-period, rounding, or policy rules.

How the sick leave accrual calculator works

Choose the method that matches your employer policy: hours worked, sick leave hours per pay period, or an annual/frontloaded allowance. The calculator then subtracts sick leave already used and converts available hours into days.

The default hours-worked divisor is 30, which reflects a common formula of 1 hour earned for every 30 hours worked. You can edit the divisor if your policy or local rule uses a different rate.

How to calculate sick time accrual

Hours worked method = hours worked / accrual divisor.

Pay period method = sick leave hours per pay period x number of pay periods.

Annual/frontloaded method = annual sick leave allowance.

Estimated credited sick leave = earned sick leave limited by the optional balance cap, when one is entered.

Estimated available sick leave = starting balance + credited sick leave - sick leave used, with a minimum displayed result of zero.

Sick leave accrual by hours worked

The hours-worked method is useful when a policy says employees earn sick leave based on actual hours worked. If the rule is 1 hour for every 30 hours worked, an employee who worked 300 hours would estimate 10 sick leave hours.

Part-time, variable-hour, and hourly employees often need this method because their sick leave may grow with actual hours instead of a fixed pay-period amount.

Sick leave accrual by pay period

Some employers provide a set number of sick leave hours each paycheck. In that case, multiply sick leave hours per pay period by the number of completed pay periods.

Example: 1.54 sick leave hours per biweekly paycheck for 10 pay periods equals 15.4 sick leave hours before subtracting used sick time.

Frontloaded sick leave vs accrued sick leave

Frontloaded sick leave means a set amount is made available at the start of a year, benefit year, or employment period. Accrued sick leave means the balance grows over time.

Frontloading can make the balance look simple, but policies may still have rules for eligibility, carryover, caps, usage increments, and separation from employment.

Rounding, Caps, Carryover, and Waiting Periods

A payroll system may round each accrual event, stop accrual at a cap, delay use during a waiting period, or limit carryover. The optional cap field applies only the number you enter and does not choose a legal or policy cap for you.

Compare the unrounded estimate with the employer's official balance and the current state or local rule before assuming a difference is an error.

Accrued Sick Time vs Legal Eligibility

A mathematical accrued balance does not determine whether a worker is covered, when leave can be used, which reasons qualify, or whether documentation is required.

Eligibility can depend on location, employer coverage, work performed, and current rules. Use this page for arithmetic only.

Sick leave vs PTO vs vacation

Sick leave, PTO, and vacation can use similar hour math but different policy treatment. Read the PTO vs vacation pay guide before assuming unused sick leave is treated like vacation payout.

If your employer uses one combined PTO bank, ask whether that bank satisfies sick leave rules and whether any portion is restricted to sick leave uses.

Why state and local rules matter

Paid sick leave rules can be set by state law, city ordinance, employer policy, union agreement, or a combination of those sources. Some rules cover accrual rates, carryover, annual caps, usage reasons, notice, documentation, and pay-rate calculations.

Use the verified California sick leave calculator or New York sick leave calculator only when that location applies. For general PTO math, use the PTO accrual calculator.

Example 1: 40 hours worked at 1 hour per 30 hours

If an employee works 40 hours and earns 1 sick leave hour for every 30 hours worked, sick leave earned is 40 / 30 = 1.33 hours.

If the employee started with 0 sick leave hours and used 0 hours, the updated balance estimate is 1.33 hours.

Example 2: 80 hours worked at 1 hour per 30 hours

If an employee works 80 hours and earns 1 sick leave hour for every 30 hours worked, sick leave earned is 80 / 30 = 2.67 hours.

If the employee already had 4 sick leave hours available and used none, the updated balance estimate is 6.67 hours.

Example 3: sick leave balance after using hours

If an employee starts with 8 sick leave hours, earns 2.67 hours, and uses 4 hours, the updated sick leave balance estimate is 8 + 2.67 - 4 = 6.67 hours.

The result estimates available time only. It does not mean the balance can be cashed out or used for a particular absence.