Connecticut — Leave Laws

Connecticut requires employers with 11 or more employees in the state, based on the number of employees on the payroll for the week containing January 1st annually, to provide paid sick leave to each employee. Public Act 24-8 expanded coverage from the prior 50-employee threshold; the threshold will drop to 1 or more employees effective January 1, 2027.

Employer exemptions

Two categories of employers are exempt from the paid sick leave law under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57r(3):

1. Construction employers participating in multiemployer health plans. An employer that participates in a multiemployer health plan in which more than one employer is required to contribute and the plan is maintained pursuant to one or more collective bargaining agreements between a construction-related tradesperson employee organization (union) or organizations and employers is exempt from the paid sick leave requirements. This exemption applies to the employer, not merely to individual employees; if the employer qualifies, it has no obligation to provide paid sick leave to any of its employees under the statute.

1. Self-employed individuals. A self-employed individual is exempt from the paid sick leave law. The statute does not define "self-employed individual." This exemption applies to individuals who do not have employees or who are not themselves engaged in an employment relationship as an employee.

Employee exclusions

In addition to the employer exemptions, two categories of employees are excluded from coverage as "employees" under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57r(2), meaning they are not entitled to accrue or use paid sick leave even if their employer is otherwise covered:

1. Members of construction-related tradesperson employee organizations in multiemployer health plans. An individual who is a member of a construction-related tradesperson employee organization (union) that is a party to a multiemployer health plan in which more than one employer is required to contribute and such plan is maintained pursuant to one or more collective bargaining agreements between the union or unions and employers is excluded from the definition of "employee." This employee exclusion parallels the employer exemption but operates at the individual level: even if the employer is otherwise covered by the law, these union members are not entitled to paid sick leave under the statute (though they may receive equivalent or superior benefits through the multiemployer health plan negotiated under their collective bargaining agreement).

1. Seasonal employees. A "seasonal employee" is defined as an employee who works 120 days or less in any year. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57r(13). The statute counts work days, not calendar days. Seasonal employees are excluded from the definition of "employee" and therefore do not accrue or use paid sick leave. However, employers must monitor the hours worked by employees hired into seasonal positions; if an employee initially hired to work 120 days or fewer actually works more than 120 days in the year, that employee ceases to be a seasonal employee on the 121st work day and becomes entitled to paid sick leave. The employee would then accrue leave retroactively for the hours already worked and may begin using accrued leave after satisfying the 120-calendar-day waiting period under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57s(b).

Phased employer coverage

The paid sick leave law's employer coverage threshold is phasing in over three years under Public Act 24-8:

• January 1, 2025: Employers with 25 or more employees in Connecticut became subject to the law.
• January 1, 2026: Employers with 11 or more employees in Connecticut are subject to the law.
• January 1, 2027: All employers with 1 or more employees in Connecticut will be subject to the law (except for the two employer exemptions above).

The employee count is determined annually based on the number of individuals on the employer's payroll for the week containing January 1. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57r(3).

Practical application

Employers should carefully distinguish between the employer exemptions (which relieve the employer of any obligation to provide paid sick leave) and the employee exclusions (which remove specific categories of individuals from coverage even when the employer is otherwise subject to the law). The construction-industry provisions operate on both levels: a construction employer that participates in a qualifying multiemployer health plan pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement is exempt as an employer, and individual union members covered by such plans are excluded as employees. The seasonal-employee exclusion applies only to individuals who work 120 days or fewer; it does not exempt the employer. The self-employed exemption applies only to individuals who are not employers or who have no employees.

Source: Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 31-57r – 31-57w Source: Public Act 24-8

As of January 1, 2025, employees accrue paid sick leave at a rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked. Employers may limit both accrual and usage to a maximum of 40 hours per benefit year. Employees may carry over up to 40 hours of unused accrued leave into the following benefit year, though the 40-hour annual usage cap still applies. As an alternative, employers may frontload the full 40-hour allotment at the start of each benefit year, immediately available for use; if the employer frontloads, carryover is not required. A "benefit year" is any 12-month period the employer designates for administering employee benefits.

Source: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57s

Connecticut permits employees to use accrued paid sick leave for a broad set of health-related, caregiving, and public-health-emergency purposes under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57t, as substantially expanded by Public Act 24-8 effective January 1, 2025.

Employee's own health Employees may use paid sick leave for:

• The employee's illness, injury, or health condition;
• Medical diagnosis, care, or treatment of the employee's mental or physical illness, injury, or health condition;
• Preventative medical care for the employee's mental or physical health; and
• A mental health wellness day — defined as a day during which the employee attends to their emotional and psychological well-being in lieu of attending a regularly scheduled shift (added October 1, 2023, per Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57r(6)).

Family member's health Employees may use paid sick leave for the same health-related purposes (illness, injury, diagnosis, treatment, preventative care) when the need arises for a family member. Public Act 24-8 dramatically expanded the definition of "family member" beyond the prior spouse-or-child limitation. As of January 1, 2025, "family member" includes the employee's:

• Spouse or registered domestic partner;
• Child (including biological, adopted, foster, stepchild, legal ward, or child to whom the employee stands in loco parentis);
• Sibling;
• Parent;
• Grandparent;
• Grandchild; and
• Any individual related to the employee by blood or affinity whose close association the employee shows to be the equivalent of those family relationships.

The blood-or-affinity clause permits employees to demonstrate a family-like bond even when a formal legal relationship does not exist.

Public health emergency closure or communicable illness exposure Employees may use paid sick leave when:

• A public official orders closure of either the employee's workplace or the employee's family member's school or place of care due to a public health emergency; or
• A health authority, the employer, a family member's employer, or a healthcare provider determines that the employee's or family member's presence in the community may jeopardize the health of others because of exposure to a communicable illness, even if the employee or family member does not ultimately become ill.

Victim of family violence or sexual assault Employees may use paid sick leave when the employee is a victim of family violence or sexual assault, for:

• Medical care or psychological or other counseling for physical or psychological injury or disability;
• Obtaining services from a victim services organization;
• Relocation;
• Participating in legal proceedings; or
• Any other reason necessary for safety or security.

Documentation prohibition Public Act 24-8 eliminated the prior documentation requirements. As of January 1, 2025, employers are prohibited from requiring employees to provide documentation proving that sick leave was used for a permitted purpose (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57t(b), repealed by P.A. 24-8). Employers may still establish reasonable notice policies for foreseeable leave, but may not require advance notice for unforeseeable leave.

Employer discipline for misuse Employers retain the right to take disciplinary action against employees who use paid sick leave for purposes other than those listed in § 31-57t (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57t(e)).

Source: Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 31-57r – 31-57w

Connecticut employees begin accruing paid sick leave immediately upon hire (or on the effective dates under the phased coverage expansion: January 1, 2025 for employers with 25+ employees; January 1, 2026 for employers with 11+ employees; January 1, 2027 for all employers with 1+ employees). However, employees may not use accrued paid sick leave until they have been employed for 120 calendar days. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57s(b) states that "[a]n employee shall be entitled to the use of any accrued paid sick leave on and after the one hundred twentieth calendar day of such employee's employment."

Public Act 24-8 — elimination of the 680-hour rule and the 10-hour-per-week test

Public Act 24-8, which took effect January 1, 2025, changed the waiting period from an hours-worked threshold to a calendar-day threshold. Under the prior law (before PA 24-8), employees could not use accrued paid sick leave until they had completed 680 hours of employment (roughly 17 weeks of full-time work, or approximately four months). The prior law also imposed a second eligibility screen: employees were ineligible to use accrued leave in any calendar quarter unless they had worked an average of 10 or more hours per week during the most recently completed quarter. Both requirements created barriers for part-time and intermittent workers.

PA 24-8 replaced the 680-hour waiting period with a uniform 120-calendar-day waiting period and eliminated the 10-hour-per-week averaging test entirely. The new rule counts calendar days from the employee's first day of employment, regardless of how many hours the employee works per week. This change benefits part-time employees and workers with variable schedules, who under the old rule might never satisfy the 680-hour or 10-hour-per-week thresholds.

Example: An employee hired on March 1, 2025 begins accruing paid sick leave immediately (at 1 hour per 30 hours worked under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57s(a)). That employee may begin using accrued leave on June 29, 2025 — the 120th calendar day of employment — regardless of whether the employee has worked full-time, part-time, or on an irregular schedule during that period.

Frontloading exception

Employers who choose to frontload the full 40-hour annual allotment at the start of each benefit year (in lieu of requiring employees to accrue leave hour-by-hour) may still impose a waiting period before employees can use the frontloaded leave, but that waiting period may not exceed 120 calendar days from the employee's date of hire or the start of the benefit year, as applicable.

The 120-day waiting period is the only permissible delay on use of accrued paid sick leave. Employers may not impose additional tenure or hours-worked requirements beyond the 120-day threshold.

Source: Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 31-57r – 31-57w Source: Public Act 24-8 Source: Connecticut General Assembly, Office of Legislative Research Report 2025-R-0016

Connecticut requires employers to pay employees for paid sick leave at a rate equal to the greater of (1) the employee's normal hourly wage or (2) the minimum fair wage rate under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-58 in effect for the pay period during which the employee uses paid sick leave. This means that no employee may receive less than Connecticut's minimum wage when using accrued paid sick leave, even if the employee's normal hourly wage would otherwise be lower (a scenario rare under Connecticut law, which itself prohibits paying below minimum wage, but relevant for tipped employees whose cash wage may be lower when combined with tip credit, or for employees whose regular rate includes non-hourly components).

Normal hourly wage for variable-rate employees

For any employee whose hourly wage varies depending on the work performed—for example, an employee who performs different job functions at different pay rates, or who earns shift differentials, or whose compensation includes commission or piece-rate elements—"normal hourly wage" means the average hourly wage of the employee in the pay period prior to the one in which the employee uses paid sick leave. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57s(d) expressly defines this lookback method for variable-wage employees.

Minimum fair wage rate — January 2026 amount

Connecticut's minimum fair wage is set by statute and indexed annually to the employment cost index. As of January 1, 2026, the minimum fair wage is $16.94 per hour. (The rate was $16.35 per hour in 2025.) Because the sick-leave statute cross-references § 31-58 dynamically ("the minimum fair wage rate under section 31-58 in effect for the pay period during which the employee uses paid sick leave"), the floor for paid sick leave compensation automatically tracks any future statutory or indexed increases in the state minimum wage.

Practical application

Most employees' normal hourly wage already exceeds the state minimum wage, so the paid-sick-leave rate simply equals their regular hourly rate. The statutory floor matters primarily in edge cases—tipped employees (where the direct cash wage may be lower), employees with highly variable compensation (where the prior-period average might dip near minimum wage), or newly hired employees whose initial wage is at or near the state minimum. In all such cases, the employer must pay whichever amount is higher: the employee's actual (or averaged) wage, or the state minimum wage in effect that pay period.

Employers using frontloaded paid sick leave (providing the full 40-hour annual allotment at the start of the benefit year rather than requiring hour-by-hour accrual) remain subject to the same rate-of-pay rule when employees use that frontloaded leave.

No payment-on-separation requirement

Connecticut law does not require employers to pay out unused accrued paid sick leave upon an employee's termination or resignation, unless the employer's own policy or a collective bargaining agreement imposes such an obligation. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57t(d). Any termination of employment—whether voluntary or involuntary—is treated as a break in service; if the employer later rehires the worker, the worker begins accruing paid sick leave again from zero and is not entitled to any previously accrued but unused hours unless the employer agrees otherwise. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57u(c).

Source: Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 31-57r – 31-57w Source: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-58 (minimum fair wage) Source: Connecticut General Assembly, Office of Legislative Research Report 2026-R-0036

Connecticut imposes four distinct compliance obligations on covered employers under the paid sick leave law: workplace posting, individual written notice to employees, wage-statement disclosure, and multi-year recordkeeping. Public Act 24-8, effective January 1, 2025, substantially tightened these requirements and introduced the pay-stub mandate and the three-year retention rule for the first time. These obligations apply to every employer subject to the paid sick leave law (currently employers with 11 or more employees in Connecticut as of January 1, 2026, expanding to all employers with 1 or more employees effective January 1, 2027).

Workplace poster — English and Spanish, conspicuous location

Each covered employer must display a poster in a conspicuous place accessible to employees at the employer's place of business. The poster must be in both English and Spanish and contain the following information: (1) employees' entitlement to paid sick leave, including the amount provided and the terms under which it may be used; (2) that retaliation for requesting or using paid sick leave is prohibited; and (3) that employees have a right to file a complaint with the Connecticut Labor Commissioner for any violation of Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 31-57r through 31-57w. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57w(b)(1).

The Connecticut Department of Labor creates a model poster and makes it available on the DOL website; employers may use the model or create their own poster that contains all required elements. The DOL has released updated model posters corresponding to each phase of the coverage expansion (effective January 1, 2025 for employers with 25+ employees; effective January 1, 2026 for employers with 11+ employees; effective January 1, 2027 for all employers). Employers should ensure they are using the poster that reflects the current coverage threshold and their own covered status.

Remote and teleworker accommodation

For employers that do not maintain a physical workplace, or for employees who telework or perform work through a web-based or application-based platform, the employer must comply with the posting requirement by either (1) sending the information via electronic communication or (2) displaying the information in a conspicuous posting on the web-based or application-based platform through which the employee performs work. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57w(b)(1).

Individual written notice — deadline: January 1, 2025, or time of hire

In addition to the workplace poster, each employer must provide written notice to each employee no later than January 1, 2025, or at the time of hire, whichever is later. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57w(b)(2). This means that all employees employed as of January 1, 2025 by an employer then subject to the law (employers with 25 or more employees) should have received written notice by that date. Employers who became covered on January 1, 2026 (those with 11–24 employees) had until that date to provide written notice to existing employees, and any employee hired after the employer's coverage date must receive written notice at hire. The written notice must contain the same three elements required for the poster: entitlement, anti-retaliation protection, and complaint rights. Employers may satisfy this requirement by distributing the DOL model notice or by preparing their own compliant notice.

Pay stub (wage statement) disclosure — hours accrued and hours used

Public Act 24-8 added subsection (c) to Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57w requiring employers to include paid sick leave information on each employee's wage statement (pay stub). Specifically, the wage statement must show:

• The number of hours of paid sick leave accrued by or provided to the employee during the calendar year; and
• The number of hours of paid sick leave used by the employee during the calendar year.

This requirement applies to each wage payment, meaning the pay stub accompanying each paycheck must reflect the year-to-date accrual and usage totals. For employers who frontload the full 40-hour annual allotment at the start of the benefit year (rather than requiring employees to accrue leave hour-by-hour), the "accrued or provided" figure is simply the frontloaded amount (typically 40 hours), and the "used" figure reflects hours taken. The pay-stub requirement took effect January 1, 2025, and applies to every paycheck issued on or after that date for employees of covered employers.

This pay-stub disclosure is a new, additional requirement under the paid sick leave law and is separate from the general wage-statement obligations under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-13a (which already requires employers to furnish a record of hours worked, gross earnings, itemized deductions, and net earnings with each wage payment). Employers must satisfy both sets of requirements. In practice, most employers add a line item to the existing pay stub showing "Sick Leave Accrued (YTD): [X hours]" and "Sick Leave Used (YTD): [X hours]."

Recordkeeping — three-year retention; Labor Commissioner access

Employers must maintain records documenting:

1. The number of hours worked by each employee during the calendar year;
2. The number of hours of paid sick leave accrued or provided to each employee; and
3. The number of hours of paid sick leave used by each employee during the calendar year.

Employers must retain such records for a period of three years. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57w(c). The three-year retention period runs from the end of the calendar year to which the records relate (for example, 2025 records must be retained through at least December 31, 2028).

Employers must allow the Connecticut Labor Commissioner, with appropriate notice and at a mutually agreeable time, access to these records in order to monitor compliance with the paid sick leave law. Failure to retain adequate records or to allow reasonable access to such records is a violation of the statute, subject to a civil penalty of not more than one hundred dollars per violation. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57w(c).

The three-year recordkeeping mandate is new as of January 1, 2025; prior to Public Act 24-8, Connecticut's paid sick leave law contained no formal paid-sick-leave-specific recordkeeping obligation beyond the general wage-and-hour records required under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-13a. The new rule requires employers to create and maintain discrete records for paid sick leave accrual and usage, separate from or in addition to their existing payroll and timekeeping systems.

Source: Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 31-57r – 31-57w Source: Public Act 24-8 Source: CT DOL Paid Sick Leave Resources

Connecticut's paid sick leave law requires employees to accrue leave at a rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked. For FLSA-exempt employees—those who meet both the salary-basis and duties tests under 29 C.F.R. Part 541 and therefore are not required to track hours worked—Public Act 24-8 established a statutory presumption to calculate accrual without imposing new timekeeping burdens on employers or exempt employees.

The 40-hour-per-week presumption

Under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57s(a), as amended by Public Act 24-8 effective January 1, 2025, exempt employees are presumed to work 40 hours per week for purposes of paid sick leave accrual unless the employee's normal workweek is fewer than 40 hours. When an exempt employee's normal workweek is less than 40 hours (for example, a part-time exempt position with a regular schedule of 30 hours per week, or a permanent reduced-schedule arrangement), paid sick leave accrues based on that reduced normal workweek instead of the 40-hour default.

This presumption applies automatically; employers are not required to track actual hours worked by exempt employees solely to calculate paid sick leave accrual. The default 40-hour-per-week figure operates as a bright-line rule that aligns with the FLSA's own overtime-exemption framework (which likewise uses a standard workweek for purposes of the salary-basis test under 29 C.F.R. § 541.602).

Accrual calculation under the presumption

An exempt employee presumed to work 40 hours per week accrues paid sick leave at the following rate:

• 40 hours worked per week ÷ 30 = 1.33 hours of paid sick leave per week (rounded or tracked in fractions of an hour, per employer policy);
• Over a 52-week year: 1.33 hours/week × 52 weeks = approximately 69 hours accrued annually before the statutory cap.

However, the statute caps both accrual and usage at 40 hours per benefit year (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57s(a)). Therefore, the exempt employee accrues 1.33 hours per week until reaching the 40-hour cap, which occurs after approximately 30 weeks (just over seven months). After that point, no further accrual is required for that benefit year unless the employer voluntarily provides more generous leave.

Employers who choose to frontload the full 40-hour annual allotment at the start of the benefit year—rather than requiring employees to accrue leave hour-by-hour—avoid the need to apply the 40-hour presumption on an ongoing basis. Frontloading is expressly permitted under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57s(a) and eliminates the accrual-tracking requirement entirely; the employee has immediate access to the full 40-hour bank, subject to the 120-calendar-day waiting period before first use (see Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57s(b)).

Determining "normal workweek" for the exception

The statute does not define "normal workweek." In practice, an exempt employee's normal workweek is the regular schedule the employer establishes and the employee is expected to work as a condition of the exempt position. Examples of exempt employees with a normal workweek of less than 40 hours include:

• A salaried manager whose position is formally designated as 30 hours per week (e.g., a permanent part-time exempt role);
• An exempt professional on a reduced-schedule arrangement (for example, a four-day workweek totaling 32 hours); or
• An exempt employee whose contract or offer letter specifies a workweek shorter than 40 hours.

The "normal workweek" question is prospective and structural—it reflects the employee's regular schedule, not occasional fluctuations. An exempt employee who occasionally works 35 hours one week or 45 hours another week, but whose position is understood to be a standard full-time exempt role, still has a 40-hour normal workweek for purposes of the presumption. Conversely, an exempt employee hired into a formally part-time position with a documented 25-hour workweek accrues based on 25 hours per week, yielding approximately 0.83 hours of paid sick leave per week (25 ÷ 30), or roughly 43 hours annually before the 40-hour cap applies—functionally, the cap is reached after about 48 weeks.

Interaction with existing recordkeeping obligations

Connecticut law already exempts employers from furnishing a record of hours worked on each wage statement "in the case of any employee with respect to whom the employer is specifically exempt from the keeping of time records and the payment of overtime under the Connecticut Minimum Wage Act or the Fair Labor Standards Act" (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-13a(a)). The paid sick leave law's 40-hour presumption for exempt employees preserves this exemption: employers are not required to track exempt employees' actual weekly hours solely to calculate paid sick leave accrual.

However, employers must still maintain records documenting (1) the number of hours of paid sick leave accrued or provided to each employee and (2) the number of hours of paid sick leave used by each employee during the calendar year, and must retain those records for three years (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57w(c)). For an exempt employee, the "hours accrued" record can be maintained by applying the 40-hour-per-week presumption (or the employee's actual normal workweek if less) rather than by tracking daily timeclock punches. Most employers satisfy this requirement by configuring their payroll or leave-management system to credit exempt employees with 1.33 hours of paid sick leave per week automatically until the 40-hour cap is reached, or by frontloading 40 hours at the start of the benefit year.

Effective date and phased coverage

The 40-hour presumption took effect January 1, 2025, when Public Act 24-8's amendments became operative. The paid sick leave law's coverage itself is phasing in based on employer size: employers with 25 or more employees in Connecticut became subject to the law on January 1, 2025; employers with 11 or more employees on January 1, 2026; and all employers with 1 or more employees on January 1, 2027 (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57r(3)). The 40-hour presumption applies to all covered exempt employees once their employer becomes subject to the law.

Source: Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 31-57r – 31-57w Source: Public Act 24-8 (Substitute House Bill No. 5005) Source: Connecticut General Assembly, Office of Legislative Research Report 2025-R-0016

Connecticut's paid sick leave law does not require employers to pay out unused accrued paid sick leave when an employee's employment ends, whether by termination, resignation, layoff, or any other form of separation. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57t(d) provides that "unless an employee policy or collective bargaining agreement provides for the payment of accrued fringe benefits upon termination, no [employee] shall be entitled to payment of unused accrued sick leave under this section upon termination of employment."

The default statutory rule is clear: accrued paid sick leave is not a wage or other form of compensation that must be paid out at separation. The statute treats paid sick leave as a use-it-during-employment benefit, not a cash-equivalent asset the employee earns and owns. When the employment relationship ends, the employee's accrued but unused paid sick leave balance simply expires, and the employer has no obligation to convert those hours into a cash payment on the final paycheck.

Exceptions: employer policy or collective bargaining agreement

The statute carves out two exceptions—situations in which the employer has created an obligation to pay out unused paid sick leave upon separation:

1. Employee policy. If the employer has adopted a written policy, employee handbook provision, or other employer-established rule that expressly provides for payout of accrued fringe benefits (including paid sick leave) upon termination, that policy creates a contractual obligation enforceable by the employee. The employer's voluntary policy overrides the statutory default.

1. Collective bargaining agreement (CBA). If a union contract expressly provides for payout of unused accrued paid sick leave upon separation, the CBA controls and the employer must honor that contractual commitment.

The phrase "provides for the payment of accrued fringe benefits upon termination" in § 31-57t(d) does not require that the employer policy or CBA specifically mention paid sick leave by name. If the policy or CBA covers "accrued fringe benefits" generally and paid sick leave qualifies as such a benefit, the payout obligation applies. However, employers should review the language carefully: a policy that provides for payout of "accrued vacation" or "unused PTO" will not automatically extend to paid sick leave unless the policy defines those terms broadly enough to include sick leave, or Connecticut's paid sick leave is part of a combined PTO bank that the policy expressly covers.

In practice, most employers do not have such a policy, and the statutory default of no-payout applies.

Interaction with Connecticut's final-paycheck wage laws

Connecticut's wage-payment statute, Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-71c, requires employers to pay all "wages" due to an employee promptly upon separation (by the next business day if the employee is discharged; by the next regular payday if the employee resigns). However, "wages" under § 31-71c means compensation for hours worked or other earned pay. Unused accrued paid sick leave under the paid sick leave law is not classified as "wages" within the meaning of § 31-71c unless the employer's own policy or a CBA has converted it into a cash benefit payable at termination. Because § 31-57t(d) expressly states that no entitlement to payment exists absent an employer policy or CBA, unused paid sick leave does not fall within the final-paycheck requirement unless one of those two exceptions applies.

Break in service and rehire: no restoration of prior accrual

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57u(c) reinforces the no-payout rule by addressing what happens if the employer later rehires the same individual. The statute provides that any termination of employment—whether the employee quit, was laid off, or was discharged for cause—constitutes a "break in service." If the employer subsequently rehires the worker, the worker begins accruing paid sick leave again from zero under the normal accrual rules (one hour per 30 hours worked, subject to the 40-hour annual cap), and "shall not be entitled to any unused hours of paid sick leave that had been accrued prior to the [employee's] break in service unless agreed to by the employer."

This provision confirms two points:

1. The prior accrued-but-unused balance does not carry forward to the new period of employment. The employee starts fresh.
2. The employer may voluntarily agree to restore the prior balance (for example, as an inducement to rehire a valued former employee), but the statute imposes no obligation to do so.

Together, § 31-57t(d) and § 31-57u(c) establish that Connecticut treats accrued paid sick leave as an in-employment benefit with no residual cash value upon separation and no automatic reinstatement upon rehire, unless the employer has contractually committed otherwise.

Contrast with carryover rules during ongoing employment

It is important to distinguish the no-payout-on-termination rule from the statute's carryover rule that applies during ongoing employment. Under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57s(a), employees may carry over up to 40 hours of unused accrued paid sick leave from one benefit year to the next (though the employer may still cap annual use at 40 hours, and may avoid the carryover requirement entirely by frontloading the full 40-hour allotment at the start of each benefit year). The carryover right exists only while the employment relationship continues. Once employment ends—whether by resignation, discharge, or layoff—the carryover rule becomes moot because the separation itself is a break in service under § 31-57u(c), and the employee's accrued balance expires (absent an employer policy or CBA to the contrary).

Practical guidance for employers

Employers who do not wish to create a payout obligation should:

• Ensure that employee handbooks, PTO policies, and any written paid-sick-leave policies explicitly state that unused accrued paid sick leave is not paid out upon separation.
• Avoid language that broadly promises payout of "all accrued benefits" or "accrued fringe benefits" without carving out paid sick leave.
• Review collective bargaining agreements to confirm whether any CBA provision obligates payout; if it does, honor that obligation to avoid a grievance or unfair-labor-practice charge.

Employers who do wish to offer payout (for example, to remain competitive in recruitment or to align sick leave with a PTO-bank policy that already provides payout) may do so by adopting a written policy to that effect, but should be aware that once such a policy exists, it becomes an enforceable contractual commitment under Connecticut law.

Source: Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 31-57r – 31-57w (Paid Sick Leave)