Kansas — Leave Laws

Kansas law does not require private employers to provide employees with paid or unpaid sick leave, vacation leave, family leave, or medical leave. Employers may choose to offer these benefits voluntarily, but no state statute mandates them. Private-sector employees in Kansas rely on federal protections—primarily the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)—and any employer-provided benefits.

Source: Kansas Department of Labor – Workplace Laws FAQs

Kansas employers may not discharge or threaten to discharge any permanent employee because of jury service or scheduled attendance in connection with jury service in any Kansas court. Employers must provide time off but are not required to pay wages during the absence. An employee reinstated after jury duty is treated as having been on furlough or leave of absence, retains seniority, and is entitled to participate in insurance and other benefits under the employer's established furlough or leave policies.

Remedies for violation. K.S.A. 43-173 provides civil remedies only. An employer who violates the statute (1) is liable for damages for any loss of wages, actual damages, and other benefits suffered by the employee; (2) shall be ordered to reinstate any employee discharged for jury service; and (3) may be enjoined from further violations and ordered to provide other appropriate relief. The statute does not impose criminal penalties; violations are redressed through civil litigation with a one-year statute of limitations under K.S.A. 60-514(d).

Source: K.S.A. 43-173; K.S.A. 60-514

Kansas law entitles any person eligible to vote at an election conducted by a county election officer to absent themselves from work for up to two consecutive hours between the opening and closing of polls, without penalty or wage deduction. The two-hour maximum is conditional: if the polls are open for less than two consecutive hours before the employee's shift begins or after the shift ends, the employee may take only enough additional leave time to bring the total available voting time (non-work hours plus leave) to two hours. For example, if polls open one hour before the employee's shift, the employee is entitled to one additional hour of leave during working hours, not the full two hours.

Paid leave. K.S.A. 25-418 prohibits employers from making deductions "from [the employee's] usual salary or wages" on account of voting leave. This language establishes an affirmative paid-leave obligation, not merely job protection during unpaid absence.

Employer control over timing. The employer may specify the particular time during the workday when the employee takes voting leave, with one statutory restriction: the employer-specified time cannot fall during the employee's regular lunch period. The employer retains this scheduling authority even though the leave must be paid.

Scope. The statute applies on its face to "an election conducted by a county election officer in this state." It does not by its terms extend to elections conducted by other officials (municipal clerks, township officers) or to elections held outside Kansas.

Penalty for obstruction. Obstruction of voting privilege is a class A misdemeanor under K.S.A. 25-418. The statute defines obstruction as (a) intentionally obstructing an employee in the exercise of their voting privilege, or (b) imposing a penalty upon an employee for exercising the voting privilege under the section. Employers should ensure that supervisors and managers understand that denying lawful voting leave or retaliating against employees who request or use it constitutes a criminal offense.

Source: K.S.A. 25-418

Kansas law prohibits employers from discharging, discriminating against, or retaliating against employees who are victims of domestic violence or sexual assault for taking time off from work for four enumerated purposes. K.S.A. 44-1132, effective January 1, 2007, creates job-protected leave and an entitlement to use paid or unpaid leave for up to eight days per calendar year.

Covered purposes. An employer may not take adverse action against an employee who takes time off to: (1) obtain or attempt to obtain relief, including a temporary restraining order, restraining order, or other injunctive relief, to help ensure the health, safety, or welfare of the victim or the victim's child or children; (2) seek medical attention for injuries caused by domestic violence or sexual assault; (3) obtain services from a domestic violence shelter, domestic violence program, or rape crisis center; or (4) make court appearances in the aftermath of domestic violence or sexual assault.

Duration and compensation. An employee may use any accrued paid leave (vacation, sick leave, or other paid time off maintained by the employer) or, if paid leave is unavailable to the employee, unpaid leave, not to exceed a total of eight days per calendar year, unless a longer period is otherwise available under the applicable terms of employment or provided by a collective bargaining agreement. The statute does not require employers to provide paid leave; it requires only that employees be allowed to use paid leave if they have it. The eight-day annual entitlement cannot be diminished by any collective bargaining agreement term or condition.

Notice and certification requirements. Employees must give reasonable advance notice of the intention to take time off, unless advance notice is not feasible. For scheduled absences, the employee must provide documentation within 48 hours after returning from the requested time off. For unscheduled absences, the employer may not take any action against the employee if the employee provides certification within 48 hours after the beginning of the unscheduled absence in one of the following forms: (A) a police report indicating that the employee was a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault; (B) a court order protecting or separating the employee from the perpetrator, or other evidence from the court or prosecuting attorney that the employee has appeared in court; or (C) documentation from a medical professional, domestic violence advocate, advocate for victims of sexual assault, health care provider, or counselor that the employee was undergoing treatment for physical or mental injuries or abuse resulting from victimization.

Confidentiality. To the extent allowed by law, the employer must maintain the confidentiality of any employee requesting leave under the statute, as well as the confidentiality of any supporting documentation provided by the employee.

No employer-size threshold. K.S.A. 44-1131 and 44-1132 do not define "employer" or establish a minimum number of employees for coverage. Unlike the Kansas Act Against Discrimination (K.S.A. 44-1112, which covers employers with four or more employees), the domestic violence and sexual assault leave law applies to all Kansas employers regardless of size, including sole proprietors, partnerships, corporations, state and local government employers, and any person or entity employing any individual.

Definitions. "Domestic violence" means abuse as defined in K.S.A. 60-3102. "Sexual assault" means any crime defined in K.S.A. 21-5503 (rape), subsections of 21-5506 (indecent liberties with a child; aggravated indecent liberties with a child), subsections of 21-5504 (criminal sodomy; aggravated criminal sodomy), and related enumerated sex crimes.

Enforcement. The Kansas Secretary of Labor enforces K.S.A. 44-1131 and 44-1132 and may adopt implementing regulations. Employees who believe their rights have been violated may file a complaint with the Kansas Department of Labor.

Source: K.S.A. 44-1132 Source: K.S.A. 44-1131 Source: K.S.A. 44-1133

The Kansas Act Against Discrimination (KAAD) requires covered employers to treat pregnancy-related disabilities the same as other temporary disabilities for purposes of leave and accommodation. K.A.R. 21-32-6, a regulation promulgated under K.S.A. 44-1009, establishes that disabilities caused or contributed to by pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, childbirth, and recovery therefrom are "for all job related purposes, temporary disabilities and should be treated as such under any health or temporary disability insurance or sick leave plan available in connection with employment."

Employer coverage threshold. The KAAD applies to employers "employing four or more persons" in Kansas. An employer with three or fewer employees is not subject to the Act's pregnancy-disability accommodation requirements. The four-employee threshold applies to the same categories of employers covered by KAAD's other anti-discrimination provisions: any person employing four or more persons, labor organizations, nonsectarian corporations, organizations engaged in social service work, and the state of Kansas and all political and municipal subdivisions. Nonprofit fraternal or social associations or corporations are excluded.

Equal-treatment mandate — not a separate accommodation right. Kansas law does not impose a separate or additional reasonable-accommodation obligation for pregnancy beyond what federal law requires (the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, effective June 2023, mandates reasonable accommodations for known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions for employers with 15 or more employees). Instead, K.A.R. 21-32-6 requires equal treatment: whatever leave, benefits, reinstatement rights, or work modifications an employer provides to employees with other temporary disabilities (such as broken bones, surgery recovery, or non-pregnancy-related medical conditions) must be provided on the same terms and conditions to employees disabled by pregnancy or childbirth.

Specific requirements under K.A.R. 21-32-6. The regulation establishes three core obligations:

1. Prima facie discrimination to exclude due to pregnancy. An employer policy or practice—whether written or unwritten—that excludes applicants or employees from employment because of pregnancy is prima facie discrimination under the KAAD.

1. Equal treatment for leave and benefits. Employment policies and practices involving "the commencement and duration of leave, the availability of extensions, the accrual of seniority and other benefits and privileges, reinstatement, and payment under any health or temporary disability insurance or sick leave plan, formal or informal, shall be applied to disability due to pregnancy or childbirth on the same terms and conditions as they are applied to other temporary disabilities."

1. Disparate-impact prohibition on termination. Where an employee temporarily disabled by pregnancy is terminated because the employer's leave policy provides insufficient or no leave, that termination is discriminatory "if it has a disparate impact on employees of one sex and is not justified by business necessity."

1. Reasonable-period leave for childbearing. Childbearing (the act of giving birth, distinct from disability) "must be considered by the employer to be a justification for a leave of absence for female employees for a reasonable period of time." The regulation does not define "reasonable period," and Kansas courts have not established a specific durational standard. Following childbearing, upon signifying her intent to return within a reasonable time, the employee is entitled to reinstatement under the same terms the employer applies to employees returning from other types of leave.

No fixed leave duration. Unlike California's Pregnancy Disability Leave law (four months) or other state-specific pregnancy-leave mandates, Kansas does not prescribe a minimum or maximum leave period. The employee is entitled to leave for the period during which she is actually disabled by pregnancy or childbirth, and that period must be treated the same as leave granted for other temporary disabilities. If an employer provides, for example, six weeks of short-term disability leave for employees recovering from surgery, the same six weeks must be available to an employee disabled by childbirth recovery. If the employer provides no paid or unpaid leave for any temporary disability, Kansas law does not require the employer to create such leave for pregnancy (though federal FMLA and PWFA obligations may apply if the employer meets federal coverage thresholds).

Interaction with federal law. Employers with 15 or more employees are also subject to the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), which imposes a separate reasonable-accommodation obligation (not merely equal treatment) for pregnancy-related limitations. Employers with 50 or more employees within 75 miles are subject to FMLA's 12-week job-protected leave entitlement for serious health conditions, including pregnancy-related disability. Kansas employers with four or more employees but fewer than 15 are subject only to the KAAD equal-treatment rule and are not required by Kansas law to provide accommodations beyond those offered for other temporary disabilities.

Enforcement. KAAD violations, including violations of K.A.R. 21-32-6, are enforced by the Kansas Human Rights Commission. An employee may file a complaint with the Commission, which investigates and may issue a finding of probable cause. Following a no-probable-cause finding, the employee may file an independent civil action in district court. Remedies for discrimination include reinstatement, back pay, compensatory damages, and injunctive relief.

Source: K.A.R. 21-32-6 Source: K.S.A. 44-1002 Source: K.S.A. 44-1009