Nevada regulates paid time off through a single, unusual statute. NRS 608.0197 — added by Senate Bill 312 in 2019 — requires every private employer with 50 or more employees in Nevada to provide paid leave that accrues at a minimum of 0.01923 hours for each hour worked, which works out to about 40 hours per year for a full-time employee. The leave is not limited to sickness: an employee may use it “for any use,” and may do so “without providing a reason.” Nevada has no separate statewide sick-leave accrual mandate and no law requiring traditional vacation; the paid-leave statute is the mandate, and it covers sick time because it covers everything.

Which employers must provide paid leave?

NRS 608.0197 defines the covered “employer” as a private employer with 50 or more employees in private employment in Nevada. The statute then carves out several exceptions:

  • New businesses. An employer is not required to comply during its first 2 years of operation.
  • Temporary, seasonal and on-call employees. The section does not apply to these employees at all. The Labor Commissioner’s advisory opinion on the law (AO 2019-02) cautions that intentionally misclassifying workers into these categories to avoid the paid-leave obligation could draw an administrative penalty of up to $5,000 per violation.
  • Employers with an equivalent policy. The section does not apply to an employer that already provides all scheduled employees, under a contract, policy, or collective bargaining agreement, paid leave or paid time off at a rate of at least 0.01923 hours per hour worked.

Public employers are outside the statute, which speaks only of “private employment.”

How does the leave accrue?

The accrual rate is at least 0.01923 hours of paid leave for each hour of work performed. At that rate, an employee working 40 hours a week for a full year accrues roughly 40 hours of leave. The employer chooses one of two mechanics:

  • Front-loading — crediting, on the first day of each benefit year, the full number of hours the employee would accrue during that year; or
  • Accrual — letting the hours build up over the course of the benefit year as hours are worked.

A “benefit year” is a 365-day period the employer uses to calculate accrual. Leave must be paid at the employee’s rate of pay when the leave is taken, and paid on the same payday as the hours would normally be paid. For employees paid by salary, commission, piece rate, or another non-hourly method, the statute prescribes the calculation: total wages for the immediately preceding 90 days divided by hours worked, including agreed-upon earned bonuses but excluding discretionary bonuses, overtime, hazard pay, holiday pay, and tips. Every payday, the employer must give each employee an accounting of the paid-leave hours available.

When and how can the leave be used?

The usage rules are employee-friendly by design:

  • Use may begin on the 90th calendar day of employment.
  • The leave may be used for any reason — the statute’s illustrative list runs from treating an illness or getting a medical diagnosis to participating in caregiving or “addressing other personal needs related to the health of the employee” — and the employee is not required to give a reason.
  • The employee must give notice “as soon as practicable.”
  • The employer may set a minimum increment of use, but the increment cannot exceed 4 hours.
  • The employer may not deny the right to use available leave in accordance with the statute, may not require the employee to find a replacement worker as a condition of using it, and may not retaliate against an employee for using it. Retaliatory firing over paid leave is one of the statutory lines discussed in wrongful termination in Nevada.

Do unused hours carry over — and can they be capped?

Yes to both. Accrued (not front-loaded) leave carries over between benefit years, but the employer may cap the carryover at 40 hours per benefit year. Separately, the employer may limit the amount of paid leave an employee uses to 40 hours per benefit year. In combination, the statute guarantees a floor of roughly one standard workweek of usable paid leave per year, and an employer offering only the minimum can lawfully hold both accrual-carryover and annual use to that level.

Must unused PTO be paid out when a job ends?

Not by statute. NRS 608.0197 says an employer “may, but is not required to,” compensate an employee for unused paid leave upon separation from employment. There is one statutory exception: if the employee is rehired within 90 days after a separation that was not voluntary, any previously unused leave hours must be reinstated.

An employer’s own promises can change the picture. The statute expressly does not prohibit or discourage any contract or agreement providing a more generous paid-leave or PTO benefit, and the Labor Commissioner’s advisory opinion states that when an employer has a policy, contract, handbook, or collective bargaining agreement providing for payout of front-loaded or accrued leave, the recommendation is that the leave be paid out. The advisory opinion also notes that an employer that terminates an employee before a resignation date cannot deduct paid leave from the final paycheck that the employee never actually took. How the final check itself must be timed — immediately on a discharge, within 7 days or by the next payday on a resignation — is covered in Nevada’s final paycheck law. An employee who took paid leave but was never paid for it can pursue the unpaid amount the same way as any other unpaid-wage claim — through a Labor Commissioner complaint, Nevada’s small claims process for smaller amounts, or the Nevada court system for larger claims.

What does Nevada law not require?

Several things people commonly assume are mandated are not:

  • No traditional vacation mandate. No Nevada statute requires an employer to offer vacation time as such; NRS 608.0197’s paid leave is the only required paid time off, and only at covered employers.
  • No separate sick-leave accrual. There is no additional statewide sick-day entitlement stacked on top of the paid-leave statute.
  • No mandate for smaller employers. Private employers with fewer than 50 Nevada employees are outside NRS 608.0197 entirely, though many provide leave by policy.
  • No required payout of unused leave at separation, as described above, unless the employer’s own policy or agreement provides for it.

What other leave rules does Nevada have?

Two neighboring statutes fill in specific situations:

  • Family use of existing sick leave. NRS 608.01975 provides that if an employer offers sick leave (the statute itself does not require it), the employer must let an employee use accrued sick leave to assist an immediate family member with an illness, medical appointment, or other authorized medical need, on the same terms that apply to the employee’s own use. The employer may cap this family use at an amount equal to what the employee accrues in 6 months. “Immediate family” is defined broadly — child, foster child, spouse, domestic partner, sibling, parent, in-laws, grandchild, grandparent, stepparent, and anyone for whom the employee is legal guardian.
  • Domestic violence and sexual assault leave. NRS 608.0198 entitles an employee with at least 90 days on the job — one who is a victim, or whose family or household member is a victim, of an act constituting domestic violence or sexual assault — to up to 160 hours of leave in a 12-month period. The leave may be paid or unpaid, may be used consecutively or intermittently, and must be used within 12 months after the act; qualifying uses include medical care, counseling, court proceedings, and safety planning.

For how these leave rules sit alongside minimum wage, overtime, and break requirements, see the full guide to Nevada labor laws; daily rest and meal breaks have their own page at Nevada’s break laws.