This post will guide you through employee leave laws for businesses and workers located in the state of Oregon.
Follow this guide to understand employers’ obligations for vacation time, paid time off (PTO), sick leave, parental leave, bereavement and more, along with state holidays observed in Oregon.
This page is intended for reference purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please see official government sources or consult a legal professional for actual legal advice.
Paid or unpaid vacation time is not mandated by law in Oregon. If an employer provides this benefit, though, they must comply with any rules stated in their own company policies or contracts.
Oregon law does not specifically address Use It or Lose It situations, suggesting that employers may enforce a Use It or Lose It vacation policy.
This type of policy is not allowed for sick leave, however, which is required to carry over from year to year.
Use It or Lose It leave policies mean that any leave not used at the end of the year is forfeited, and not carried over to the following year. Learn more about Use It or Lose It policies here.
Oregon law does not require companies to pay out unused paid time off when an employee leaves their job, either forced or voluntarily.
Payout of unused PTO is only required if promised in a company’s policy or contract.
Read More: PTO Payout Laws by State
The following official state holidays are observed in Oregon:
| Date | Holiday |
|---|---|
| January 1 | New Year’s Day |
| 3rd Monday in January | Martin Luther King, Jr. Day |
| 3rd Monday in February | Presidents Day |
| Last Monday in May | Memorial Day |
| June 19 | Juneteenth |
| July 4 | Independence Day |
| 1st Monday in September | Labor Day |
| November 11 | Veterans Day |
| 4th Thursday in November | Thanksgiving |
| Day After Thanksgiving | The Day after Thanksgiving |
| December 25 | Christmas |
There is no requirement to allow employees a paid or unpaid day off for state holidays, and employees required to work on state holidays are not legally entitled to extra compensation (such as higher pay or a compensatory day off), unless promised in their employment contract.
Employers with 10 or more employees (6 or more for employers with a location in Portland) must provide paid sick leave. Employers with fewer employees must provide unpaid sick leave.
Employees earn one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, to a maximum of 40 hours per year.
Employees can carry over up to 40 hours of unused sick leave from one year to the next.
Oregon has its own version of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), called Paid Leave Oregon.
Paid Leave Oregon entitles eligible employees to up to 12 weeks of paid leave within a 12 month period for situations such as:
An additional four weeks of unpaid leave are available for the following:
Two weeks of unpaid leave is given for the death of a family member.
Learn more about Paid Leave Oregon.
Under Paid Leave Oregon, new mothers are entitled to up to 12 weeks of paid leave plus four weeks of unpaid leave in a 12 month period to care for a new child (including adoptions and fosters).
Fathers receive the same rights under Oregon’s Family and Medical Leave for the birth or placement of their new child.
Paid Leave Oregon requires employers with 25 or more employees to provide up to two weeks of unpaid leave to eligible employees for the death of a family member.
Employers do not have to provide paid leave for employees serving jury duty, however, they cannot discharge, threaten or penalize employees for serving or responding to a jury summons.
Employers in Oregon do not have to provide paid or unpaid voting leave.
Oregon law requires employers with 25 or more employees to provide up to 14 days of unpaid military family leave for employees with a spouse or same-sex domestic partner is called up to active duty, or has impending leave from deployment during a period of military conflict.
Federal Law (the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA)) applies in Oregon, which states that military service members receive up to five years of unpaid leave for military service, and upon returning, must be reinstated to the same position (or an equivalent position) as they had before their leave.
Anything not covered in Oregon state leave laws is up to the discretion of the employer, such as whether or not to provide paid sick leave or PTO, or whether PTO rolls over from year to year.
However, if any benefits are laid out in an employee’s contract or company policy, employers must comply with what has been agreed in that document.
For example, if an employee’s contract states that they are to receive 12 days of PTO each year, the employer is legally required to provide this, even though paid time off is not required by state law.
https://www.oregon.gov/boli/workers/pages/sick-time.aspx
https://paidleave.oregon.gov/employees/overview.html
https://www.oregon.gov/boli/workers/pages/oregon-family-leave.aspx
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