Does Indiana require paid family or sick leave in 2026?

Out of office

Does Indiana require paid family leave?

No. Indiana has no state paid family leave law. Thirteen states plus Washington DC do; Indiana is not one of them, and the state legislature has shown no appetite for one.

There is no state PFL withholding line on an Indiana payslip. No claim portal. No bond schedule. The cost line that adds 0.5 to 1.0 percent of wages in Colorado, Connecticut, or New York simply does not exist here.

Owen runs engineering at a 35-person Indianapolis SaaS company. He is benchmarking parental leave against a remote-first Chicago competitor that pays an 8-week employer-funded parental top-up on top of Illinois PLAWA sick-time accrual. Owen’s offer letter has to do the whole job by itself.

His decision for the next funding round: 12 weeks paid for the primary caregiver, 6 weeks for the secondary, day-one accrual. Cost across the workforce sits at roughly 1.9 percent of payroll. The retention maths is simple. One senior engineer leaving over a leave-policy gap costs more than a year of that 1.9 percent line.

Does Indiana require paid sick leave?

No. Indiana has no state paid sick leave law. Eighteen states plus Washington DC and dozens of cities require accrued paid sick time; Indiana is not one of them, and Indiana cities cannot fill the gap.

Sick days at an Indiana job are whatever the offer letter says they are. The median private-sector employer in the state offers 5 paid sick days a year. Knowledge-work competitors go to 7 to 10 days, often inside a single PTO bank with day-one accrual.

Maya leads operations on a 90-person Fort Wayne manufacturing floor. One of her line leads catches a stomach bug, burns her last 2 sick days inside 18 hours, and is back on the floor the third morning still queasy. The offer letter capped her at 5.

There is no FMLA cover for a routine 24-hour bug, and there is no state PSL floor. Whether the line lead gets paid for the third day off is purely a manager’s discretion call. That uncertainty is what costs Maya the worker six months later when a Chicago-based contract manufacturer offers PLAWA-style accrual under Illinois law.

What is Indiana’s HEA 1393 local-leave preemption?

House Enrolled Act 1393, signed into law in 2023, blocks every Indiana city and county from enacting its own paid sick leave or paid family leave ordinance. The state floor is the ceiling, and the state floor is zero.

The result is unusual for a US state. A multi-state employer can ignore the local-ordinance map for Indiana entirely. There is no Indianapolis carve-out, no Bloomington ordinance, no Fort Wayne accrual rate to track.

Reid is a research analyst at a Bloomington life-sciences firm with 180 employees across Indiana, plus a remote team in Chicago and St. Louis. The Indiana 180 face the same federal-and-voluntary stack. The Chicago staff sit inside Illinois PLAWA, Cook County’s paid-leave overlay where applicable, and the Chicago Paid Leave Ordinance for any employees within city limits.

Indiana cities cannot add a third layer no matter how the political wind shifts. That stability is the policy backdrop most multi-state HR teams underrate when they price the cost of a hire in Indianapolis versus a hire in Chicago.

What does federal FMLA give Indiana employees?

Federal FMLA gives qualifying Indiana employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per 12-month period. Group health coverage continues at the employer’s normal premium share.

It applies only to employers with 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius. The employee qualifies after 12 months of tenure and 1,250 hours worked.

The 50-employee threshold counts your entire US payroll, not just Indiana headcount. An employer with 30 Indiana staff and 25 Ohio staff crosses the line even though neither state alone gets there.

For Owen’s 35-person Indianapolis SaaS team with no other US presence, FMLA does not yet apply. If a developer needs leave today for a serious illness or a newborn, the answer is whatever Owen’s voluntary policy says.

What protections apply for pregnancy and disability in Indiana?

Federal law applies. Indiana added a pregnancy accommodation rule in 2024 that mirrors the federal floor without going further.

The federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, or PWFA, took effect 27 June 2023. It requires reasonable accommodation for pregnancy, childbirth, and related conditions at any employer with 15 or more employees.

The Americans with Disabilities Act covers pregnancy-related disabilities such as gestational diabetes or severe preeclampsia. The 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act treats pregnancy as any other temporary disability for benefits and leave parity.

Between 15 and 50 employees, PWFA covers accommodation (modified duties, schedule changes, time off for appointments, lactation breaks). FMLA does not yet apply, so there is no statutory 12-week job hold for the birth itself. That gap is the policy decision your offer letter has to make explicit. Maya’s 90-person Fort Wayne floor is over both federal thresholds. Owen’s 35-person Indianapolis SaaS team is over PWFA but under FMLA.

What happens when your Indiana team has Illinois staff too?

Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers Act, or PLAWA, applies based on where the employee physically performs work, not where the employer is registered. An Indiana company with one Illinois-based remote employee picks up Illinois PLAWA obligations on that single worker.

Illinois PLAWA accrues at 1 hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked, up to 40 hours per 12-month period, usable for any reason without notice rules. Chicago and Cook County add their own paid-leave ordinances on top for employees within those boundaries.

Reid’s Bloomington life-sciences firm includes four data analysts based in Chicago and one in Evanston. Those five sit inside Illinois PLAWA, the Chicago Paid Leave Ordinance for the Chicago-based four, and Cook County PSL for the Evanston staffer if Evanston has not opted out. The other 175 Indiana-based staff sit inside the federal-only stack.

This is where the cleanest multi-state Indiana compliance question gets messy fast. Many Indiana employers reach back into Chicago for senior talent. The PLAWA conflict lands on payroll the moment the offer letter does.

What about military leave and jury duty in Indiana?

Federal USERRA protects civilian jobs for service members. Indiana mirrors it for National Guard service called by the Governor.

Jury duty is mandatory. Indiana employers cannot discharge or threaten an employee for serving. State law does not require pay continuation for jury duty, but a deduction from salaried-exempt pay for a jury day is forbidden under federal salary-basis rules.

Neither rule is a state PFL or PSL programme. They are narrow, separate carve-outs that apply regardless of headcount.

What about employers with fewer than 50 employees in Indiana?

Below 50 employees, Indiana imposes no mandatory paid-leave law at all, with two narrow exceptions: PWFA accommodation at 15 employees and USERRA reemployment regardless of headcount.

Everything else is voluntary. Paid parental, paid sick, paid bereavement, paid vacation, unpaid time off for a child’s school visit.

Owen’s 35-person Indianapolis SaaS team sits squarely in this zone. The good news is no state PFL portal, no PSL ledger, no protected-leave clock to manage. The bad news is no federal employer cover when a Chicago-based competitor offers Illinois PLAWA accrual topped up by 8 weeks of employer-funded parental leave.

The pattern Teamed sees for Indiana clients hiring their first three to ten people: 8 weeks paid parental leave, 8 paid sick days, 3 paid bereavement days, full pay during jury duty. Cost is roughly 1.5 to 2.5 percent of payroll. It is the difference between losing Owen’s senior engineer to the Chicago competitor and keeping her for the next funding round.

How does Teamed handle Indiana leave end to end?

Teamed becomes your legal Employer of Record in Indiana and runs the full leave administration. Voluntary policy design with Midwest benchmark data, FMLA eligibility tracking for the 50-employee trigger, PWFA accommodation logging at 15 plus the parallel Indiana Civil Rights Law claim path, jury and Indiana National Guard handling, USERRA reinstatement, and Illinois PLAWA administration for any cross-border employees.

One platform. Named country specialist. A real human picks up the phone when a leave question comes in.