How to build a bereavement leave policy that balances empathy and efficiency

While the painful experience of losing a dear one is deeply personal, most people in this situation will relay the message to their manager as soon as possible—so that they can make arrangements and plan their goodbyes in peace without disrupting work. That’s why a bereavement leave policy is so important for organizations. It balances the empathy employees deserve in such a hard time with the practical needs of workplace management.

This article explains what bereavement leave is, where the law requires it, who counts as family, how much time is standard, and what your policy should include.

Bereavement leave is time off an employee takes after the death of a family member to grieve, attend services, and handle the practical matters that follow. It’s usually its own leave type, separate from vacation and sick time.

A bereavement leave policy sets the rules of who’s eligible, which relationships qualify, how many days employees get, whether those days are paid, how to request them, and what documentation you’ll ask for, if any.

No federal law requires private employers to offer bereavement leave, but several states do, and others let employees use paid leave they’ve already earned. What laws apply depends on where each employee works, not where your headquarters is located.

First, we should stress that the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) does not cover bereavement. The US Department of Labor’s list of FMLA qualifying reasons covers the birth or placement of a child, a serious health condition (e.g., the employee’s own, a spouse’s, child’s, or parent’s), and certain military-related needs. The list does not include the death of a family member.

Federal employees follow different rules, which could serve as a benchmark for private employers willing to offer more than state law requires. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) lets federal workers use up to 104 hours (13 days) of sick leave each year to arrange or attend a family member’s funeral, and federal law gives them two workweeks of paid parental bereavement leave after the death of a son or daughter.

The table below covers bereavement leave laws by state, as of November 2026. It includes every state with a relevant rule; states with none are left out.

STATE	WHO MUST COMPLY	WHAT EMPLOYEES GET	PAID/UNPAID	IN EFFECT SINCE
California	Employers with 5+ employees; employees with 30 days of service	Up to 5 days per death, within 3 months; a separate 5 days for reproductive loss; from 2027, SB 1149 adds one employee-chosen “designated person” to the covered relationships	Unpaid; employees can use accrued paid leave	Jan. 1, 2023 (reproductive loss: Jan. 1, 2024; designated person: Jan. 1, 2027)
Colorado	Employers covered by the state paid sick leave law	Right to use paid sick leave to grieve, attend a funeral or memorial, or handle financial and legal matters after a family member’s death	From the employee’s sick leave balance	Aug. 7, 2023
Illinois	Employers covered by the FMLA; FMLA-eligible employees	Up to 10 workdays per death or pregnancy-related loss, within 60 days, up to 6 weeks in 12 months; extended leave of 6 or 12 weeks, by employer size, when a child dies by suicide or homicide; right to use up to 40 hours of state-paid leave for any reason	Unpaid; state-paid leave can be used	Jan. 1, 2023 (extended child leave and paid leave: Jan. 1, 2024)
Maine	Employers with more than 10 employees in Maine	Up to 40 hours per year of earned paid leave; the law doesn’t restrict how employees use it	From the employee’s own balance	Jan. 1, 2021
Maryland	Employers with 15+ employees	Right to use earned paid leave after the death of a child, spouse, or parent	From the employee’s own balance	Oct. 1, 2021
Massachusetts	All employers	Right to use earned sick time after a pregnancy loss or a failed assisted reproduction, adoption, or surrogacy; other deaths aren’t covered	Paid at employers with 11+ employees	Nov. 21, 2024
Minnesota	Employers of anyone expected to work 80+ hours per year in Minnesota	Right to use earned sick and safe time for funeral arrangements, services, and financial or legal matters after a death	From the employee’s own balance	May 25, 2024
Nevada	Private employers with 50+ employees	Paid leave that employees can take without giving a reason	From the employee’s own balance	Jan. 1, 2020
New Jersey	Pending bill	A113 would add grieving a miscarriage or stillbirth to state family leave	Not set	Not enacted
New York	Pending bill	S8892 would let employees use paid sick leave for bereavement	Not set	Not enacted
Oregon	Employers with 25+ employees; employees with 180 days of service averaging 25 hours per week	Up to 2 weeks per family member and 4 weeks per year, within 60 days of learning of the death; state sick time can also be used after a family member’s death	Unpaid; sick time is paid at employers with 10+ employees (6+ in Portland)	2014 (current limits: July 1, 2024)
Vermont	Employers with 10+ employees averaging 30 hours per week; employees with 1 year of service	Up to 2 weeks, with no more than 5 consecutive days, within 1 year of the death	Unpaid	July 1, 2025
Washington	No employer mandate	State paid family leave covers 7 calendar days after a child’s death, in limited cases	Paid by the state program	June 9, 2022

For most private employers, bereavement leave is paid only if your policy or a union contract pays it, or if the law lets employees use paid leave they’ve earned. No private-sector laws in the table above require employers to pay for bereavement days beyond sick or paid leave. In most cases, whether and how much to pay is a business decision. However, it’s worth pricing out, because asking someone to spend vacation days to bury a parent could land as insensitive. 

If you do decide to pay, settle these choices:

• Rate: Pay bereavement days at the employee’s regular base rate.
• Order of use: Decide whether employees use paid bereavement days first, then their PTO or floating holidays, then unpaid leave. Update your PTO policy accordingly.
• Overlap with state law: Say whether paid days count toward any state-protected days, so that employees in different states know what they have in total.
• Manager discretion: Decide whether managers can approve extra paid days in exceptional cases, with limits and recorded approvals, as for other discretionary benefits.

Immediate family is whoever your policy says it is, as long as your list is at least as broad as any state law that covers your employees. There’s no single legal answer to this question, and the state definitions differ more than you might expect. 

Here are some examples of state definitions for immediate family:

• Maryland: This is the narrowest list, with only child, spouse, or parent.
• California: Includes spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner, or parent-in-law. Starting January 1, 2027, employees can also name a designated person, anyone related by blood or whose association with them is the equivalent of a family relationship. Employers can limit this to one designated person every 12 months.
• Illinois: Adds stepchildren and stepparents to most of California’s list, but doesn’t cover aunts, uncles, nieces, or nephews.
• Oregon: Extends to the relatives of a spouse or domestic partner, plus anyone related by blood or affinity whose close association with the employee is equivalent to a family relationship.

If you have employees in several states, adopt the broadest list for everyone to avoid confusion. Also consider any cases a short list might miss, such as an employee raised by an aunt or a long-term partner who isn’t a spouse.

How long bereavement leave lasts depends on your policy and your state. Three days per death has long been common in employee handbooks, while state laws passed since 2023 set minimums of five days to two weeks for the employees they cover. 

When you set your own number, decide on these points:

• Tiers: Consider more days for a spouse, partner, child, or parent, and fewer for extended family. Many policies also give one day for a close friend or coworker.
• Timing: Let employees take days within a set window, such as 60 days or three months, and allow them to split the days.
• Travel: Add extra days when the funeral involves long-distance or international travel.
• Multiple losses: Say what happens if an employee loses more than one family member in a year.

Grief doesn’t end when the leave does, so point returning employees to the mental health support you offer, and give managers room to adjust workloads.

In states with a bereavement leave law, retaliating against someone for requesting or taking it is illegal. For example, California’s Civil Rights Department states that employers can’t retaliate or discriminate against, demote, suspend, or fire an employee for using this leave. In other cases, protection depends on your policy, other applicable laws, and consistent enforcement.

If you run a points-based attendance system, make sure that approved bereavement days don’t count against it, and check with employment counsel before disciplining someone for a bereavement absence.

Once you’ve made the decisions above, a complete bereavement leave policy covers these 10 elements:

1. Purpose and scope: Define what the leave is for, and who it applies to.
2. Eligibility: Specify whether leave is available from day one. California allows a 30-day wait, for example, but you can be more generous.
3. Covered relationships: List who is considered immediate family, plus the catch-all.
4. Amount and timing: Outline the days per death, tiers, window to use them, and whether they can be split.
5. Pay: Define paid days, pay rates, and how other balances apply after that.
6. How to request: Designate who the employee should tell and how. Illinois, for example, allows employers to ask for 48 hours’ notice where practicable.
7. Documentation: Clarify whether you’ll ask for it, what counts, and when it’s due. California lets employees provide it up to 30 days after leave begins, and requires employers to keep it confidential.
8. Interaction with other leave: Explain how bereavement leave fits with PTO, sick leave, and any state-specific addenda.
9. Non-retaliation: Provide your protection statement and the attendance carve-out.
10. Support on return: Describe your employee assistance program, flexible scheduling, and who to contact for help.

A strong bereavement leave policy spares a grieving employee the need to ask questions in a painful moment. Start with the laws that cover your people, adopt the broadest family definition you need, decide on pay and timing, and put the policy on a review schedule, since state laws can change.

Apart from the loss of dear ones, other moments in an employee’s life require empathy, such as workforce changes or layoffs. Careerminds can help you support your staff through career transitions, from coaching and leadership development to redeployment and outplacement. Get in touch with our experts to talk through what that support could look like for your organization.