What’s bereavement leave? Laws, pay, and policy guide

Treating the death of family members as a mere administrative line item risks permanent disengagement. While 91% of employers offer some form of bereavement leave, about 30% of employees also had to use vacation or sick days.* When employees have to drain their rest-and-recovery days to manage a crisis, they return bordering on burnout with no remaining safety net.

This guide explores what bereavement leave is and provides the framework for a bereavement system that supports your people and your business goals.

* SHRM, 2024

Defining “bereavement leave”

Bereavement leave means dedicated time off that’s granted to employees following the death of an immediate family member, partner, or close relative. While some companies bundle bereavement leave into general PTO, it’s a good idea to separate the two, so a personal tragedy doesn’t drain the limited bucket of time meant for rest and relaxation.

Is bereavement leave paid?

Whether bereavement leave is paid or not depends on your state’s legislation and your company’s internal policy.

Many organizations provide three to five days of paid time for bereavement, but loss rarely fits into a 72-hour window. Employees who have to use their sick or vacation time to fully recover might inadvertently create a “grief tax” for your team. Almost three quarters of employees report their work suffering after a loss, including less focus, missed deadlines, and fears over losing their jobs.

With a people-first approach to HR, paid leave is an investment in the employee. It gives them the time they need to grieve, so they’ll be emotionally and physically capable of doing the work when they return.

Employer bereavement leave laws

Federal law in the United States doesn’t address bereavement leave, leaving a messy patchwork of state mandates. HR leaders scaling a distributed workforce have two options: You can either maintain a complex web of localized policies or standardize your benefits to the highest common denominator.

The regulatory floor is rising. Six states currently have specific requirements for bereavement leave:

• California: Employers with five or more employees must provide up to five days of leave for the death of a family member, including domestic partners and in-laws, within three months of the death. Employees must have worked for their current employer for at least 30 days before taking leave.
  
  
• Illinois: The Family Bereavement Leave Act (FBLA) grants up to two weeks (10 workdays) of unpaid leave for funeral arrangements and grieving a covered family member. The employee needs to have worked with their employer for at least 1,250 hours in the past 12 months and provide 48 hours’ notice. If they experience more than one loss in a 12-month period, they’re eligible for up to six weeks of leave.
  
  
• Maryland: Employers with at least 15 employees must allow staff to use earned paid leave — up to five days of sick leave — for the death of an immediate family member, and one day for extended family.
  
  
• Oregon: The Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA) requires that employers with at least 25 employees provide up to two weeks of protected leave per death of a family member within 60 days of learning about the death. Employees must have worked with their employer at least 25 hours a week for more than 180 days before taking leave.
  
  
• Washington: As of January 2026, expanded provisions under the Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) program grant up to seven days of leave for grieving employees within a year of their loved ones’ death.
  
  
• Vermont: Under the state’s Parental and Family Leave Act (PFLA), employers with at least 10 employees, who work an average of 30 hours a week, must provide bereavement leave. Employees who’ve worked with their employer for at least 30 hours a week in the last year are owed up to two weeks (10 workdays) of unpaid leave for the death of a family member, but there’s a catch: It can only be taken in increments up to five days over a 12-month period.

In the European Union, bereavement is typically treated as a fundamental right under labor laws. Most member states mandate between two and five days of paid leave.

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No matter where you and your employees are located, you can quickly structure your bereavement leave policy with our template.
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How does bereavement leave work in practice?

Without a bereavement leave plan ready when a crisis hits, your HR team might become the process police in a moment when empathy and a people-first approach is needed most.

Here’s how to move from reactive emergency mode into calm, proactive leadership with a responsive workflow.

Establish a clear, consistent policy

Instead of leaving it to managers to decide who qualifies for leave, define clear, organization-wide eligibility guidelines. By stating the rules early, you remove the burden of negotiation from a grieving employee. 

This is a good moment to modernize your policy if you already have one in place, so it includes bereavement leave for a miscarriage and for domestic partners. 

Train managers to put empathy first

“Psychological safety is allowing people to experience the human mess without it being to their detriment in their job. It’s letting people show up fully in their identity, regardless of who it offends.” 
— Madison Butler, Founder of The Employee Journey Blueprint

Managers are your cultural front line. If they respond to news of a loss by asking about a project deadline, the employee’s trust in the organization will evaporate. Train your leadership to lead the conversation with empathy and a people-first script: Acknowledge the loss and confirm the support available. Only after the employee feels taken care of should managers discuss the handoff. 

Plan for temporary workload coverage

Here are a few things you can do to prepare for temporary workload coverage:

• Create a workload coverage template to speed up the planning process
• Make sure core responsibilities and critical tasks are documented in a shared system
• Have freelancer contacts available for quick fill-ins when needed
• Bake some capacity wiggle-room into your teams’ workloads so they can pivot with ease

Create a thoughtful return-to-work process

Once the employee is back, schedule a brief check-in to prioritize tasks instead of automatically expecting 100% capacity on day one. A “soft landing” prevents burnout and signals that the organization values the person, not just their output.

Use systems that support sensitive leave requests

A distraught employee shouldn’t have to go through four different spreadsheets and an email chain to find out how to ask for bereavement leave. Instead, use a centralized platform like Leapsome, which allows for quick approvals and instant visibility for coverage planning.

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🗓️ Manage absences without missing a beat
Leapsome’s Absence Management module supports HR teams and managers by providing centralized data to easily see who’s on leave and plan coverage accordingly.
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Bereavement leave policy: Key elements

Vague policies create an empathy lottery where support depends on individual managers. Most bereavement policies are skeletal at best, leaving too much room for bias and anxiety.

To build a resilient culture, your bereavement policy needs to be explicit, accessible, and automated.

Who’s eligible?

Many organizations stick to immediate family, but modern leaders are expanding this to include different human bonds that might require time off to grieve. Consider adding the following relationships to your eligibility policy:

• Domestic partners
• Aunts and uncles
• Nieces and nephews
• Cousins
• Grandparents
• Grandchildren
• Close friends

How long can they leave?

Standardize the time based on the type of the relationship. A common benchmark is five days for immediate family and one to three days for extended relatives. Treat these numbers as a floor, not a ceiling — grief doesn’t follow a calendar, and employees may need more support.

What’s the payment structure?

Clearly state if the leave is paid, unpaid, or hybrid. Before defining the rules, consider that 49% of workers report lacking the appropriate PTO to handle an emotional crisis like losing a loved one. When employees have to choose between their paycheck and their sanity, the resulting resentment is a fast track to turnover.

Define the request and approval process

Remove friction and create a simple approval path. This can be a direct message to their manager or a quick update in your HRIS. In cases where you have to reject the leave request, make it extremely clear why and how else you can work with them.

Do they need any documents?

Decide early if you’re going to ask for proof like an obituary or death certificate. Many organizations are moving away from this requirement for standard leave, reserving it only for extended absences.

Supporting employees returning from bereavement leave

“Work isn’t the center of our universe — it sustains it. People can’t be their best selves every day, and that’s okay. Psychological safety means you can be human without losing your job.” 
— Madison Butler, Founder at The Employee Journey Blueprint

For many grieving employees, the first week back is exhausting, as they have a mountain of missed tasks to go through while managing an altered personal life.

Offering meaningful bereavement leave creates a safety net for employees and demonstrates that the organization cares about them as people. By continuing to extend empathetic support after they’re back, you can help a vulnerable teammate avoid burnout while reinforcing a healthy company culture.

Move beyond a welcome back email and equip your managers with a specific re-entry framework:

• Schedule a low-pressure check-in: Meet with the employee to see how they’re coping and if there’s anything you can do to help with the transition.
  
  
• Clarify priorities: Identify the three most critical tasks, and give clear priority instructions to all team members.

• Add “grief flexibility”: Your employee might be feeling great on Monday and overwhelmed by Thursday. Allow for temporary remote work or flexible hours to dampen the aftershock.

Support your team through life's moments with Leapsome

Bereavement is a high-stakes test of your organizational resilience. When an employee loses someone, they need more than a few isolated days off: Give them an organized, compassionate response, and build a game plan with their manager and other team members so the most important tasks stay covered.

Leapsome helps HR teams navigate sensitive parts of the employee lifecycle with structure and empathy. The Absence Management tool helps you customize policies, monitor requests, track leave trends, and gather real-time sentiment data, so you can effectively plan coverage while ensuring every teammate receives the same high standard of support. 

“Employees can now find everything in one place — their data, absences, goals, and reviews. I don’t have to explain which tool to use for what. It’s all in Leapsome.”  — Merilyn L., Senior People Operations Specialist at Bob W

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Leapsome helps you manage sensitive leave requests, track employee sentiment, and maintain operational continuity — all in one place.
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FAQ

What are the bereavement leave policies for grandparents?

Most bereavement policies include grandparents in the immediate family category, qualifying employees for three days of paid leave after they pass. In some states, offering this time off is required, so make sure to check local mandates to stay compliant with the state laws.