Iowa Labor Laws: A Complete Guide to Wages, Breaks, Overtime, and More (2025)

Under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act or FMLA, eligible employees can take up to 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave for certain family and medical reasons while retaining employer-provided health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the leave hadn’t been taken.

This includes leave for personal illness, to care for sick family members, for the birth or adoption of a child, and certain military-related reasons. Additionally, FMLA allows eligible employees to take up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a sick or injured current Armed Forces member.

Eligibility for FMLA leave in Iowa requires an employee to work for a covered employer, have worked 1,250 hours during the 12 months before the start of leave, and work at a location where the employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles.

All city governments in Iowa are considered covered employers under FMLA, but compliance requirements vary based on the number of employees.

Iowa does not mandate that employers provide sick leave to employees. However, they may choose to offer paid or unpaid sick leave as part of their employee benefits package. 

Employers in Iowa are not mandated by law to provide vacation leave, whether paid or unpaid. However, they may implement it according to their established company policies with specific requirements to comply with to accrue and use vacation leaves. 

Private employers in Iowa are have discretion over holiday leaves for employees. They are not required to provide paid or unpaid holiday leaves or premium pay for employees working on holidays. However, many companies offer at least seven paid holiday leaves. 

Employers in Iowa must provide employees with two consecutive hours of paid voting leave if the employee does not have two consecutive hours outside their regular working shift to vote while polling places are open (from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.). 

Employers are not required to pay employees for responding to a jury summons or serving on a jury unless they have a policy of doing so. Moreover, employers cannot harass or terminate employees who are summoned for jury service. 

Employers in Iowa must pay regular salary for up to 30 days per calendar year for employees who are called for military duty. This applies to employees who are enlisting as an organized reserve, a member of the National Guard, or any part of the U.S. or State of Iowa military. 

Employers in Iowa are required to provide an Emergency Response Leave for volunteer firefighters and emergency medical service personnel for the period of an emergency response. Availment of this leave should not affect the employee’s efficiency rating, pay, benefits, bonuses, sick leaves, and rights to action. 

Employers in Iowa must provide witness leave to employees who must appear as witnesses in a criminal proceeding or as witnesses, defendants, or plaintiffs in a civil domestic abuse proceeding. 

Iowa does not allow subminimum wages for employees who are student workers, apprentices, or with disabilities. All these workers must be paid at least $7.25 per hour. 

However, some exceptions include learners, who can be paid a subminimum wage of $4.25 per hour in the first 90 days of employment. Newly hired workers under 20 can be paid at least $6.35 per hour during their first 90 days. 

The Iowa minimum wage has several exemptions, which include: 

• Employees in professional, administrative, and executive positions
• Outside salespersons
• Seasonal workers employed at camps and recreational and amusement establishments operating for limited months in a year
• Small service and retail businesses with annual gross sales under $300,000

Iowa’s “at-will” employment doctrine means employers or employees can terminate an employment relationship at any time, for any reason, and without prior notice, as long as the reason is not illegal (e.g., discrimination).

However, an employee may have legal recourse if the termination violates an employment contract or for discriminatory reasons.

Iowa is a right-to-work state, meaning that employees cannot be required to join a union or pay union dues as a condition of employment.

Access to criminal history data for employment-related purposes is allowed in Iowa with certain restrictions.

Employers must bear the cost of criminal background checks and cannot access certain types of records, such as those that resulted in acquittal or dismissal. Deferred judgments that have been successfully completed also require a signed release for access.

Iowa law permits employers to conduct drug or alcohol testing on job applicants as a condition of employment. If an applicant tests positive or refuses to provide a testing sample, the employer may refuse to hire them.

Employers choosing to conduct these tests must have a written policy outlining the specifics of the testing process, train supervisory staff involved in testing, and notify applicants of positive test results.

Besides the ICRA, employers in Iowa are also subject to federal anti-discrimination laws enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, also known as the EEOC. These laws provide additional protections against workplace discrimination and cover a range of areas, including disability, race, and gender.