Overview
Arizona Military Leave (AZ-MIL) provides unpaid, job-protected leave to employees who are members of the National Guard of any state or the United States armed forces reserves and who are absent for active duty or authorized military training under competent military orders. AZ-MIL is administered by the employer. There is no state-administered program or insurance fund.
For detailed legislative requirements, see our Legislative Guidance.
How to Use
Throughout this guidance, look for these labels to quickly identify what actions may be needed:
✅ Automatic: System handles this automatically, no action needed
📝 Configuration Note: How the policy is set up in the platform
💡 Best Practice: AbsenceSoft recommendation for optimal management
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: User must complete this action or track elsewhere
How AbsenceSoft Manages the Law
AbsenceSoft manages this law through 1 policy.
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Policy Name - Arizona Military Leave
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Policy Code - AZ-MIL
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Benefit Type - Job Protection
Employer Coverage Requirements
Refer to Legislative guidance for details.
Excluded Employers
📝 Configuration Note: AZ-MIL is scoped to private employers. The separate obligations that apply to Arizona state agencies, counties, cities, towns, and other political subdivisions, including the paid entitlement available to public-sector employees, are not configured in AZ-MIL.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Public-sector employers should disable AZ-MIL or override eligibility to ineligible for their employees, and track their public-sector obligations outside the platform. Contact your AbsenceSoft support team to discuss a custom policy configuration.
Employee Eligibility
Refer to Legislative guidance for details.
Eligibility Exceptions
Excluded Employees
📝 Configuration Note: No eligibility rule is configured for military status or branch of service on either absence reason. Military status is not consistently maintained on the employee record, and it can change between the time a leave is submitted and the time leave begins, so an eligibility rule would cause qualifying cases to fail eligibility incorrectly.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: AbsenceSoft cannot verify an employee's branch of service, so AZ-MIL will pass eligibility for any Arizona employee who submits a case with a qualifying absence reason. Confirm that the employee is a member of the National Guard or the United States armed forces reserves and is acting under competent military orders before approving AZ-MIL, and override eligibility to ineligible for employees who are not covered by this law.
Leave Entitlements and Duration
Refer to Legislative guidance for details.
Entitlement Overview
Each AZ-MIL absence reason has a reasonable amount entitlement configured, per case, reflecting that the law sets no maximum leave duration for private employers. Entitlement is not shared across the two absence reasons, and no balance carries forward from one case to the next.
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Active Duty
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Reserve Training
✅ Automatic: AZ-MIL is applied automatically to eligible Arizona cases submitted with the Active Duty or Reserve Training absence reason.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Because no maximum duration is enforced, AZ-MIL will not deny leave based on the length of the request. Review the employee's military orders to confirm that the requested dates match the ordered period of duty or training, and adjust or deny dates that fall outside that period.
💡 Best Practice: Submit each period of active duty or training as its own case, so that usage and duration are tracked against the correct set of military orders.
Need Help?
For questions about policy configuration or case management, contact your AbsenceSoft support team or consult the Legislative Guidance for compliance details.