FMLA vs paid family leave: protection and pay are two different things
The Family and Medical Leave Act keeps your job open but pays nothing. State paid leave programs pay a weekly benefit but, in most states, do not by themselves hold your job. Pick a program to see what it pays.
New York Paid Family Leave, bonding with a new child
$838
a week · $10,050 for 12 weeks
| Weekly benefit | $838 |
| Average weekly wage used | $1,250 |
| Weeks paid (up to 12 weeks for this reason) | 12 weeks |
| Total for this leave | $10,050 |
| Federal income tax on it, about | $1,206 |
| Your take-home pay now, a week | $1,040 |
| Share of take-home pay replaced | 81 % before tax |
New York: 67% of the average weekly wage, up to 67% of the 2026 state average weekly wage of $1,833.63, so at most $1,228.53 a week. New York averages the last eight weeks worked; the engine uses your regular weekly pay.
Compiled by Radif Partners · How the estimates are built · state laws and agency pages read October 20, 2026
The FMLA and state paid leave answer two different questions. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act gives eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period for a birth or adoption, a serious health condition of their own or of a close family member. To be eligible, you must work for an employer with at least 50 employees, have worked there for 12 months and have at least 1,250 hours in the past year. The FMLA pays nothing. State programs do the reverse: they pay a weekly benefit, funded by payroll premiums, in California, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Washington, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon, Colorado, Minnesota, Delaware, Maine, District of Columbia, and most do not hold your job by themselves. With $65,000 of steady pay, twelve weeks of bonding pay about $10,050 in New York, $10,047 in Massachusetts and $10,800 in Delaware. A worker who qualifies for both usually takes them at the same time, so the leave is protected and paid. A worker who qualifies for neither is left with the employer's own policy.
What the FMLA does
The FMLA is a federal labor law. It lets an eligible employee take up to 12 workweeks of leave in a 12-month period and return to the same or an equivalent job, with group health coverage maintained during the leave. The reasons are the birth of a child and bonding with the newborn, adoption or foster placement, the employee's own serious health condition, and care for a spouse, child or parent with a serious health condition. Military family situations have their own rules. The leave can be taken in one block or, for medical reasons, intermittently.
The FMLA does not pay wages. An employer may require or allow you to use accrued paid leave at the same time, but the law itself guarantees only that the job is there when you come back.
Who the FMLA covers, and who it leaves out
Eligibility has three conditions: an employer with 50 or more employees, at least 12 months with that employer, and at least 1,250 hours worked in the 12 months before the leave. Many workers miss one of them: employees of small businesses, people in their first year on a job, and part-time workers below the hours threshold. Those workers have no federal job protection even if a state program pays them.
What a state program pays for the same weeks
Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave, bonding with a new child
$913
| Weekly benefit | $913 |
| Average weekly wage used | $1,250 |
| Weeks paid (up to 12 weeks for this reason) | 11 weeks after a 7-day wait |
| Total for this leave | $10,047 |
What state programs do differently
State programs pay; they do not depend on employer size; and most measure eligibility with wages rather than hours with one employer. New Jersey looks for 20 base-year weeks paid at least $310 or $15,500 in total, and Rhode Island for $19,200 of base-period wages. Delaware is the exception: its test of 12 months and 1,250 hours with a single employer mirrors the FMLA. Maryland, which pays from January 1, 2028, will ask for 680 hours in the state.
The weekly amount is a share of wages up to a cap: $838 a week at $65,000 in New York, 81 % of take-home pay before tax. New York describes its paid family leave as job-protected, paid time off (NY Paid Family Leave), which makes it one of the few programs that combines pay and protection in one law. Elsewhere, check the program page or your employer before relying on the job being held.
Using both at once
For a worker eligible for both, the usual arrangement is to run them together: the FMLA protects the job during the same weeks the state program pays. Ask your employer in writing whether your leave is designated as FMLA leave and how the state claim fits in. Two common surprises are worth knowing. First, the state may pay more weeks than the FMLA protects, as with Massachusetts medical leave, or fewer, as with California family leave. Second, some programs have an unpaid waiting week, so the first week of a protected leave can still be unpaid.
If your state has no program
In states without a program, the FMLA is the main protection, and pay depends on the employer: paid parental leave, short-term disability insurance, or sick and vacation days. Unemployment is not an option during a leave from a job you still hold; it is for people who have lost work and are available for a new job, as the unemployment calculator explains. The paid family leave comparison shows every state that pays, and the maternity leave pay page adds the weeks around a birth.