State disability insurance in 2026: short-term disability pay by state
A handful of states pay part of your wages when an illness, an injury off the job or a pregnancy keeps you from working. Choose a program in the calculator and enter your pay.
California State Disability Insurance (DI), your own illness, injury or pregnancy
$969
a week · $4,846 for 6 weeks
| Weekly benefit | $969 |
| Average weekly wage used | $1,077 |
| Weeks paid (up to 52 weeks for this reason) | 5 weeks after a 7-day wait |
| Total for this leave | $4,846 |
| Federal income tax | depends on who paid the premiums |
| Your take-home pay now, a week | $893 |
| Share of take-home pay replaced | 109 % |
California: 90% of high-quarter wages ÷ 13 when the high quarter is $16,279.90 or less; above that, the greater of 70% of high-quarter wages ÷ 13 or $1,127; between $50 and $1,765 a week.
Compiled by Radif Partners · How the estimates are built · state laws and agency pages read October 20, 2026
State disability insurance pays a weekly benefit when a non-work illness, injury or pregnancy keeps you off the job. The older programs, known as SDI or TDI, exist in 5 states: California, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Hawaii. Beside them, the paid family and medical leave programs of Washington, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon, Colorado, Minnesota, Delaware, Maine, District of Columbia have added medical leave for your own serious health condition. The benefits differ sharply. At $56,000 a year of steady pay, the weekly amount runs from $170 under New York DBL to $997 under Paid Leave Oregon. California SDI pays for the longest, up to 52 weeks, while Delaware Paid Leave stops at 6 weeks every 24 months. Each of the older programs starts with 7 unpaid days. Outside these states, disability pay comes only from an employer's short-term disability plan. Benefits funded by your own contributions are generally excluded from federal income.
Two generations of programs
The older programs, California SDI, New York DBL, New Jersey TDI, Rhode Island TDI, Hawaii TDI, insure only your own health. Family leave exists there as a separate benefit in California, New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island, while Hawaii has none. The newer programs, starting with Washington, cover medical and family leave in one law, with one formula and often one combined limit on weeks.
For a worker the difference shows up in the details. A TDI program can pay many more weeks for an illness; a newer program pays fewer weeks but often a higher share of wages, and its medical weeks may reduce the family weeks left for the year.
| Program | Weekly maximum | Weeks for your own health | Unpaid days first | At $56,000 a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California SDI | $1,765 | 52 | 7 | $969 |
| New York DBL | $170 | 26 | 7 | $170 |
| New Jersey TDI | $1,119 | 26 | 7 | $915 |
| Rhode Island TDI | $1,150 | 30 | 7 | $647 |
| Hawaii TDI | $871 | 26 | 7 | $625 |
| Washington PFML | $1,647 | 12 | 7 | $904 |
| Massachusetts PFML | $1,230.39 | 20 | 7 | $827 |
| CT Paid Leave | $1,016.40 | 12 | not stated | $883 |
| Paid Leave Oregon | $1,692.16 | 12 | not stated | $997 |
| Colorado FAMLI | $1,448.02 | 12 | not stated | $860 |
| Minnesota Paid Leave | $1,423 | 12 | not stated | $882 |
| Delaware Paid Leave | $900 | 6 | not stated | $862 |
| Maine PFML | $1,249.12 | 12 | not stated | $861 |
| DC PFL | $1,100 | 10 | not stated | $969 |
Disability pay in another state
New Jersey Temporary Disability Insurance, your own illness, injury or pregnancy
$915
| Weekly benefit | $915 |
| Average weekly wage used | $1,077 |
| Weeks paid (up to 26 weeks for this reason) | 5 weeks after a 7-day wait |
| Total for this leave | $4,577 |
The waiting week
California SDI, New York DBL, New Jersey TDI, Rhode Island TDI, Hawaii TDI, Washington PFML, Massachusetts PFML withhold the first 7 days of a medical claim. For a short illness that is a large share of the benefit. New Jersey softens the rule by paying the waiting week once the disability passes 22 days. Over 6 weeks at $56,000, California's SDI pays $4,846 and New Jersey's TDI about $5,492 once its waiting week is paid back.
New York, the outlier
New York's Disability Benefits Law pays half of wages up to $170 a week, a cap so low that it applies to almost every full-time worker. The state's family leave pays far more than its disability benefit, the reverse of most states. Some New York employers buy richer plans; the New York DBL page explains how to check.
Pregnancy is a disability
Every program on this page treats pregnancy and recovery from childbirth as a disability or a serious health condition when a provider certifies it. That makes the disability program the first source of pay around a birth, followed by family leave for bonding. The maternity leave pay page adds the two state by state, including the extra weeks some programs grant for pregnancy complications.
Not workers' compensation, not SSDI
State disability insurance covers conditions that are not caused by your job; a work injury is a workers' compensation claim. It is also short term, measured in weeks, unlike federal Social Security disability, which pays for long-term disability under its own strict rules. Unemployment is a third, separate program, for people able to work: you cannot claim it for the same weeks as disability. See the unemployment calculator for that side.
If your state has no program
In most states there is no public disability benefit at all. Pay during an illness then depends on paid sick days, accrued vacation and any short-term disability insurance offered at work, which is a private contract with its own waiting period, share of salary and length. Read the plan summary before you need it, and note who pays the premium: that decides how the benefit is taxed. The federal FMLA may still protect the job of an eligible worker, without pay.
Federal tax on disability benefits
Under Revenue Ruling 2025-4, state medical leave benefits are excluded from gross income to the extent they are attributable to employee contributions, and taxable to the extent they come from employer contributions that were not taxed to you. California's SDI, funded only by workers, falls on the excluded side. The paid leave tax page goes through the split.