Paid Family Leave by State

Paid family leave (PFL) is partial wage replacement for the weeks you take off work to bond with a new baby, recover from childbirth, or care for a sick family member. The federal default in the US is the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which guarantees up to 12 weeks of UNPAID, job-protected leave — but only if you work for an employer with 50 or more employees, have been there at least 12 months, and have logged at least 1,250 hours in the prior year. Roughly 4 in 10 American workers don't qualify for FMLA at all.

Only some states have built a paid leave program on top of that federal floor. As of 2026, around 13 states plus DC either run an active PFL program or have one set to launch. Most are funded by small payroll deductions (typically under 1% of wages), and most run through the state's labor or unemployment department. Wage replacement ranges from about 60% to 90% of your usual paycheck, capped at a weekly maximum, for a window of 6 to 12 weeks. A handful of states also offer Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) for the medical recovery portion after childbirth, which stacks with PFL.

Eligibility and benefit math vary a lot by state. Some programs cover you from your very first job; others need you to have earned a minimum wage threshold over a base year. Self-employed workers can usually opt in voluntarily. Job protection is sometimes baked into the state law and sometimes only available through FMLA, so it's worth checking both. Bookmark your state agency's PFL page early in pregnancy — most claims have a filing deadline measured in weeks after leave starts.