The Family and Medical Leave Act, or FMLA, provides job-protected time off for workers to care for a serious health condition, care for a family member with a health issue, or welcome a new child into their family. Despite how common these situations are for the average worker in California, there’s still a lot of confusion on the finer points of FMLA, including whether it’s paid or unpaid leave. So is FMLA paid? Here’s everything you need to know.
What Is FMLA?
The Family and Medical Leave Act is a federal labor law that guarantees workers the right to up to 12 months of job-protected leave per year in certain situations. FMLA covers workers dealing with the following conditions and situations:
Serious Health Conditions
Under FMLA, workers in California have employee leave rights for serious health conditions. These include conditions requiring inpatient care, ongoing treatment, and serious chronic health conditions. You can also receive FMLA coverage for permanent or long-term incapacity, restorative surgery involving multiple treatments, and certain mental health conditions. Examples of eligible conditions include:
- Severe migraines
- Diabetes
- Alzheimer’s
- Epilepsy
- Severe stroke
- Terminal illness
- Major depression
- Severe anxiety
- Trauma
You can also be eligible for FMLA if you have a condition that requires treatment that leaves you incapable of working, such as dialysis, radiation therapy, or chemotherapy.
Family Member Care
The FMLA also protects your right to take leave to care for a family member with a qualifying health condition, such as those listed above. In California, family leave laws apply to many different kinds of family relatives, including:
- Children of any age, including biological, adopted, or foster children, stepchildren, and legal wards
- Spouses
- Domestic partners
- Parents, including biological, adoptive, or foster parents, stepparents, and legal guardians
- Grandparents
- Grandchildren
- Siblings
- Someone else with a blood or family-like relationship to you
Pregnancy and Prenatal Care
In addition to coverage for health conditions such as illness and injury, FMLA benefits include up to 12 weeks of time off for prenatal or pregnancy healthcare.
Is FMLA Paid or Unpaid?
FMLA is unpaid. While California’s FMLA leave guarantees you 12 weeks per year of time off for a qualifying condition, as well as job security and health benefit maintenance, it does not require that this leave be paid. Some employers have their own policies on this matter, paying employees some or all of their salary during a period of FMLA leave, but these policies vary from company to company and are not guaranteed.
California Programs That May Provide Income
If you’re required to take time off from work through FMLA, you’ll likely still need at least a partial source of income to support yourself and your family. There are two state-run programs in California that may provide income to workers in your situation:
California Paid Family Leave (PFL)
The California Paid Family Leave program offers short-term wage replacement for workers who are taking time off from work to bond with a new child, care for a family member with a serious illness, or support a relative’s military deployment. If you’re deemed eligible to receive PFL payments, you could receive benefit payments for up to 8 weeks per year. The minimum weekly amount is $50, and the maximum is $1,765. To qualify, you must:
- Be unable to do your usual work.
- Have lost wages to bond with a new child, care for a seriously ill family member, or support a family member who is deploying to a foreign country with the US armed forces.
- Be employed or actively looking for work when your family leave starts
- Have earned at least $300 and have paid into State Disability Insurance in the last 18 months.
- Submit required documents.
California State Disability Insurance (SDI)
The other potential avenue to receiving wage replacement is through California’s State Disability Insurance, or SDI. This provides financial support to workers who need to take time off due to physical or mental illness, non-work-related injury, pregnancy, childbirth, non-elective surgery, or drug or alcohol rehabilitation. If eligible, you could receive weekly payments of $50 to $1,765 per week for up to 52 weeks. Your benefit amount will be 70% to 90% of the wages you earned five to 18 months before the claim’s start date.
FMLA vs. Paid Family Leave
The Family and Medical Leave Act and Paid Family Leave share many similarities but operate quite differently for workers who need time off. While FMLA guarantees job protection and maintenance of your employer-provided healthcare benefits, it doesn’t provide any wage replacement. PFL, on the other hand, offers wage replacement but doesn’t guarantee job protection while you’re off.
To get around these shortcomings, it’s common for workers to run both FMLA and Paid Family Leave in California concurrently, allowing them to keep their job and benefit protections under FMLA while drawing wage replacement from PFL. While taking advantage of both at the same time doesn’t extend the time limits of either, it can still help workers get both job protection and wage replacement during eligible leave, such as the birth of a child.
Understanding Your Rights as an Employee
Laws and systems like the FMLA, Paid Family Leave, and State Disability Insurance are here to protect workers, ensuring they never need to put their jobs and livelihoods at risk to care for themselves or their family with qualifying conditions. But despite these hard-won protections, many workers still don’t fully understand their rights when it comes to taking the time off they need.
If you’re wondering how best to protect your work and income while taking time off from work for a qualifying condition, it’s time to talk to a lawyer with experience in the field of labor law. The Law Offices of Jacob Emrani take on countless cases like these each year, helping employees better understand their rights and fight for the protections they’re legally entitled to. If you’re dealing with disputes regarding FMLA or Paid Family Leave, are having your job or income illegally threatened, or simply want to learn more about your rights as an employee in California, don’t hesitate to contact us today.