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Parental leave planner

Know what work owes you before you're too tired to argue. Whether your job is protected, what your state pays, when to tell work, and when your leave would end. General information, not legal advice: check the details with HR and your state's program.

Does your employer have 50 or more employees within 75 miles of where you work?
By the time your leave starts, will you have worked there 12 months and at least 1,250 hours (about 24 hours a week)?

Federal law, your state and your HR handbook all have something to say. Here’s how they fit together.

How the planner works

It answers three questions for the state where you work. Is your job protected? Will you be paid? What are the dates? Job protection usually comes from the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Pay comes from your state’s paid family leave program, if it has one, or from your employer.

The dates count from your due date. Leave usually starts at the birth, so when your baby arrives, the rest moves with them.

How FMLA and state leave fit together

FMLA gives you up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave. A state program pays you for a set number of weeks. They don’t usually add up. When leave qualifies under both FMLA and a state law, it counts against both at the same time [3]. So in a state that pays 12 weeks, FMLA and state pay often cover the same 12 weeks, not 24. In a state that pays 8, the paid weeks can sit inside FMLA’s 12, leaving about 4 unpaid.

Some leave can come on top. Recovery from the birth may count as medical leave, separate from bonding, and some states pay for both. Your employer’s own policy may add more. So treat the planner’s end dates as a starting point, and confirm your real return date with HR.

What the planner can’t know

  • Your employer’s own policy. Many employers pay parental leave on top of what the law requires. Ask HR.
  • Exactly what you’ll be paid. State programs pay a share of your wages up to a weekly cap, and the share often slides with your income. Your state’s program has a calculator for your own figure.
  • Pregnancy disability leave. Some states pay for recovery after birth separately from bonding leave. Check your state’s program.

For every state’s details, read paid family leave by state, and FMLA in plain English. Going back while breastfeeding? Pumping at work: your rights.

Sources

  1. US Department of Labor, “Family and Medical Leave Act.” dol.gov
  2. Each state’s program, linked in paid family leave by state, checked November 2026.
  3. Code of Federal Regulations, 29 CFR 825.701, “Interaction with State laws.” law.cornell.edu