California FMLA Requirements: Eligibility, Pay, and Job Protection

California’s family and medical leave requirements come from two overlapping laws: the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the state’s California Family Rights Act (CFRA). Both give eligible workers up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period, but CFRA reaches far more workers because it applies to employers with just five or more employees. Leave itself is unpaid, though most Californians can draw wage replacement from State Disability Insurance or Paid Family Leave while they’re out.

Who Qualifies for Leave in California

Two things decide whether you’re covered: your employer’s size and your own work history.

Federal FMLA only applies to employers with 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius of your worksite.¹ CFRA covers any private employer with five or more employees, plus the state and its political subdivisions.² If your employer has between 5 and 49 employees, your leave rights come from state law only. If your employer has 50 or more, both laws typically apply and the clocks run at the same time.

On top of employer coverage, you personally need:

At least 12 months of employment with the same employer (they don’t have to be consecutive), and
At least 1,250 hours actually worked in the 12 months before your leave starts.¹

Only hours physically worked count toward 1,250. Paid vacation, sick time, and previous FMLA or CFRA leave do not.³ Full-time at 40 hours a week gets you there in about 31 weeks.

One boundary worth naming up front: pregnancy disability is handled by a different California law, not CFRA. More on that below.

Reasons You Can Take Leave

Both FMLA and CFRA cover three core reasons: your own serious health condition that prevents you from doing your job, bonding with a new child after birth, adoption, or foster placement, and caring for a family member with a serious health condition.⁴

Where CFRA goes further is in whom you can take leave to care for. FMLA limits “family member” to your spouse, child, or parent. CFRA adds:

Domestic partner
Parent-in-law
Grandparent, grandchild, or sibling
A “designated person” — anyone related by blood or whose relationship with you is equivalent to a family relationship

You identify the designated person when you request leave, and your employer may limit you to one designated person per 12-month period.²

Both laws also cover qualifying military exigency leave when a family member is called to active duty. FMLA additionally allows up to 26 workweeks in a single 12-month period to care for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness.⁵

What Counts as a Serious Health Condition

A serious health condition generally involves a period where you can’t work, attend school, or handle daily activities, together with continuing treatment by a healthcare provider. Prescription medication or therapy requiring special equipment qualifies. Over-the-counter remedies, bed rest, or other self-care you can start on your own, standing alone, do not.⁶ Recovery from surgery, cancer treatment, serious back injuries, mental health conditions requiring therapy, and chronic conditions like epilepsy or asthma typically qualify.

How Pregnancy and Bonding Leave Stack

Pregnancy is where California’s framework gets genuinely generous. CFRA does not cover disability related to pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition. That falls under a separate law, California’s Pregnancy Disability Leave (PDL).⁷

PDL provides up to four months (17⅓ weeks) of leave per pregnancy for the period you’re actually disabled.⁸ PDL has no 12-month or 1,250-hour prerequisite. You’re eligible from your first day of work as long as your employer has five or more employees.

Because CFRA doesn’t cover pregnancy disability, PDL and CFRA bonding leave don’t overlap. They stack:

PDL first: up to four months while you’re disabled by pregnancy or childbirth. If you’re also FMLA-eligible, federal FMLA runs concurrently with PDL; CFRA does not.
CFRA bonding leave after: a full 12 weeks to bond with your baby once the pregnancy disability ends.

An employee who qualifies for all three laws can receive roughly 29 weeks of job-protected leave around a birth.

How the 12 Weeks Are Counted

Both laws provide up to 12 workweeks per 12-month period.⁹ When leave qualifies under both, the two clocks run together — 12 weeks total, not 24.

Employers pick how they measure the 12-month period, using one of four methods:¹

Calendar year (January 1 through December 31)
A fixed 12-month period like a fiscal year or hire anniversary
Rolling forward from your first day of leave
Rolling backward from each day of leave you use

The rolling-backward method is the most restrictive because it prevents stacking leave at the end of one period and the start of another. Ask HR which method applies before you plan a leave; the answer changes how much time you have available.

Intermittent and Reduced-Schedule Leave

Leave doesn’t have to be taken in one block. When medically necessary for a serious health condition, you can take it in separate segments or reduce your daily or weekly hours. For bonding leave, intermittent use requires your employer’s agreement.⁵ If you need recurring appointments like weekly physical therapy, your employer can temporarily move you to a different position that accommodates the schedule, but the alternative role must carry equivalent pay and benefits.

Is the Leave Paid?

FMLA and CFRA leave is unpaid by default.¹⁰ In California, though, two state-run insurance programs replace a large share of your wages during leave. You’re almost certainly already paying into them through payroll deductions.

State Disability Insurance

SDI covers your own non-work-related illness, injury, or pregnancy-related disability. It replaces 90% of wages for lower earners and 70% for higher earners, up to a projected maximum of $1,710 per week in 2026.¹¹ SDI is funded by a 1.3% payroll deduction in 2026, with no cap on taxable wages.

Paid Family Leave

PFL replaces wages when you take time off to bond with a new child or care for a seriously ill family member. Benefits last up to 8 weeks in a 12-month period, at the same 90%/70% wage-replacement tiers, with a projected maximum of $1,765 per week in 2026.¹² PFL is funded by the same SDI deduction; there’s no separate tax.

SDI and PFL are wage-replacement programs, not job-protection laws. They send you a check while you’re out but don’t guarantee your job when you come back. That guarantee comes from FMLA and CFRA. You need both pieces working together: leave-law protection for the job and insurance benefits for the income.

Using Accrued PTO

Your employer can require you to use accrued vacation or PTO concurrently with FMLA/CFRA leave, and you can choose to use it on your own.¹⁰ Using paid leave doesn’t extend the 12 weeks. Some employees coordinate PTO with SDI or PFL to get closer to full pre-leave pay, though the specifics depend on employer policy and EDD’s coordination rules.

How to Request Leave

If leave is foreseeable — a planned surgery, an expected due date, a scheduled adoption — give your employer at least 30 days’ notice.¹³ If it isn’t foreseeable, notify your employer as soon as practicable, typically within one or two business days.

You don’t have to file a formal written request citing statutes. You just need to give enough information for your employer to recognize the leave qualifies — for example, “I need time off for surgery” or “my parent is seriously ill and I need to care for them.” From there, the employer determines eligibility and sends you the paperwork.

Medical Certification

For leave based on a serious health condition, your employer can require a certification from your healthcare provider covering when the condition began, how long it’s expected to last, and why the leave is medically necessary.¹⁴ You generally have 15 calendar days to return it.

Your provider may list a diagnosis, but isn’t required to.¹⁵ Your employer can verify that a serious health condition exists but isn’t entitled to your full medical history. If your certification is incomplete or unclear, the employer must tell you in writing what’s missing and give you a reasonable chance to correct it before denying leave.

Job and Health Benefits Protection

Your employer must keep your group health insurance in place during leave on the same terms as if you were still working. If you normally pay part of the premium, you still owe your share while you’re out.¹⁶ Employers must give you advance written notice of how premium payments work during leave and can’t tack on administrative fees during unpaid leave.

When you return, you’re entitled to the same position or an equivalent one, with the same pay, benefits, working conditions, and seniority.¹⁷ “Equivalent” means genuinely equivalent, not a lateral move with worse hours, a different shift, or a stripped-down version of your old role.

The Key Employee Exception (FMLA Only)

Federal FMLA lets employers deny reinstatement to “key employees” — salaried workers in the highest-paid 10% of the workforce — if restoring them would cause substantial and grievous economic injury to the business. The employer must notify you of key-employee status before your leave begins. California eliminated this exception under CFRA when SB 1383 took effect in 2021. If your leave runs only under CFRA, your employer must reinstate you regardless of salary level.

Retaliation Is Prohibited

Employers can’t interfere with, restrain, or deny FMLA rights, and they can’t retaliate against you for using them or complaining about violations.¹⁸ Prohibited conduct includes:

Discouraging you from using leave
Manipulating your hours to avoid triggering FMLA obligations
Using leave as a negative factor in hiring, promotion, or discipline
Counting protected absences under a “no fault” attendance policy

California adds a state-level layer. CFRA violations are treated as employment discrimination and enforced by the California Civil Rights Department (CRD). Under SB 497, which took effect in 2024, employers face a $10,000 civil penalty per employee per violation for retaliation against a worker exercising protected rights, payable to the affected employee.

What Happens After the 12 Weeks Run Out

Using up your FMLA/CFRA leave doesn’t automatically mean your employer can terminate you if you still can’t return. If your condition is a disability under the ADA or California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, additional unpaid leave may be required as a reasonable accommodation.¹⁹

The EEOC has said that exhausting FMLA leave, by itself, isn’t enough for an employer to claim undue hardship. Employers should engage in an interactive process — a back-and-forth conversation about accommodations that would let you return.²⁰ Skipping that conversation can create liability on its own.

Extended leave as an accommodation generally requires some indication that you’ll be able to return. If you can’t provide any projected return date, the employer has stronger grounds to argue undue hardship. Regular updates on your condition help keep the protection intact past 12 weeks.

Filing a Complaint

You have two enforcement paths: federal and state.

For FMLA violations, file with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division or bring a private lawsuit. The statute of limitations is two years, or three years if the violation was willful.¹⁸ Available remedies include lost wages and benefits, liquidated damages equal to your losses (effectively doubling back pay), and attorney’s fees and court costs.²¹ Unless the employer proves it acted in good faith with reasonable grounds, the liquidated damages award is automatic.

For CFRA violations, file through the California Civil Rights Department within three years of the last harmful act.²² CRD conducts an intake interview, investigates, and attempts resolution through mediation. If it finds reasonable cause, CRD may sue on your behalf. To file your own lawsuit, you need a Right-to-Sue notice from CRD first. Bring your medical documentation to the intake interview if the case involves CFRA or pregnancy disability.

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28H – 12-Month Period Under the Family and Medical Leave Act
2
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 12945.2
3
U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Frequently Asked Questions
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28P – Taking Leave from Work When You or Your Family Member Has a Serious Health Condition Under the FMLA
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28 – The Family and Medical Leave Act
6
eCFR. 29 CFR 825.113 – Serious Health Condition
7
Cornell Law School. California Code of Regulations Title 2, 11093 – Relationship Between CFRA Leave and Pregnancy Disability Leave
8
Cornell Law School. California Code of Regulations Title 2, 11042 – Pregnancy Disability Leave
9
California Civil Rights Department. Family Care and Medical Leave Fact Sheet
10
eCFR. 29 CFR 825.207 – Substitution of Paid Leave
11
Employment Development Department. Contribution Rates, Withholding Schedules, and Meals and Lodging Values
12
Employment Development Department. Paid Family Leave Benefit Payment Amounts
13
Cornell Law School. California Code of Regulations Title 2, 11091 – Requests for CFRA Leave
14
U.S. Department of Labor. Information for Health Care Providers to Complete a Certification Under the FMLA
15
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28G – Medical Certification Under the Family and Medical Leave Act
16
eCFR. 29 CFR 825.210 – Employee Payment of Group Health Benefit Premiums
17
eCFR. 29 CFR 825.214 – Employee Right to Reinstatement
18
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 77B – Protection for Individuals Under the FMLA
19
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Employer-Provided Leave and the Americans with Disabilities Act
20
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship Under the ADA
21
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2617 – Enforcement
22
California Civil Rights Department. Complaint Process