Colorado Family Caregiver Act: Leave, Pay, and Job Protection

There is no Colorado statute called the Family Caregiver Act. The law Colorado workers actually use to take paid time off to care for a family member is the Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Act, known as FAMLI. Passed by ballot measure in 2020 and paying benefits since January 1, 2024, FAMLI gives eligible workers up to twelve weeks of paid leave, job protection after they return, and protection from retaliation for using it.¹²

Who Qualifies

Most Colorado employees are eligible once they have earned at least $2,500 in wages within Colorado over the last five completed calendar quarters.³ That number is low enough that part-time and seasonal workers usually clear it. There is no minimum time-on-the-job requirement to receive benefits, though a separate 180-day rule governs job protection.

Self-employed workers, S-Corp owners who hold more than 25 percent of their business, and employees of local governments that opted out of FAMLI are not automatically covered. All three groups can opt in voluntarily and gain the same benefits as covered employees.⁴

When You Can Use FAMLI to Care for Someone

Caregiving is one of five qualifying reasons for FAMLI leave. The full list:⁵

Caring for a new child during the first year after birth, adoption, or foster placement.
Caring for a family member with a serious health condition.
Your own serious health condition.
A qualifying exigency arising from a family member’s active military duty or deployment.
Safe leave for you or a family member who is a victim of domestic violence, stalking, or sexual assault.

A “serious health condition” carries the same meaning it has under federal FMLA: a condition involving an overnight hospital stay or continuing treatment by a health care provider, including chronic conditions, pregnancy, and treatments like chemotherapy or physical therapy.⁶

Who Counts as a Family Member

This is where Colorado’s law is unusually generous. FAMLI does not lock family into a short list of legal titles. The FAMLI Division looks at whether a real caregiving relationship exists, using indicators like:⁷

Shared financial responsibility, such as a common lease, joint bills, or beneficiary designations.
Being listed as the person’s emergency contact.
Expectations of care based on the relationship or past caregiving.
Cohabitation and how long the relationship has lasted.
Geographic proximity.

In practice, that means you can use FAMLI leave to care for a domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, in-law, or a close friend who functions as family, in addition to a spouse, child, or parent. Whether the relationship qualifies turns on the caregiving bond, not the title.

How Much Leave and How Much Pay

Eligible workers can take up to twelve weeks of paid leave in a benefit year. Complications from pregnancy or childbirth can add up to four more weeks, for a maximum of sixteen.¹ Leave can run continuously, in smaller intermittent blocks, or as a reduced schedule, which is useful when the person you are caring for needs recurring appointments or ongoing treatment.

Benefits are calculated on a sliding scale tied to your average weekly wage. For the 2025–2026 period, using a Colorado statewide average weekly wage of $1,534.94:⁸

The first $735.67 of your average weekly wage is replaced at 90 percent.
Any amount above $735.67 is replaced at 50 percent.
The maximum weekly benefit is $1,381.45.

A worker earning $700 per week would receive roughly $630 per week on leave. A worker earning $2,000 per week would receive about $1,294. No one receives more than $1,381.45 per week, regardless of wages.⁹

Job Protection and the 180-Day Rule

FAMLI offers two separate protections, and they do not kick in at the same point. Anti-retaliation applies from day one: your employer cannot fire, demote, discipline, or penalize you for requesting or using FAMLI leave. Job protection, meaning the right to return to your same or an equivalent position with equivalent pay and benefits, requires that you have been with your current employer for at least 180 days before you start leave.¹⁰

If you have only been with your employer for four months, you can still draw FAMLI benefits and your employer still cannot retaliate against you. What you do not yet have is the statutory right to your specific position back. Once you pass the 180-day mark, that right attaches.

How to File a Claim

Claims run through the My FAMLI+ online portal. For a planned absence, such as a scheduled surgery or a due date, you can file up to 30 days in advance. For an unplanned event, you have 30 days after your first day of absence to file. Claims filed between 31 and 90 days after the first absence may still be accepted if you can show good cause for the delay.³

The 30-day deadline is easy to miss in a medical emergency. If you are incapacitated, ask a family member or trusted contact to open the claim for you as soon as possible.

How FAMLI Compares to Federal FMLA

You may be covered by both FAMLI and the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. FMLA provides up to twelve weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year, and it works differently in several ways:¹¹

FMLA leave is unpaid. FAMLI pays wage-replacement benefits.
FMLA only covers employers with 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius. FAMLI covers employers of any size.
FMLA requires 12 months of employment and 1,250 hours worked. FAMLI requires $2,500 in Colorado wages over five calendar quarters.
FMLA limits covered family to a spouse, child, or parent. FAMLI’s definition is broader.
FAMLI covers safe leave for domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault. FMLA does not.

When both laws cover the same absence, your FAMLI and FMLA leave generally run at the same time rather than stacking. You do not get twelve unpaid FMLA weeks plus twelve paid FAMLI weeks for the same qualifying event. What FAMLI adds is the paycheck that made FMLA unusable for many workers.

If Your Employer Interferes or Retaliates

You can report your employer to the FAMLI Division through one of two channels, depending on the problem:¹²

The Audits Form covers wage-reporting problems and worker misclassification, such as an employer treating an employee as an independent contractor to sidestep FAMLI.
The Compliance Form covers notice violations, coordination-of-benefits issues, private plan procedures, and retaliation.

If you believe you were fired, disciplined, or otherwise penalized for using FAMLI leave, the Compliance Form is the starting point. The Compliance Team investigates retaliation claims; the Audits Team handles wage and classification issues.

A Note on Taxes

Under IRS Revenue Ruling 2025-4, FAMLI benefits count as wages for federal employment tax purposes and are included in gross income. The IRS designated 2026 as a transition period, so enforcement of tax reporting obligations on these benefits is not yet in effect. Colorado does not tax FAMLI benefits at the state level. Because federal income tax is generally not withheld from FAMLI payments automatically, set aside a portion of each benefit payment during your leave to avoid a surprise at tax time.

1
Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Individuals and Families
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Justia Law. Colorado Code 8-13.3-501 – Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Act
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Individuals and Families FAQs
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Opting in to FAMLI
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Justia Law. Colorado Code 8-13.3-504 – Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Act
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U.S. Department of Labor. Taking Leave from Work When You or Your Family Member Has a Serious Health Condition under the FMLA
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Medical Leave to Care for a Family Member
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Premium and Benefits Calculator
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Rules and Guidance
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Job Protection and Retaliation
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U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) 12-Week Entitlement
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Report FAMLI Noncompliance or Audit Issues