Connecticut Paid Family and Medical Leave (CT Paid Leave) replaces part of your income when you take time off work for your own serious health condition, to care for a family member, to bond with a new child, for certain military-related reasons, or to address family violence. The program is funded entirely by a 0.5% deduction from employee wages and pays up to $1,016.40 per week for as long as 12 weeks in a 12-month period. It is a wage-replacement program only. Keeping your job while you’re out is governed by a separate law, the Connecticut Family and Medical Leave Act.
Who Qualifies
Almost every private-sector worker in Connecticut is covered. If your employer has even one employee, that employer must participate. Some state and municipal workers are covered too, though unionized public-sector employees may be excluded depending on their collective bargaining agreement.
To actually collect benefits, you need to have earned at least $2,325 in your highest-earning quarter during your base period, which is the first four of the five most recently completed calendar quarters before you file.1Connecticut General Statutes. Connecticut Code 31-49e – Paid Family and Medical Leave Definitions You can still qualify if you’ve left your job within the last 12 weeks, as long as you hit that earnings threshold while employed.
Sole proprietors and self-employed workers aren’t automatically in the program but can opt in through the CT Paid Leave Authority. Once you opt in, you’re committed for three years, after which enrollment renews one year at a time until you withdraw.2Connecticut Paid Leave. I am a Sole Proprietor or Self-employed Individual
Reasons You Can Take Leave
You can file a CT Paid Leave claim for any of the following:
- Your own serious health condition, including surgery, illness, or injury that keeps you from working.
- Bonding with a new child after birth, adoption, or foster placement, used within 12 months of the child arriving in your home.3Connecticut Paid Leave. I am Starting or Expanding my Family
- Caring for a family member with a serious health condition.
- Military-related leave: a qualifying exigency tied to a family member’s active-duty deployment, or caregiving for a service member with a serious injury sustained in the line of duty.
- Safe leave for issues related to family violence or sexual assault, including seeking a protective order, relocating, or attending counseling.4CT Paid Leave. Guide for Workers
Connecticut defines “family member” more broadly than the federal FMLA. Beyond spouse, child, and parent, it includes siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, and anyone related by blood or whose relationship is close enough to be the equivalent of a family bond.5Connecticut Paid Leave. Glossary of Terms That last category is intentionally flexible, so if you’ve been the primary caregiver for a close friend who functions as family, the program may recognize that relationship.
How Much You’ll Get and for How Long
Benefits run up to 12 weeks within a 12-month period. If you’re pregnant, you can receive an additional two weeks for incapacitation during pregnancy, covering prenatal appointments, pregnancy-related complications, or unrelated conditions that come up while you’re pregnant. Those extra two weeks can’t be used after the child is born.6Connecticut Paid Leave Authority. Contact Us There’s no waiting period. Benefits begin on the first day of approved leave.
The weekly benefit is calculated against Connecticut’s minimum wage, which rose to $16.94 per hour on January 1, 2026. The formula has two tiers:
- If you earn $677.60 per week or less (40 times the minimum wage), your benefit is 95% of your average weekly wages.
- If you earn more than $677.60 per week, you get 95% of the first $677.60, plus 60% of anything above that.7Connecticut General Assembly. Chapter 557 – Employment Regulation
The weekly benefit is capped at 60 times the minimum wage, which comes to $1,016.40 in 2026.8Connecticut Paid Leave. Before you Apply You’d need average weekly earnings of roughly $1,278 to hit the cap. The ceiling moves up automatically whenever Connecticut raises its minimum wage.
Taking Leave in Pieces
You don’t have to use all 12 weeks at once. For most qualifying reasons, you can take intermittent leave in small chunks, down to one-hour increments or smaller depending on your employer’s payroll system. Think recurring treatments, weekly appointments to help a family member, or partial days off during a chronic condition flare-up. You need to notify CT Paid Leave within two days of each intermittent absence, and benefits are calculated to the minute based on time missed.9Connecticut Paid Leave Authority. Frequently Asked Questions
Bonding leave is the exception. Taking it intermittently requires your employer’s approval. Without that approval, bonding leave has to be taken as one continuous block.
What Comes Out of Your Paycheck
Every covered employee pays into the trust fund through payroll deduction. For 2026, the rate is 0.5% of wages up to the Social Security wage base of $184,500.10Connecticut Paid Leave. Contributions11Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base On a $60,000 salary that’s roughly $300 per year, or about $5.77 per weekly paycheck. You cannot opt out if you work for a covered employer. Employers aren’t required to contribute, though some voluntarily cover part or all of the deduction as a benefit.
How to Apply
Start by gathering documentation. You’ll need identity verification and a completed certification form from the CT Paid Leave Authority. For medical leave, your health care provider fills out the medical certification. For bonding leave, you’ll need a birth certificate or legal adoption or placement papers. Military exigency claims need copies of official orders, and safe leave claims may require court documents, police reports, or similar corroboration.
The fastest route is the online portal at ctpaidleave.org, where you create an account and upload documents through guided prompts. You can also submit by mail or fax.12Connecticut Paid Leave. How to Apply Aflac administers claims for the state and issues decisions in about five business days once all your documents are in.13Connecticut Paid Leave. Applying for Benefits
The most common cause of delay is incomplete paperwork. If medical certification is missing details about your condition or expected duration, Aflac will request more information and the clock resets. Getting the forms right the first time is the single best thing you can do to move the application along.
Job Protection Is a Separate Law
This trips people up constantly. CT Paid Leave pays you while you’re out. It does not, on its own, keep your job open. Job protection comes from the Connecticut Family and Medical Leave Act (CTFMLA), which requires your employer to hold your position or an equivalent one during qualifying leave.14Connecticut Department of Labor. Connecticut Family and Medical Leave Act FAQs
CTFMLA covers employers with one or more employees in Connecticut, and you qualify after working for your employer for at least three months. Most people who qualify for CT Paid Leave benefits will also qualify for CTFMLA job protection, but not always. If you started a new job two months ago, you might meet the earnings threshold for paid benefits while still lacking the three months of tenure needed for job protection.
When both apply, the two leaves run concurrently. You don’t get 12 paid weeks plus a separate 12 unpaid weeks. The paid benefit covers the same period your job is being held.
Using PTO at the Same Time
Your employer can require you to use accrued paid time off (vacation, sick, or personal time) while you’re receiving CT Paid Leave benefits, but there are two limits. Your combined compensation from both sources cannot exceed your regular pay, so if the state benefit already covers most of your wages, only a small PTO top-up is allowed. And your employer must let you keep at least two weeks of accrued PTO in reserve, even if they’re requiring concurrent use.9Connecticut Paid Leave Authority. Frequently Asked Questions
Some employers let employees choose whether to stack PTO on top of state benefits instead of requiring it. Check your handbook or ask HR before leave starts so you know what to expect on your paycheck.
If Your Claim Is Denied
You have two options. The faster route is reconsideration through CT Paid Leave directly. Submit the reconsideration form within 10 calendar days of receiving the denial notice. The online portal gives the quickest turnaround, but you can also return it by email or fax using the contact details on your denial letter.15Connecticut Paid Leave. After You Apply
If reconsideration doesn’t go your way, or if you want to skip that step, you can file a formal appeal with the Connecticut Department of Labor. The deadline is 21 calendar days from either the reconsideration decision or the original denial, depending on the path you took. If reconsideration is pending, wait for that decision first, because the Department of Labor generally will not process an appeal while reconsideration is still open.15Connecticut Paid Leave. After You Apply
The most common denial reasons are insufficient earnings in the base period, missing or incomplete medical certification, and claims that don’t fit a qualifying category. If your denial is a paperwork problem rather than a fundamental eligibility issue, reconsideration with corrected documents is usually the fastest fix.
How Benefits Are Taxed
Benefits show up on your federal return, but the rules depend on the type of leave. Under IRS Revenue Ruling 2025-4, family leave benefits (bonding, caregiving, safe leave, military exigency) are fully taxable as federal income, though they aren’t subject to Social Security or Medicare taxes. You’ll get a Form 1099-G if your benefits total $600 or more in the year. Medical leave benefits for your own condition are treated differently: because Connecticut funds the program entirely through employee contributions, the portion tied to your own contributions is excluded from federal gross income.16Internal Revenue Service. Revenue Ruling 2025-4
The payroll deductions themselves count as state tax payments and can be deducted on Schedule A if you itemize, subject to the $10,000 SALT cap. Federal income tax is not automatically withheld from benefit payments. You can request withholding, or set money aside or make estimated payments to avoid a bill in April.