DC FMLA: 16-Week Leave, Job Protection, and Eligibility

The District of Columbia Family and Medical Leave Act, known as the DC FMLA, gives eligible workers up to 16 weeks of unpaid family leave and a separate 16 weeks of unpaid medical leave in any 24-month period, with the right to return to the same or an equivalent job. That potential 32 weeks is well beyond the 12 weeks federal law offers, and the DC version also reaches a wider circle of family members.

Who Is Covered

The law applies to every employer with 20 or more employees working in the District of Columbia.¹ If your employer has fewer than 20 DC workers, the DCFMLA does not protect your job, though you may still qualify under the federal FMLA if the company has 50 or more employees nationwide.

To be an eligible employee, you need two things. First, at least 12 months of employment with the same employer. Those months do not have to run back-to-back; any time worked within the seven years before your leave starts counts.² Second, you must have worked at least 1,000 hours for that employer in the 12 months leading up to your leave.³ That’s roughly 19 hours a week, so most full-time and many part-time employees qualify.

Who Counts as a Family Member

DC’s definition of family goes further than the federal FMLA, which stops at spouses, parents, and children. Under the DCFMLA, a family member includes blood relatives, in-laws, and anyone connected to you through a court-ordered custody relationship, as well as foster children, any child living in your household for whom you have permanently taken on parental duties, and a domestic partner you share or have shared a home with in the past year and remain committed to.²

The domestic partner piece matters. If you’ve been living with a partner and that person develops a serious health condition, you can take family leave to care for them without a marriage certificate.

Family Leave: 16 Weeks in 24 Months

You are entitled to up to 16 workweeks of family leave in any 24-month period for the birth of your child, the placement of a child through adoption or foster care, permanently assuming parental responsibility for a child, or caring for a family member with a serious health condition.⁴ The 24-month clock starts on the first day you use family leave.

One deadline catches people off guard. Your right to bonding leave after the birth or placement of a child expires 12 months after the event.⁴ Wait 14 months after an adoption to ask for bonding time, and the window has closed.

Family leave is unpaid by default. If you have accrued vacation, personal days, or sick leave, you can use that paid time off during the absence, and whatever paid leave you substitute counts against the 16 weeks.⁴

If two family members work for the same employer, that employer can cap their combined family leave at 16 weeks and limit any overlap to 4 weeks during the same 24-month period.⁴

Medical Leave: A Separate 16 Weeks

Independent of family leave, you can take up to 16 workweeks of medical leave in any 24-month period when a serious health condition prevents you from doing your job.⁵ A serious health condition is a physical or mental illness, injury, or impairment that involves either inpatient care in a hospital, hospice, or residential facility, or continuing treatment or supervision at home by a healthcare provider.²

Because family leave and medical leave are two separate entitlements, an eligible worker could access up to 32 workweeks of protected leave within a 24-month period. Someone who uses 16 weeks of family leave to care for a parent and then develops a serious condition of their own still has the full 16 weeks of medical leave available.

Taking Leave in Pieces

You do not have to take the full 16 weeks in one block. Both family leave for a sick family member and medical leave for your own condition can be taken intermittently when it is medically necessary, which allows for arrangements like a few days off each week for chemotherapy or dialysis.⁴⁵

A reduced-schedule arrangement, where you drop to part-time hours for a stretch, requires your employer’s agreement. If you both agree, the 16 weeks of family leave can be spread across up to 24 consecutive workweeks.⁴ Taking bonding leave after the birth or placement of a healthy child in intermittent chunks also requires employer agreement.

Requesting Leave and Providing Documentation

When you know in advance you will need leave, you owe your employer reasonable prior notice. For an expected birth or a planned adoption, that means giving the company enough time to prepare. For planned medical treatment, you should also make a reasonable effort to schedule the treatment so it doesn’t unnecessarily disrupt operations, subject to what your doctor approves.⁴ When the need is unforeseeable, such as a sudden hospitalization, notify your employer as soon as possible using whatever call-in procedure your workplace normally uses.

Your employer can require a medical certification from your healthcare provider when you request leave to care for a sick family member or for your own serious health condition. Certification is not required for bonding leave after a birth, adoption, or foster placement. When certification is required, it must state the date the serious health condition started, its expected duration, the relevant medical facts, and either a statement that you cannot perform your job duties (for your own medical leave) or an estimate of the time you need to provide care (for family leave).⁶

Your employer must keep the medical information in those certifications confidential. If your employer doubts the certification, it can require a second opinion from a different provider at the employer’s expense; if the opinions conflict, a third jointly chosen provider decides, and that opinion is final.⁶ Keep copies of your written request, the certification, and any proof of delivery; a paper trail is your best protection if a dispute comes up later.

Health Insurance and Getting Your Job Back

Your employer must maintain your group health insurance for the entire time you are on DCFMLA leave, at the same level and under the same conditions as if you had kept working. You still owe your share of the premium. If you stop paying your portion, the employer can drop coverage until you return and resume contributions.⁷

When your leave ends, your employer must restore you to the same position you held before, or to an equivalent position with the same pay, benefits, seniority, and other terms.⁷ Equivalent is not vague. If your old role paid $75,000 with three weeks of vacation, the replacement role has to match on those terms.

There is one narrow exception. If you are among the five highest-paid employees at a company with fewer than 50 workers, or among the top 10 percent of earners at a company with 50 or more, your employer can deny reinstatement if restoring you would cause substantial economic injury to its operations and the employer notified you of this possibility when you requested leave.⁷ Without the notice, the exception does not apply.

How the DCFMLA Works with Federal FMLA and DC Paid Family Leave

Many DC workers qualify under both the DCFMLA and the federal FMLA. When a leave event qualifies under both, the time you take counts against both entitlements at once, and your employer can designate the leave under both laws regardless of which one you referenced in your request. The different measurement periods (federal FMLA runs 12 weeks over a 12-month window; DCFMLA runs 16 weeks over 24 months) mean you can exhaust one entitlement while still having time under the other.³

Something to keep straight: the DCFMLA gives job protection, not a paycheck. A separate program, DC Paid Family Leave, provides monetary benefits during qualifying absences, with up to 12 weeks of paid benefits for bonding with a new child, for caring for a family member with a serious health condition, or for your own serious health condition, plus 2 weeks for prenatal care, capped at a maximum weekly benefit of $1,190.⁸ Paid Family Leave pays benefits but does not by itself hold your job open. If your employer has fewer than 20 DC employees, you may qualify for the paid benefits yet have no DCFMLA job-protection rights.⁹

Retaliation and How to File a Complaint

Your employer cannot interfere with your right to take DCFMLA leave, and it is illegal to fire, demote, reassign to undesirable shifts, cut pay, or otherwise discriminate against you for requesting or using leave, filing a complaint, or taking part in a DCFMLA proceeding.³ The same protection extends to workers using DC Paid Family Leave benefits.⁹

If you believe your employer violated the law, you have two paths. File an administrative complaint with the DC Office of Human Rights, or go directly to DC Superior Court. Either way, you must act within one year of the violation or of your discovery of it.¹⁰¹¹

If the Office of Human Rights finds a violation, it can order your employer to pay all lost wages, salary, and benefits plus interest. The employer may also owe additional damages up to three times the lost compensation, plus any medical expenses your health insurance would have covered. The prevailing party can also recover attorney’s fees and costs.¹⁰

1
D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 32-516 – Applicability
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D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 32-501 – Definitions
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DC Office of Human Rights. Frequently Asked Questions About the D.C. Family and Medical Leave Act
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D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 32-502 – Family Leave Requirement
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D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 32-503 – Medical Leave Requirement
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DC Office of Human Rights. District of Columbia Code 32-504 – Certification
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D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 32-505 – Employment and Benefits Protection
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DC Paid Family Leave. Benefits Calculator
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Department of Employment Services. DC Paid Family Leave vs. DC FMLA Comparison Chart
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D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 32-509 – Administrative Enforcement Procedure; Relief
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DC Office of Human Rights. DC Family and Medical Leave Act – Workplace Poster