FAMLI Colorado: Eligibility, Benefits, and Claim Process

Colorado FAMLI, short for Family and Medical Leave Insurance, is a state program that pays you partial wages when you need time off to welcome a new child, recover from a serious illness, care for a family member, deal with the aftermath of domestic violence, or handle a military family need. Most Colorado workers are automatically covered, benefits run up to 12 weeks a year (with a possible four extra weeks for pregnancy complications), and the maximum weekly payment for the 2025–2026 period is $1,381.45.

Who Qualifies

If you work for a private employer in Colorado, you’re almost certainly in. Full-time, part-time, and seasonal workers all qualify as long as they’ve earned at least $2,500 in Colorado wages during the base period, which covers roughly the five calendar quarters before your leave begins.¹ That’s a deliberately low bar. You don’t need years at one job, and you don’t need to work a certain number of hours per week.

Self-employed workers, independent contractors, and employees of local governments that opted out of the state plan can still join, but only voluntarily. If you sign up, you commit to paying premiums and reporting income for at least three years, which keeps people from enrolling only once they know they’ll need leave.²

What You Can Take Leave For

FAMLI covers five situations:

Bonding with a new child by birth, adoption, or foster placement, taken anytime within 12 months of the child’s arrival.³
Your own serious health condition, including surgery recovery, treatment for chronic illness, or any condition that prevents you from working.
Caring for a family member with a serious health condition.
Safe leave if you’re a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, so you can get medical care, relocate, or pursue legal remedies.²
Military exigencies when a family member is deployed or called to active duty, covering things like arranging childcare, attending military events, and managing legal or financial matters tied to the deployment.

Colorado’s definition of family is wider than the federal FMLA definition. It reaches spouses, domestic partners, children, parents, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, and anyone with whom you have a significant personal bond. Caring for someone you treat as family can qualify even without a blood or legal tie.

How Much You’ll Get Paid

The weekly benefit uses a two-tier formula tied to the Colorado State Average Weekly Wage, which is $1,534.94 for the 2025–2026 period. The first $735.67 of your own average weekly wage is replaced at 90%. Anything above that is replaced at 50%, up to a maximum weekly benefit of $1,381.45.⁴

A couple of examples. If you earn $600 a week, your benefit is roughly $540 (90% of $600). If you earn $1,200 a week, you’d get about $662 on the first $735.67 plus roughly $232 on the remaining $464.33, for a weekly benefit near $894. Higher earners eventually hit the $1,381.45 cap. These numbers may be updated by mid-2026 when the state recalculates the average weekly wage.

Your average weekly wage is calculated from the highest-earning quarter in your base period. If your income swings seasonally, your benefit reflects your strongest quarter, not a watered-down average.

How Long Leave Lasts

You get up to 12 weeks of paid leave per benefit year, which starts on the first day of your approved leave. Pregnancy or childbirth complications can add up to four more weeks, bringing the total to 16.⁵

You don’t have to take leave all in one stretch. FAMLI allows continuous leave, intermittent leave for things like recurring medical appointments, or a reduced schedule. Intermittent leave carries a couple of rules worth knowing: your healthcare provider has to certify how many hours of leave you’ll need in a given period, and you won’t get paid on a claim until you’ve reported at least eight hours of leave.⁶ There’s no waiting period. Benefits are payable from day one of approved leave.

What You Pay in Premiums

The total FAMLI premium for 2026 is 0.88% of your wages. Your employer pays half, and the other half (0.44%) comes out of your paycheck.⁴ For a $60,000 salary, that’s about $264 a year from your wages, roughly $22 a month. Employers with fewer than 10 workers don’t owe the employer share, but they still withhold the 0.44% employee share from your paycheck.⁷

How to File a Claim

Give your employer at least 30 days’ notice before leave starts if you can. For a medical emergency or other sudden event, notify your employer as soon as possible.⁸

Claims go through the My FAMLI+ portal. You’ll need your Social Security Number or ITIN, contact information, and the dates you expect your leave to start and end.⁹ Supporting documents depend on your reason for leave:

Medical or caregiver leave requires a Serious Health Condition form completed by a U.S.-licensed healthcare provider. Providers registered in My FAMLI+ can certify online; otherwise you’ll print the form from inside your claim.¹⁰
Bonding leave requires a birth certificate, report of birth, or legal placement documents.
Safe leave requires documentation of the domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking situation.
Military exigency leave requires official orders or deployment documentation.

Once approved, you choose between a state-issued debit card and direct deposit. Payments are made in arrears, so each one covers time you’ve already taken. Watch the portal for information requests, since missing one can delay payment.

Keeping Your Job

Your employer has to hold your job or give you an equivalent position when you return, provided you’ve worked for that employer for at least 180 days before your leave starts.¹ That six-month threshold is noticeably shorter than the 12-month requirement under federal FMLA, so newer employees get protection sooner.

Retaliation is illegal. Your employer cannot fire you, cut your hours, discipline you, or interfere with your application because you used or discussed FAMLI leave. If any of that happens, you can file a complaint with FAMLI’s Job Protection and Retaliation Investigations Unit through My FAMLI+. The unit reviews complaints within 90 days, and if it finds the employer broke the law, the employer may owe damages and be ordered to reinstate you.¹¹

If Your Claim Is Denied

Start with a reconsideration request through My FAMLI+. You have 49 days from the date of the original determination to submit it, and that deadline can be extended by up to another 49 days if you can show good cause.¹²

If reconsideration doesn’t fix the problem, you can file a formal appeal using the appeal button on the Claim Details page in the portal. From there you can track progress and communicate with the hearings officer. The same appeal path is available if your employer uses a private plan and that plan’s administrator denies your claim.¹³

Taxes, PTO, and Private Plans

FAMLI benefits are exempt from Colorado state income tax. On the federal side, the FAMLI Division issues a Form 1099-G, and you can elect to have federal income tax withheld from your payments.¹⁴

Your employer cannot force you to burn through accrued PTO or sick leave before or during FAMLI leave. You can choose to use PTO or sick leave to top off your FAMLI payments if you and your employer put that in writing, but the combined total cannot exceed your average weekly wage.¹⁵ If your FAMLI benefit falls short of your usual paycheck, that top-off is worth asking about.

Some employers skip the state plan and offer an approved private plan instead. A private plan must cover all employees, match or beat the state plan on benefits, wage replacement, and job protection, and cannot deduct more from your paycheck than the state premium would.¹⁶ If you’re on a private plan, the claim experience may look different, but your rights to leave length, pay, and reinstatement are the same, and you can still appeal through My FAMLI+.

1
Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). FAMLI and FMLA
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Individuals and Families FAQs
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance. Parental (Bonding) Leave
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Premium and Benefits Calculator
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Individuals and Families
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). How FAMLI Leave Can Be Used
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Small Business Corner
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Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. FAMLI Program Notice
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). My FAMLI+ User Guide – Filing A Claim
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Medical Leave to Care for Yourself
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Colorado FAMLI. Job Protection and Retaliation
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Cornell Law Institute. 7 CCR 1107-3.11 – Benefits Reconsiderations
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Appeals
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). IRS Tax Guidance
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). FAMLI and Other Types of Leave
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Private Plans