FAMLI Leave in Colorado: Eligibility, Payments, and Taxes

Colorado’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance program, known as FAMLI, gives most Colorado workers up to 12 weeks of paid leave in a 12-month period for a new child, a serious health condition, care for a family member, safe leave, or a military exigency. The maximum weekly benefit is $1,381.45 in 2026, and the program is funded by a 0.88% payroll premium split evenly between you and your employer. Benefits are paid out of a state insurance fund, and you file claims through the My FAMLI+ online portal.

Who Qualifies

Nearly every private-sector worker in Colorado is covered, whether you work full-time, part-time, or seasonally. You become eligible for benefits once you’ve earned at least $2,500 in wages subject to FAMLI premiums over the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters.¹ Employer size doesn’t matter. A business with a single Colorado employee participates on the same terms as a large one.²

Your share of the premium is 0.44% of your gross wages, deducted post-tax and shown on your W-2 in Box 14 as “FAMLI.” Premiums apply to wages up to the Social Security wage base, which is $184,500 in 2026.³⁴ Some employers voluntarily cover the employee share, but you can never be required to pay more than half.

Self-employed workers and independent contractors aren’t automatically in, but they can opt in through the state portal. Once you opt in, you commit to paying premiums for at least three years.⁵ Local government employers — counties, school districts, and similar entities — are allowed to vote to opt out. If yours has opted out, you can still participate individually by paying your share directly through the portal.⁶

Some employers meet their FAMLI obligations through an approved private plan rather than the state fund. If that’s your situation, your claims and appeals still run through My FAMLI+, but the plan’s administrator handles the underlying coverage. By law, a private plan has to match the state plan’s benefits, duration, and protections.⁷

What You Can Take Leave For

FAMLI covers five categories of leave:

Bonding with a new child after a birth, adoption, or foster placement.
Your own serious health condition, including recovery from surgery, a chronic illness, pregnancy, or any condition requiring inpatient care or ongoing treatment.
Caring for a family member with a serious health condition.
Safe leave to address domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault, or abuse affecting you or a family member, including time to seek medical care, legal help, or relocation.⁸
Military exigency, meaning needs that arise from a family member’s active-duty service or call to active duty, such as arranging childcare, handling financial or legal matters, attending counseling, or spending time with a service member on rest and recuperation leave.⁹

“Family member” is defined broadly. It covers children, parents, spouses, domestic partners, grandparents, grandchildren, and siblings, and it also reaches anyone with whom you have a significant personal bond that resembles a family relationship. Biological or legal ties aren’t required.

You don’t have to take the full 12 weeks in one stretch. Intermittent leave lets you use FAMLI time in separate blocks across a six-month period, which fits conditions that flare up or treatment schedules that recur. Your healthcare provider certifies how many leave hours you’re allowed within a 7-day or 30-day reporting window. One quirk to plan around: you can file a claim for fewer than eight hours, but you won’t actually receive a wage replacement payment until you’ve accumulated at least eight hours of leave.¹⁰

How Much You’ll Get and for How Long

FAMLI provides up to 12 weeks of paid leave in a 12-month period that starts the first day of your approved leave. If you have complications related to pregnancy or childbirth, you can qualify for up to four more weeks, bringing the total to 16.¹ There is no waiting period. Benefits start on day one of approved leave.

Your weekly benefit is calculated on a sliding scale from your average weekly wage over the previous five calendar quarters and the state average weekly wage. For the 2025–2026 benefit year, the state average weekly wage is $1,534.94.

The first $767.47 of your average weekly wage, which is 50% of the state average, is replaced at 90%.
Any amount above $767.47 is replaced at 50%.
The maximum weekly benefit is $1,381.45.³

The structure means lower-wage workers see a higher percentage of their income replaced than higher earners. These figures may be updated by mid-2026 when Colorado’s average weekly wage is recalculated.

Filing a Claim

Everything runs through the My FAMLI+ online portal. You’ll create an account using an email address and personal identification that matches state records, including your Social Security Number or ITIN. When the need for leave is foreseeable, such as a scheduled surgery or an expected due date, give your employer at least 30 days’ notice. If something unexpected happens, notify your employer as soon as you reasonably can.¹¹

The documentation depends on why you’re taking leave:

For your own medical leave, a U.S.-licensed healthcare provider must complete and sign a Serious Health Condition Form. Providers registered in My FAMLI+ can certify entirely online; otherwise you download the form, have it completed, and upload a scan.¹²
For bonding leave, a birth certificate, adoption paperwork, or foster placement records.
For leave caring for a family member, the same Serious Health Condition Form, completed by that family member’s provider.
For safe leave, documentation such as police reports or court orders.

Watch two deadlines. A claim with a start date more than 90 days in the past is automatically denied, so file promptly even if you’re still gathering paperwork; you can upload supporting documents after submission. And every field on the forms needs to be complete, because missing information is the most frequent cause of delay.

Payments and What Happens If You’re Denied

Once your claim is complete, the FAMLI Division issues a decision. You choose between direct deposit and a state-issued prepaid debit card. Approved payments go out weekly rather than every two weeks. For continuous leave, they issue automatically on the same day each week. For intermittent leave, you complete a weekly certification in the portal and payment typically arrives about 48 hours later.¹³¹⁴ Your dashboard shows your payment schedule and your remaining leave balance.

If you’re denied, you have 49 days from the initial determination to request a reconsideration through My FAMLI+. The “request a reconsideration” button appears on your Claim Details page. If you disagree with the reconsideration outcome, that button changes to “Appeal” and you file formally through the same page.¹⁵ If your employer uses an approved private plan, you still appeal through My FAMLI+ by creating an appeals account and selecting “File and Manage an Appeal.”¹⁶

Keeping Your Job

If you’ve worked for your employer at least 180 days before leave starts, you’re entitled to return to your old job or an equivalent one with equivalent pay and benefits. Your employer must also keep your health insurance in force while you’re on leave.¹⁷

Retaliation for taking or applying for FAMLI leave is illegal. That covers firing, cutting your hours, disciplining you, or interfering with your ability to apply. Complaints go to the FAMLI Division’s Job Protection and Retaliation Investigations Unit, which reviews them within 90 days. If the unit finds the employer acted unlawfully, remedies can include monetary damages and reinstatement.¹⁷

FAMLI and Federal FMLA

If you qualify for leave under both FAMLI and the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, the two run concurrently rather than stacking. FMLA is unpaid and applies only to employers with 50 or more employees, while FAMLI pays wage replacement and covers nearly all Colorado employers regardless of size. FAMLI’s job-protection threshold is also lower, kicking in at 180 days of employment rather than FMLA’s 12 months.²

How FAMLI Benefits Are Taxed

FAMLI benefits are exempt from Colorado state income tax. On the federal side, starting in 2026 the IRS treats medical leave benefits — leave for your own serious health condition, including pregnancy — as “third-party sick pay” if your employer has 10 or more employees, making those benefits subject to the employer’s share of Social Security, Medicare, and federal unemployment taxes.¹⁸

That rule applies only to medical leave for your own condition at employers of 10 or more. Bonding leave, caregiving leave, safe leave, and military exigency leave aren’t affected, and neither are small employers under 10, self-employed individuals, or employees of opted-out local governments. You can elect to have federal income tax withheld from your payments, and FAMLI issues a Form 1099-G at year end.¹⁸

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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Individuals and Families
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). FAMLI and FMLA
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Premium and Benefits Calculator
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Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Opting in to FAMLI: What Self-Employed Individuals and Employees of Colorado’s Local Governments Need to Know
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Local Governments
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Private Plans
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Safe Leave (Domestic Violence)
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Colorado FAMLI. Military Family Members (Exigency) Leave
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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). Parental (Bonding) Leave
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Medical Leave to Care for Yourself
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). What to Expect from Your First FAMLI Payment
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Individuals and Families FAQs
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). My FAMLI+ User Guide: Next Steps
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Appeals
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). Job Protection and Retaliation
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Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI). IRS Tax Guidance