Florida Leave of Absence Laws: FMLA, USERRA, and Jury Duty

Florida leave of absence laws are mostly federal: the state has no comprehensive leave statute, so the Family and Medical Leave Act, USERRA, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and the PUMP Act do most of the work. Florida adds a few of its own protections on top: paid military training leave for public employees, up to three days of leave for domestic violence victims, and unusually strong anti-retaliation rules for jury service. Which laws you can use depends on your employer’s size, how long you have worked there, and the reason you need the time off.

Family and Medical Leave

The FMLA is the main source of job-protected leave for Florida workers. If you qualify, your employer must give you up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in a 12-month period and put you back into your job (or an equivalent one) when you return. Your group health benefits continue during the leave on the same terms as if you were still working.¹

You can use the 12 weeks for any of the following:

Caring for a newborn, or a child newly placed with you through adoption or foster care
Caring for a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition
Your own serious health condition, when it prevents you from doing your job
A qualifying exigency arising from a spouse, child, or parent being called to covered active duty²

Who Qualifies

Three conditions all have to be true. You need at least 12 months of employment with the same employer, at least 1,250 hours of actual work in the previous 12 months, and your worksite must have 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius.³ The 75-mile rule is the one that surprises people. If you work at a small branch office and your employer’s other locations are far away, you can be excluded even though the company overall has thousands of employees.

The FMLA applies to all public agencies, all public and private elementary and secondary schools, and private employers with 50 or more employees.¹

Military Caregiver Leave

A separate FMLA provision gives an eligible spouse, child, parent, or next of kin up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave in a single 12-month period to care for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness. The 26 weeks is a combined cap: if you also take regular FMLA leave in that same window, the two types together cannot exceed 26 weeks.⁴

Taking Leave Intermittently

FMLA leave does not have to come in one continuous block. For a serious health condition, yours or a family member’s, you can take shorter increments or work a reduced schedule when it is medically necessary. Intermittent leave for a birth or adoption requires your employer’s agreement.²

Expect your employer to ask for a medical certification that estimates how often you will need time off and how long each absence will last.⁵ Vague certifications that just say “as needed” tend to get sent back, so ask your doctor for specific estimates.

Military Leave

Two laws overlap here. The federal USERRA covers every Florida employer regardless of size. Florida Statute 115.07 layers paid training leave on top for state and local government employees.

USERRA

USERRA guarantees that if you leave a civilian job for military service, you can return to that job with the same seniority, pay, and benefits you would have earned had you never left. Your employer cannot fire you or deny you a promotion because of your service. To keep the protection, you have to give your employer advance notice (written or verbal), and your cumulative military absences with that employer generally cannot exceed five years.⁶

The five-year cap has significant exceptions. Involuntary activations, service during a national emergency, and training required to maintain readiness do not count. Most service members never hit the limit.

How fast you have to report back depends on how long you were gone. Under 31 days: by the start of your next scheduled shift, after travel time and eight hours of rest. Between 31 and 180 days: within 14 days. Over 180 days: within 90 days.⁶

While you are away, you can elect to continue your employer-sponsored health coverage for up to 24 months.⁷

Paid Training Leave for Florida Public Employees

Florida Statute 115.07 gives state, county, and municipal employees who are members of the National Guard or U.S. military reserves up to 240 working hours of paid leave per year for military training, with no loss of vacation time or performance ratings. Training obligations beyond 240 hours in a year are unpaid but still job-protected.⁸

Private-sector employers in Florida are not required by state law to offer paid military leave, though some do voluntarily. USERRA’s unpaid protections still apply to every employer.

Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence Leave

Florida Statute 741.313 provides up to three days of leave in any 12-month period for employees who are victims of domestic violence or sexual violence, or whose family or household members are victims. Whether the days are paid is left to the employer.⁹

Qualifying uses are narrow. You can take the leave to:

Seek a protective injunction
Get medical care or mental health counseling for injuries from the violence
Access services from a domestic violence shelter or rape crisis center
Secure your home or find new housing
Meet with an attorney or prepare for related court proceedings⁹

The protection applies only if your employer has 50 or more employees and you have been with the company for at least three months. Document the reason for the leave carefully, because the statute lists the qualifying activities specifically.

Jury Duty

Florida has some of the strongest anti-retaliation rules for jurors in the country. Under Florida Statute 40.271, your employer cannot fire you for serving on a grand or petit jury, no matter how long the trial lasts. An employer who even threatens to fire you over jury service can be held in contempt of court.¹⁰

If your employer does fire you for serving on a jury, you can sue and recover compensatory damages, punitive damages, and reasonable attorney fees. Many state jury protection statutes only offer reinstatement or back pay, so Florida’s punitive damages provision is unusually employee-friendly.¹⁰

Florida does not require employers to pay you while you serve. The court pays jurors, but the amounts are modest.¹¹

Federal jury service carries its own protection. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1875, employers cannot fire, threaten, intimidate, or coerce any permanent employee because of federal jury service. Violators face liability for lost wages, a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation, and a possible community service order.¹²

Pregnancy and Nursing

Two recent federal laws are not traditional leave statutes but often produce time off, so they belong in any practical picture of Florida employee rights.

Pregnant Workers Fairness Act

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, effective June 2023, requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations for limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions.¹³ Those accommodations can include time off for medical appointments or recovery from childbirth.

Your employer cannot force you onto leave if another accommodation would let you keep working. If a stool during your shift would do, they cannot send you home instead. Retaliation for requesting an accommodation, or denial of job opportunities because you need one, is prohibited.¹⁴

Break Time for Nursing Employees

Under the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act, employers must provide reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for one year after a child’s birth, each time the employee needs to. They also have to provide a private space that is not a bathroom, shielded from view and free from intrusion.¹⁵

Pumping breaks do not have to be paid unless you are not fully relieved of duty during the break, or the time overlaps a break that is already paid. Employers with fewer than 50 employees can claim an exemption if compliance would cause significant difficulty or expense relative to the business.¹⁵

What Florida Does Not Require

Florida has no state law requiring private employers to provide bereavement leave or paid sick leave. Federal law does not mandate bereavement leave either. If a family member’s death causes a mental health condition serious enough to need treatment, that condition could independently qualify for FMLA leave, but the bereavement itself is not a covered reason.

Plenty of Florida employers offer bereavement leave and paid sick time as voluntary benefits, but the amounts and terms vary entirely by company policy. If your employer has a written policy, those terms are generally enforceable as part of your employment agreement. Do not assume you have these benefits without checking your employee handbook.

How Employer Size Changes What Applies

Because so much depends on headcount, it helps to sort the laws by the size threshold that turns them on. USERRA and the federal jury service protection apply to every employer, no matter how small. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act kicks in at 15 or more employees. The FMLA and Florida’s domestic violence leave law both apply at 50 or more employees (with the FMLA also using the 75-mile worksite rule). Florida’s 240-hour paid military training leave applies only to state, county, and municipal employers.

For a covered employer, the core FMLA obligations are to maintain the employee’s group health benefits during leave and to restore the employee to the same or an equivalent position on return.¹ For military leave, the obligation is to hold the job and reinstate the employee with the seniority they would have accumulated. On jury duty, the rule is short and non-negotiable: do not fire, demote, or threaten an employee who has been summoned to serve.

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Family and Medical Leave (FMLA)
2
GovInfo. 29 USC 2612 – Leave Requirement
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2611 – Definitions
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28M(b) – Military Caregiver Leave for a Veteran Under the FMLA
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28G – Medical Certification Under the Family and Medical Leave Act
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 38 USC 4312 – Reemployment Rights of Persons Who Serve in the Uniformed Services
7
GovInfo. 38 USC 4316 – Rights, Benefits, and Obligations of Persons Absent From Employment
8
FindLaw. Florida Code 115.07 – Leave of Absence for Military Service
9
Florida Senate. Florida Code 741-313 – Unlawful Action Against Employee
10
Florida Senate. Florida Code 40-271 – Jury Service
11
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 40.24 – Compensation of Jurors
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1875 – Protection of Jurors Employment
13
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Should Know About the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 2000gg-1 – Nondiscrimination With Regard to Reasonable Accommodations Related to Pregnancy
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 218d – Breastfeeding Accommodations in the Workplace