The Family and Medical Leave Act gives eligible Michigan workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave each year for a serious health condition, a new child, care for a close family member, or certain military family needs. FMLA is a federal law, so the core rules are the same in Michigan as anywhere else, but Michigan’s own Earned Sick Time Act can add paid time off and cover workers FMLA leaves out. Whether you qualify depends on your employer’s size, your tenure, and the hours you’ve actually worked.
Who Qualifies
FMLA eligibility has two parts. Your employer has to be covered, and you personally have to meet three separate tests.
An employer is covered if it employs 50 or more people during at least 20 workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year. Public agencies and public or private schools are covered no matter how many people they employ.
Even at a covered employer, you need to clear all three of these:
- You’ve worked for the employer for at least 12 months total. The months don’t have to be consecutive, as long as any break in employment was seven years or less.
- You’ve logged at least 1,250 actual hours of work in the 12 months immediately before your leave starts. Paid vacation, holidays, and sick days where you didn’t actually work don’t count.
- Your worksite has 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius.
That last test catches people off guard. If you work at a small branch office of a national company and the nearest coworkers are scattered across the state, your employer may be huge and you may still be ineligible. For salaried workers, if there’s a dispute about whether you hit 1,250 hours, the burden is on the employer to prove you didn’t.
Reasons You Can Take Leave
FMLA covers a defined list, not any medical or family situation:
- The birth of your child and bonding during the first 12 months. Both parents have equal rights regardless of gender.
- Placement of a child with you for adoption or foster care, and bonding during the first 12 months of placement.
- Care for a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition. In-laws are not covered.
- Your own serious health condition that makes you unable to perform your job.
- Qualifying exigencies arising from a spouse, child, or parent being deployed to a foreign country on covered active duty.
“Serious health condition” has a specific legal meaning. It covers conditions requiring an overnight hospital stay, chronic conditions that flare up periodically and require ongoing treatment, and conditions requiring extended treatment such as chemotherapy or physical therapy. Common colds, the flu, and routine dental work generally don’t qualify unless complications develop.
3eCFR. 29 CFR 825.113 – Serious Health ConditionExpanded Leave for Military Families
Military families get a longer entitlement that many workers don’t know exists. If you’re the spouse, child, parent, or next of kin of a servicemember who suffered a serious injury or illness during active duty, you can take up to 26 weeks of leave in a single 12-month period to provide care. That’s more than double the standard 12-week entitlement.
4U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28M – Using FMLA Leave Because of a Family Member’s Military ServiceThis applies to current members of the Armed Forces, including National Guard and Reserves, who are receiving medical treatment or on the temporary disability retired list. It also extends to veterans discharged within the previous five years, as long as they are still being treated for the qualifying injury or illness. The “next of kin” category is unique to this leave type and lets siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even non-relatives qualify when they are the servicemember’s nearest blood relative.
Qualifying exigency leave is separate and covers practical needs tied to a deployment: short-notice deployment issues, military ceremonies and briefings, arranging childcare or school transfers, handling financial and legal matters, and spending time with a servicemember on rest and recuperation leave.
5U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Family and Medical Leave Qualifying Exigency LeaveHow to Request Leave
When you can see the need coming, like a scheduled surgery or an expected due date, give your employer at least 30 days’ advance notice. When something is unexpected, such as a sudden hospitalization, notify your employer the same day or the next business day.
6eCFR. 29 CFR 825.302 – Employee Notice Requirements for Foreseeable FMLA LeaveYou don’t have to mention “FMLA” or cite the statute. You do have to provide enough information for your employer to recognize that the situation may qualify. “I need time off because I’m having surgery next month” is enough to put them on notice. Your employer then has five business days to send you a Notice of Eligibility, and you get at least 15 calendar days to return the medical certification.
The Department of Labor publishes standard certification forms. Form WH-380-E is for your own health condition; WH-380-F is for care of a family member. Your healthcare provider completes them, including the approximate start date, expected duration, and enough medical detail to show the condition qualifies.
7U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA FormsIf you’re asking for intermittent leave, the certification also needs to estimate how often episodes will occur and how long each one will last. Vague answers create problems. If the form says “as needed” with no frequency estimate, your employer has grounds to push back.
8U.S. Department of Labor. Certification of Health Care Provider for Family Member’s Serious Health Condition under the Family and Medical Leave ActIf your employer doubts the certification, they can require a second opinion from a doctor they choose (but not one they regularly employ) and they pay for it, including your travel costs. If the second opinion contradicts the first, a third opinion can be required, chosen jointly, and that one is final and binding. The employer also pays for the third.
9U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28G – Medical Certification under the Family and Medical Leave ActIntermittent Leave and Whether You’ll Be Paid
FMLA leave doesn’t have to be taken as one continuous block. You can take it in smaller increments: a few hours for an appointment, two days a week during chemotherapy, or unpredictable absences when a chronic condition flares. Your employer must track the time in increments no larger than one hour, or the smallest increment they use for any other kind of leave, whichever is shorter. They can’t force you to use a full day of FMLA leave when you only need two hours.
10eCFR. 29 CFR 825.205 – Increments of FMLA Leave for Intermittent or Reduced Schedule LeaveFMLA leave is unpaid by default. Your employer can require you to use accrued paid time off (vacation, sick leave, or PTO) at the same time as FMLA leave, and you can choose to do so voluntarily. Either way, the leave still counts as FMLA-protected while you’re getting paid.
Your Job and Health Insurance While You’re Out
Two guarantees give FMLA its practical value: your job waits for you, and your health insurance keeps running.
When you come back, your employer must restore you to the same position or one that is virtually identical in pay, benefits, schedule, and working conditions. You don’t have to re-qualify for benefits you already had, and your accrued seniority carries over.
11U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28A – Employee Protections under the Family and Medical Leave ActYour group health insurance continues on the same terms as if you’d never left: same plan, same coverage, same employer contribution. You remain responsible for your share of the premium, though. If part of your premium normally comes out of your paycheck, you’ll need to arrange another way to pay it while you’re on unpaid leave. If you stop paying your share, the employer can eventually drop coverage after following a notice process.
12eCFR. 29 CFR 825.209 – Maintenance of Employee BenefitsProtection From Retaliation
Employers can’t retaliate against you for taking or requesting FMLA leave. That goes beyond firing. Demotion after you return, cut hours, a poor performance review based on FMLA absences, or counting protected leave as unexcused under an attendance policy all violate the law.
13eCFR. 29 CFR 825.220 – Protection for Employees Who Request Leave or Otherwise Assert FMLA RightsEmployers also can’t manipulate the rules to keep you from qualifying. Transferring employees between worksites to stay under the 50-employee threshold, cutting your hours so you can’t reach 1,250, or restructuring your duties to argue you’re not needed are all illegal. You’re also protected from retaliation for filing a complaint or taking part in an FMLA investigation.
An employer found in violation can be liable for lost wages, lost benefits, other monetary damages, and equitable relief such as reinstatement or promotion. A complaint to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is the usual first step, though you also have the right to file a private lawsuit.
How Michigan’s Earned Sick Time Act Fits In
Michigan has its own leave law that reaches workers FMLA doesn’t and that provides paid, not unpaid, time off. The Earned Sick Time Act was restored by the Michigan Supreme Court’s July 2024 ruling in Mothering Justice v. Attorney General, and the restored version took effect on February 21, 2025, with amendments passed the same day. It covers absences for your own health needs, care for a family member, and situations involving domestic violence or sexual assault.
14Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 408.963Because the law was recently restored and amended at the same time, the current accrual rates, caps, and employer-size thresholds may differ from what was in place under the earlier Paid Medical Leave Act. For the current rules, check MCL 408.961 through 408.974 on the Michigan Legislature’s website or contact the state Department of Labor.
15Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 408.961 – Short TitleWhen both laws apply, they can run concurrently. If your time off qualifies under FMLA and under the Earned Sick Time Act, your employer can count accrued paid sick time against your 12 weeks of FMLA leave. You get paid for part of your leave instead of going entirely without income, but you don’t get additional weeks stacked on top of the FMLA entitlement.