How to Get Paid Maternity Leave in Virginia: STD, FMLA, and State Options

Virginia does not require private employers to offer paid maternity leave, so most workers in the state build their paycheck during leave from three pieces: a short-term disability policy that replaces part of your income while you recover from childbirth, any accrued paid time off, and the unpaid job protection of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. State employees have a cleaner answer: eight weeks of fully paid parental leave under Virginia Code § 2.2-1210. A bill moving through the General Assembly in 2026 would eventually create a statewide paid family leave program, but benefits under that program would not begin until 2029.

Short-Term Disability: The Main Source of Pay

For most private-sector workers in Virginia, the paycheck during maternity leave comes from an employer-sponsored short-term disability (STD) insurance plan. These plans treat childbirth as a temporary medical condition and pay a percentage of your salary during the period your doctor certifies you can’t work.

A standard policy covers six weeks for a vaginal delivery and eight weeks for a cesarean. Benefits usually fall between 60 and 100 percent of your regular earnings, depending on the plan. Higher payouts tend to come with higher premiums or longer waiting periods.

Before benefits start, most policies impose an elimination period of 7 to 14 calendar days after your disability begins. No payments accrue during that window, and most policies won’t reach back to cover it. Many workers bridge the gap with accrued PTO or sick time.

What STD Won’t Pay For

Short-term disability only pays for the period you are medically unable to work. Once your doctor clears you, usually at six or eight weeks, the payments stop. Any additional time you want to bond with your baby is unpaid unless your employer offers separate paid parental leave or you still have PTO left. FMLA may protect your job for up to 12 weeks, but STD typically funds only about half of that time.

Enrolling Before You’re Pregnant

Employer-sponsored STD plans generally require enrollment during open enrollment or within 30 days of a qualifying life event. If your employer offers STD but you didn’t sign up before becoming pregnant, most plans will exclude a pregnancy already in progress when coverage began. Check your benefits before you start trying to conceive, or during your first open-enrollment window at a new job. Individual disability policies are available on the private market if your employer offers nothing, but they carry the same pre-existing condition limitations and tend to cost more.

FMLA: Job Protection, Not a Paycheck

The Family and Medical Leave Act gives eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for childbirth, adoption, or foster placement.¹ Your employer must keep your group health benefits active during the leave, and you’re entitled to return to your same position or an equivalent one when it ends.² FMLA does not, however, require your employer to pay you anything while you’re out.

Who Qualifies

You have to meet all three of these:

You have worked for the same employer for at least 12 months (not necessarily consecutive).
You have logged at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months before your leave starts.
Your employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles of your worksite.

That last requirement is the one that leaves a lot of Virginia workers out. If you work for a small business with fewer than 50 employees within 75 miles, FMLA does not apply, and there is no federal guarantee that your job will be waiting when you return.¹

Using Paid Time Off During FMLA

FMLA leave is unpaid, but your employer can require you to use accrued vacation, sick days, or other PTO at the same time as your FMLA leave, and you can choose to do so voluntarily. Either way, paid leave runs concurrently with the FMLA clock and does not extend your 12 weeks.³

Giving Notice

For a foreseeable event like childbirth, give your employer at least 30 days’ advance notice before your leave starts.⁴ If something unexpected happens, notify them as soon as practicable.

One useful distinction: if you’re taking FMLA leave to bond with a newborn rather than to recover from childbirth, your employer cannot require a medical certification for the bonding portion.⁵ Certification can only be required for the medical recovery period.

Paid Parental Leave for Virginia State Employees

If you work for the Commonwealth of Virginia, you have access to eight weeks (320 hours) of paid parental leave at 100 percent of your regular salary following the birth, adoption, or foster placement of a child under 18. The benefit is set in Virginia Code § 2.2-1210.⁶

To qualify, you must be a classified or at-will state employee who has worked for the Commonwealth for at least 12 consecutive months.⁶ The DHRM administrative policy also references FMLA-eligibility requirements, including 1,250 hours worked in the prior 12 months.⁷

A few details that matter:

Parental leave is independent of your sick and annual leave. You do not have to drain your vacation bank first.
You must use all 320 hours within six months of the birth or placement. Unused hours are forfeited after that window closes.
If both parents work for the state and each meet the requirements, each gets the full 320 hours, and the two of you can take leave at the same time or stagger it.⁶

Stacking With the Virginia Sickness and Disability Program

State employees enrolled in the Virginia Sickness and Disability Program (VSDP) can layer parental leave on top of their short-term disability benefits. If VSDP replaces only 60 or 80 percent of your income while you recover from childbirth, you can use parental leave hours to bring your pay back up to 100 percent. Once disability benefits end, the remaining parental leave hours are available for bonding time.⁷ That coordination lets state workers stretch paid time off well past the initial eight weeks.

Health Insurance Premiums While You’re Out

Under FMLA, your employer must maintain your group health coverage on the same terms as if you were still working, but you are still responsible for your share of the premium.⁸

If you’re receiving paid leave or STD benefits, your employer can deduct premiums from those payments through normal payroll. During any unpaid portion of your leave, your employer must give you advance written notice explaining how and when to pay. Options may include continuing payroll-deduction timing, following the COBRA payment schedule, or another arrangement you and your employer agree to.⁸

If your premium payment runs more than 30 days late, your employer can drop your coverage, but only after mailing you written notice at least 15 days before the termination date.⁹ Even if coverage lapses, your employer must reinstate you to equivalent health insurance when you return from FMLA leave, with no new waiting periods or re-enrollment. Budget for those premium payments before leave starts.

Taxes on Your Maternity Pay

Whether your disability payments are taxable depends on who paid the premium for the policy. The IRS draws a clean line:

If your employer pays for the STD plan, the benefits are taxable income. They appear on your W-2 and are subject to federal and state income tax.
If you pay the full cost yourself with after-tax dollars, the benefits are not taxable.
If you and your employer share the premium, only the portion of benefits attributable to the employer’s share is taxable.
If your premiums go through a cafeteria plan with pre-tax dollars, the IRS treats them as employer-paid, and the benefits are fully taxable.

These rules come from IRS Publication 525.¹⁰ Most workers enrolled in employer-subsidized STD plans should expect to owe tax on their maternity disability payments. Build that into your income projections so the smaller-than-expected checks don’t catch you off guard.

Pregnancy Accommodations So You Can Keep Earning

Because paid leave is limited, staying on the job comfortably during pregnancy often matters as much as the leave itself. Two laws require your employer to accommodate pregnancy-related limitations rather than push you onto unpaid leave.

Virginia’s Accommodation Law

Virginia Code § 2.2-3909 requires employers with five or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth, and related conditions, including lactation. The statute lists examples: more frequent bathroom breaks, access to a private location (not a bathroom) to express breast milk, modified equipment or seating, temporary transfer to less strenuous work, light duty, modified schedules, and leave to recover from childbirth. Your employer cannot force you onto leave if a different accommodation would let you keep working.¹¹

The Virginia Human Rights Act also treats pregnancy discrimination as a form of sex discrimination. An employer that fires, demotes, or refuses to hire you because of pregnancy faces potential compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney fees, and injunctive relief.¹²

The Federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act

The federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which took effect in 2024, requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations for limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or recovery unless doing so would cause undue hardship.¹³ Accommodations can include more frequent breaks, modified schedules, telework, temporary reassignment to lighter duties, or a stool to sit on during shifts.¹⁴ Virginia’s law has the lower employer-size threshold of the two, so more Virginia workers are covered by state law than by federal law.

What’s Coming: Virginia’s Pending Paid Family Leave Program

Virginia may soon join the states with a mandatory paid family leave program. Senate Bill 2, which passed the Virginia Senate during the 2026 session, would direct the Virginia Employment Commission to create and administer a paid family and medical leave insurance program. As of this writing, the bill is pending the Governor’s communication.¹⁵

If enacted, the program would operate on this timeline:

Premiums, funded by both employer and employee contributions, would begin April 1, 2028.
Benefits would begin January 1, 2029.
The weekly benefit would equal 80 percent of the employee’s average weekly wage, capped at 100 percent of the statewide average weekly wage.
Leave would run up to 12 weeks in any application year.
Self-employed individuals could opt in voluntarily.¹⁵

Until SB 2 becomes law and takes effect, the mix of FMLA, employer short-term disability, accrued PTO, and personal savings is still the reality for most Virginia workers planning maternity leave. Check your STD policy and your PTO balance now, confirm whether your employer is large enough to trigger FMLA and the two accommodation laws, and if you work for the Commonwealth, confirm your 12 months of service so you’re clearly inside the parental leave benefit when the time comes.

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Family and Medical Leave (FMLA)
2
U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Frequently Asked Questions
3
eCFR. 29 CFR 825.207 – Substitution of Paid Leave
4
eCFR. 29 CFR 825.302 – Employee Notice Requirements for Foreseeable FMLA Leave
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28G – Medical Certification Under the FMLA
6
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 2.2-1210 – Parental Leave
7
Department of Human Resource Management. Commonwealth of Virginia Parental Leave Policy 4.21
8
U.S. Department of Labor. Family and Medical Leave Act Advisor – Health Plan Premium Payments
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Family and Medical Leave Act Advisor – Employee Failure to Pay Health Plan Premiums
10
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 525 (2025) – Taxable and Nontaxable Income
11
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 2.2-3909 – Causes of Action for Failure to Provide Reasonable Accommodation
12
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code – Chapter 39 – Virginia Human Rights Act
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC Chapter 21G – Pregnant Worker Fairness
14
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Should Know About the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
15
Virginia General Assembly. SB2 – 2026 Regular Session