Maryland Paid Family Leave: Employer Contributions, Notices, and Reports

Maryland’s paid family leave requirements for employers apply to every business with at least one employee working in the state. Under the Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program, you have to register with the state, begin withholding payroll contributions in January 2027, file quarterly wage and hour reports, give employees written notice of their rights, and protect their jobs when they take leave. Benefits become available to workers in January 2028, but your compliance work starts more than a year earlier.

Who Has to Participate

If you employ at least one person performing work in Maryland, you are in the program.¹ The only carve-out is a sole owner who is the only worker in their own company, whether that entity is a sole proprietorship, an LLC, or a corporation.² Part-time employees, seasonal workers, and paid interns all count.³

The much-discussed 15-employee threshold does not decide whether you participate. It decides who pays. With 15 or more employees, you split the cost with your workforce. With fewer than 15, you still have to withhold and remit the employee share, but you are not required to pay the employer share.¹

Coverage follows where the work is done. Someone working remotely from Maryland for an out-of-state company is covered. Someone working remotely from another state for a Maryland company is not. The FAMLI Division’s primary indicator is whether you contribute to Maryland Unemployment Insurance for that worker.³ Self-employed Maryland residents can eventually opt in on their own, but enrollment rules for that group are not due until July 1, 2028.⁴

The Compliance Calendar

The program rolls out over roughly 18 months, and each date carries a task.⁵

Fall 2026. Online registration opens at paidleave.maryland.gov. Every employer with at least one Maryland employee must register. You will need your federal EIN.
January 2027. Payroll withholding begins with your first pay period of the year. Withheld amounts, together with any employer share, are remitted at the end of each quarter.
April 2027. The first quarterly wage and hour report is due. Reports continue quarterly after that, including for employers running an approved private plan.
January 2028. Benefits go live and eligible employees can begin filing claims.

What You Contribute

The Maryland Department of Labor set the total FAMLI contribution rate at 0.9% of covered wages for the period from January 1, 2027 through December 31, 2027.⁶ The statute caps the rate at 1.2%, and the Secretary resets it each year based on the fund’s solvency.¹

For employers with 15 or more employees, the 0.9% splits evenly: 0.45% from you, 0.45% from the employee. You may voluntarily cover part or all of the employee’s share as a benefit. If you do, you have to tell employees both the official employee rate and the portion you are electing to pay.¹ Employers with fewer than 15 employees withhold and remit only the 0.45% employee share.⁶

Contributions apply only to wages up to the Social Security wage base. That figure is $184,500 for 2026.⁷ Earnings above that cap are not subject to FAMLI withholding. The Social Security Administration will publish the 2027 base later in 2026, and that is the number that will apply to most of your first full contribution year.

Notices You Must Give Employees

Two separate notice obligations sit inside the statute. The first is a written notice of FAMLI rights and duties, given to every employee when hired and once each year afterward.⁸ The Department of Labor is developing standard templates.⁵

The second is triggered when an employee requests leave, or when you become aware that an absence may qualify. You have five business days to send a more detailed notice covering:⁸

The employee’s right to FAMLI benefits
How to file a claim
The employee’s duty to give advance notice before taking leave, and the penalties for failing to
The right to file a complaint for violations
Job protection rights
Prohibited employer actions and the complaint process

The five-day notice is the piece employers are most likely to miss, because it depends on managers and HR staff recognizing when an absence looks like a qualifying leave, not on a fixed date on a calendar. Training front-line supervisors is what makes that requirement workable.

Quarterly Wage and Hour Reports

Starting in April 2027, you must submit quarterly wage and hour reports electronically through paidleave.maryland.gov. Reports cover gross wages and hours worked for every employee performing work in Maryland, whether full-time, part-time, or seasonal.⁵ The FAMLI Division uses this data to determine employee eligibility and to calculate benefit amounts, so accuracy matters even when you never expect the worker to file a claim.

Running an approved private plan does not exempt you from reporting. You still submit quarterly wage and hour data, and you also submit quarterly claims data. Private-plan employers must retain five years of records covering applications and outcomes, benefits paid, reconsideration requests and outcomes, wage and hour reports, and employee contributions received.⁵

Job Protection and Anti-Retaliation

When an employee takes FAMLI leave, you hold the position open. On return, the employee goes back to the same job or an equivalent one, and you continue their health benefits during the leave.⁵

The anti-retaliation rules reach further than the leave itself. You cannot fire, demote, or take any adverse action against an employee for filing a FAMLI claim, asking about their rights, expressing an intent to file a complaint, or participating in any FAMLI proceeding.⁹ Even an employee who merely inquires about benefits is protected. Any adverse action taken close in time to a FAMLI-related request will draw scrutiny.

Employees have their own responsibilities. If leave is foreseeable, you can require 30 days’ written notice. If it is unforeseeable, the employee must notify you as soon as practicable and follow your standard absence-reporting procedures, provided those procedures do not interfere with the right to use FAMLI leave. Employees may take leave intermittently, but they must make a reasonable effort to schedule it in a way that does not unduly disrupt operations. You cannot reduce total leave entitlement beyond what the employee actually uses.¹⁰

Benefit levels give you a sense of what workers are entitled to when out on leave: up to 12 weeks of job-protected paid leave per year, with a maximum weekly benefit of $1,000 calculated against Maryland’s statewide average weekly wage.³

The Private Plan Alternative

You are not locked into the state plan. Maryland lets employers apply for approval of a private plan, either self-insured or through a commercial insurer, as long as the plan meets or exceeds the benefits, rights, and protections of the state program. If approved, both you and your employees are exempt from contributions to the state fund. You still cannot deduct more than 50% of the standard contribution rate from employee wages.¹¹

Only an authorized officer of the company can submit the Declaration of Intent and the formal application. Annual application fees are:¹²

Self-insured plans: $1,000 flat, regardless of size
Commercial plans: $100 (1–14 employees), $250 (15–49), $500 (50–199), $600 (200–499), $750 (500–999), or $1,000 (1,000+)

Employers registered with FAMLI are enrolled in the state plan by default. Moving to a private plan is an active choice that requires approval. During the first two years of the program, switching from an approved private plan back to the state plan may trigger a financial penalty, so time your decision carefully.

1
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Labor and Employment 8.3-601 – Funding of Program
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Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Labor and Employment 8.3-101 – Definitions
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Maryland FAMLI. About the Program
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New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Maryland Code Labor and Employment 8.3-201 – Self-Employed Individuals
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Maryland FAMLI. For Employers
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Maryland FAMLI. Contributions
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Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base
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Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Labor and Employment 8.3-801
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Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Labor and Employment 8.3-904
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Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Labor and Employment 8.3-701
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Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Labor and Employment 8.3-705 – Private Employer Plans
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Maryland FAMLI. Private Plans