ORS 657B: Oregon Paid Family and Medical Leave Benefits and Claims

Paid Leave Oregon gives most workers in the state up to 12 weeks of partially paid, job-protected leave in a benefit year to recover from a serious health condition, bond with a new child, care for a family member, or deal with the aftermath of domestic violence or a similar safety threat. The program sits in ORS Chapter 657B and is paid for by a shared payroll contribution capped at one percent of wages, with employees and larger employers each covering a portion.

Who Qualifies

If you are a regular W-2 employee and your employer withheld Paid Leave Oregon contributions from your wages during your base year, you qualify for benefits when you file a claim. There is no minimum earnings threshold.¹ Your base year is generally the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before the claim.

Self-employed workers and employees of tribal governments follow a different rule. Both must have earned at least $1,000 in wages or taxable income during the base year or alternate base year.¹ Self-employed people also have to opt in by filing a written election with the Employment Department director and committing to at least three years of contributions.² Tribal governments elect coverage through an intergovernmental agreement, also for a minimum of three years.³

What You Can Take Leave For

ORS 657B.020 recognizes three purposes, and you can combine them up to 12 weeks in a benefit year.⁴

Family leave, to bond with a new child after birth, adoption, or foster placement, or to care for a family member with a serious health condition.
Medical leave, for your own serious health condition that keeps you from working — surgery recovery, chronic illness treatment, inpatient care.
Safe leave, for survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, harassment, bias crimes, or stalking, and for parents of survivors.⁵

“Family member” is defined broadly. It covers your spouse or domestic partner, child, parent, sibling, stepsibling, grandparent, and grandchild, the spouses and domestic partners of those relatives, and anyone related by blood or close personal association whose relationship with you is the equivalent of family.⁶

If you give birth, you can get two extra weeks on top of the standard 12, for up to 14 weeks in a benefit year. Only the birthing parent qualifies for the extension.⁷

How Much You Get Paid

Your weekly benefit is set by comparing your average weekly wage to the state average weekly wage, on a two-tier formula.⁸ If you earn at or below 65% of the state average weekly wage, your benefit equals 100% of your own average weekly wage — the program replaces your full paycheck. If you earn above that mark, your benefit equals 65% of the state average weekly wage plus 50% of the amount by which your own wages exceed 65% of the state average.

The maximum weekly benefit is capped at 120% of the state average weekly wage.⁹ The Employment Department updates the state average weekly wage every July, so the cap moves each year. Lower-wage workers see a higher share of income replaced than higher-wage workers.

How to File a Claim

Claims run through Frances Online, the state’s benefits and payroll portal.¹⁰ You set up an account, enter your leave dates and personal information, and upload supporting documents. Paper applications are available if you don’t have internet access, but online filings move faster.

For medical or family leave tied to a health condition, a healthcare provider has to complete a verification form documenting the condition and expected duration. For safe leave, supporting documents can include police reports, court records, or a statement from a victim services provider. There is no filing fee. The Employment Department reviews the claim and issues a written decision, usually within a few weeks, laying out your benefit amount, leave duration, and appeal rights if denied.

Notice You Owe Your Employer

When the leave is foreseeable, your employer can require at least 30 days’ written notice before you start, and can ask you to explain the reason in that notice. When it isn’t foreseeable — a sudden serious health condition, a premature birth, a safety emergency — you can start leave without 30 days’ notice, but you must give oral notice within 24 hours of starting and follow up with written notice within three days. Someone else can do that for you if you can’t.⁸

Miss the required notice and the Employment Department may reduce your first weekly benefit by up to 25%. If the first payment is smaller than the full penalty, the reduction rolls forward to later payments until the 25% is taken.¹¹ For safe leave, the standard is reasonable advance notice unless doing so isn’t feasible.

Job Protection When You Return

Job protection isn’t automatic. You need to have worked for your employer for at least 90 consecutive days before taking leave to qualify for reinstatement rights.⁹ That threshold applies to full-time, part-time, seasonal, temporary, and limited-duration employees. If you take leave in your first weeks on the job, you can still collect benefits, but your employer doesn’t have to hold your position.

Once you meet the 90-day threshold, you have the right to return to the same position you held before leave, so long as it still exists, even if a temporary replacement filled it while you were out. If the position was eliminated for reasons unrelated to your leave, your employer must offer an equivalent position with equivalent pay, benefits, and working conditions.¹² If no equivalent job is available at your original worksite, the employer must offer one at a site within 50 miles, and where several sites have openings, the closest one comes first. Employers with fewer than 25 employees have a bit more flexibility: they can place you in a different position with similar duties at the same pay and benefits when business necessity requires it.

Your health coverage continues during leave as if you never stopped working. You still owe your share of premiums. If your employer advances your portion while you are out, they can recover it from your paychecks after you return, but the deduction can’t exceed 10% of your gross pay per pay period.¹² Employees who haven’t hit 90 consecutive days don’t have the health coverage protection. Seniority and pension rights accrued before leave are preserved, and you keep any general pay raises or step increases you would have received had you stayed at work.

Discriminating against an employee for using any part of Chapter 657B is an unlawful employment practice under Oregon law.¹² Firing, demoting, cutting hours, or otherwise treating someone unfavorably because they requested or took leave gives grounds for a claim.

What It Costs You

The program is funded by contributions to a dedicated trust fund.¹³ The total rate is set by the Employment Department director and capped at one percent of wages. For 2025 and 2026, the rate sits at that statutory maximum.⁹

Employees pay 60% of the total rate and employers with 25 or more employees pay 40%.¹⁴¹⁵¹⁶

Some employers offer an approved equivalent plan instead of using the state program. An equivalent plan has to offer benefits at least as generous as Paid Leave Oregon, cover all employees, not deduct more from your wages than the state program would, and be approved by the Employment Department.¹⁷ If your employer uses one, your leave rights should be at least as strong as under the state program.

How It Interacts With OFLA and FMLA

Time you take under Chapter 657B runs concurrently with leave taken under the Oregon Family Leave Act or the federal Family and Medical Leave Act when the reason is the same.¹⁸ You can’t stack Paid Leave Oregon on top of FMLA to double your total time off. The clock runs on both at once.

Appealing a Denied Claim

You have 60 calendar days from the date of a denial to appeal. File through your Frances Online account or mail a Request a Hearing Form to the Paid Leave Oregon office in Salem. Sending appeals directly to the Office of Administrative Hearings can slow things down.¹⁹

After you file, Paid Leave Oregon staff review your case and may resolve it without a hearing. If not, the appeal moves to the Office of Administrative Hearings, which schedules a telephone hearing with an administrative law judge. The judge takes testimony from you, a Paid Leave representative, and sometimes an Employment Department contributions officer, and issues a final order by email. The decision becomes final 60 calendar days after it is sent. A late appeal can still be accepted if circumstances outside your control kept you from filing on time.¹⁹

Taxes on Your Benefits

How your benefits are reported depends on the type of leave. Family leave and safe leave benefits are reported on Form 1099-G. Medical leave benefits are reported separately on Form 1099-MISC as other income. If you took both categories in the same year, you’ll receive both forms, each showing only the portion of benefits that applies.²⁰

Whether the benefits are taxable is a matter of federal tax law, and the Oregon Department of Revenue doesn’t provide federal tax guidance on this point, so a tax professional or IRS resource is the right place to check.²⁰ Benefits are reported for the calendar year the payments are issued, not when the leave took place, so a claim filed in late December with payments arriving in January shows up on the following year’s forms.

1
OregonLaws. Oregon Code 657B.015 – Benefit Eligibility
2
OregonLaws. Oregon Code 657B.130 – Elective Coverage for Certain Individuals
3
Oregon Secretary of State. Oregon Administrative Rule 471-070-2100
4
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 657B.020 – Qualifying Purposes for Benefits Duration of Benefits
5
Paid Leave Oregon. Applying for Safe Leave
6
OregonLaws. Oregon Code 657B.010 – Definitions
7
Paid Leave Oregon. Applying for Family Leave
8
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 657B – Family and Medical Leave Insurance
9
Paid Leave Oregon. Common Questions About Paid Leave
10
Paid Leave Oregon. Home – Paid Leave Oregon
11
Oregon Department of Administrative Services. Paid Leave Oregon Model Notice Poster
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OregonLaws. Oregon Code 657B.060 – Job Protection Benefits Discrimination Prohibited
13
OregonLaws. Oregon Code 657B.430 – Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Fund
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OregonLaws. Oregon Code 657B.150 – Contributions
15
Paid Leave Oregon. Paid Leave Oregon Employers Overview
16
Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base
17
Paid Leave Oregon. Equivalent Plans
18
OregonLaws. Oregon Code 657B.025 – Coordination of Leave
19
Paid Leave Oregon. Appeals
20
Oregon Department of Revenue. Paid Leave Oregon Benefits Individuals