What Is Oregon PFML? Eligibility, Pay, and Job Protection

Oregon’s paid family and medical leave program, known as Paid Leave Oregon, is a state-run insurance program that pays part of your wages when you take time off for your own serious health condition, to bond with a new child, to care for a seriously ill family member, or to handle safety issues tied to domestic violence, sexual assault, harassment, or stalking. Most workers who earned at least $1,000 in Oregon wages in the year before applying can get up to 12 weeks of paid leave per benefit year, with weekly benefits running from $68.19 to $1,636.56 depending on what you earned.

The Oregon Employment Department runs the program and pays benefits directly to you from a dedicated state fund. Your employer doesn’t write the checks.

Who Qualifies

You’re eligible if you earned at least $1,000 in total Oregon wages during your base year, which is generally the calendar year before your leave starts. If you fall short in that period, the program also checks an alternate base year.¹ Full-time and part-time work both count, and wages from every covered Oregon employer add up toward the threshold, so switching jobs during the year doesn’t knock you out.

Self-employed workers and independent contractors aren’t automatically covered, but they can opt in by applying through Paid Leave Oregon. Once enrolled, they pay the employee share of 0.6% of annual net self-employment income, up to the annual wage cap.²

What Counts as a Qualifying Reason

Three categories of life events are covered, and you can mix different types within the same benefit year.

Family Leave

Family leave covers bonding with a new child during the first year after birth, adoption, or foster placement; completing pre-placement activities before an adoption or foster placement; and caring for a family member with a serious health condition.³

Oregon’s definition of “family member” is broader than the federal standard. It includes your spouse or domestic partner, children, parents, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, and the spouses or domestic partners of those relatives. It also covers anyone you have a relationship with that is the equivalent of a family bond, even without a blood or legal connection.³

Medical Leave

Medical leave is for your own serious health condition that keeps you from working, including conditions tied to pregnancy, childbirth, and recovery.

Safe Leave

Safe leave covers situations involving domestic violence, sexual assault, harassment, or stalking. You can use it to seek medical care, counseling, victim services, or law enforcement help, or to relocate for safety.

How Much Leave You Can Take

You get up to 12 weeks of paid leave per benefit year. The benefit year is a 52-week period that starts on the Sunday before your first day of leave. Birth parents may qualify for two additional weeks, for a total of up to 14. Only the birth parent is eligible for those extra two weeks.³

Leave can be taken all at once or intermittently, with a minimum of one full day per period of leave. There’s no waiting period; benefits start on your first approved day off.²

How Much You’ll Actually Get Paid

Your weekly benefit is based on your average weekly wage during the base year, measured against the statewide average weekly wage. The formula has two tiers:

If you earned at or below 65% of the state average weekly wage, you receive 100% of your own average weekly wage.
If you earned above that 65% threshold, you receive 65% of the state average, plus 50% of the amount your wages exceed that threshold.⁴

For benefit years that begin on or after July 6, 2025, the weekly maximum is $1,636.56 and the minimum is $68.19. Those figures are tied to the statewide average weekly wage and adjust every July.

The money comes from a payroll contribution split between employees and employers. For 2026, the total rate is 1% of gross wages up to $184,500.⁵ Employees pay 60% of that rate (0.6% of gross wages). Employers with 25 or more workers pay the other 40% (0.4%). Employers with fewer than 25 employees aren’t required to pay the employer portion but must still withhold and remit the employee share.² The statutory ceiling on the total rate is 1%.

Job Protection When You Return

If you’ve worked for your employer for at least 90 consecutive days, your job is protected while you’re on Paid Leave Oregon. Your employer cannot fire, threaten, or retaliate against you for taking leave or even asking about it.⁶

When you come back, you have the right to your same position. If that job no longer exists, employers with 25 or more employees must offer you an equivalent position at a job site within 50 miles of your former location. Smaller employers can offer a different position with similar duties and the same benefits and pay.⁶

Your employer must keep your health insurance in place during leave on the same terms as before, though they can require you to continue paying your share of the premiums.² If your employer violates these protections, you can file a complaint with the Bureau of Labor and Industries or bring a civil action.⁷

How to Apply

You file your claim through Frances Online, the Oregon Employment Department’s portal. You can submit as early as 30 days before your planned leave or up to 30 days after your leave starts.⁸ What you’ll need to upload depends on the type of leave:

For medical leave, a verification form completed by your healthcare provider confirming a serious health condition.
For family leave, documentation of the qualifying event, such as birth or placement records.
For safe leave, documentation related to the qualifying situation.

Once you submit, the department verifies your identity and contacts your employer to confirm employment and the notice you gave. The portal will show an estimated benefit amount, but that figure is not an approval. Average processing time from application to first payment runs about 29 days.

If your leave is foreseeable, give your employer at least 30 days’ notice before it starts. Skipping notice doesn’t disqualify you, but Paid Leave Oregon can reduce your first weekly benefit by 25%.⁹ For something unforeseeable like a medical emergency, notify your employer as soon as practical.

How Paid Leave Oregon Fits With FMLA and OFLA

Many Oregon workers are covered by three overlapping leave laws: Paid Leave Oregon, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA). The interaction matters because it affects how much total time off you actually have.

The core rule: Paid Leave Oregon and OFLA cannot run at the same time. If your situation qualifies under both, you choose which one applies for a given period.¹⁰ FMLA and OFLA, by contrast, can run concurrently, so time under one counts against the other.

In practice, if you use 12 weeks of Paid Leave Oregon, your OFLA bank is untouched during that period and could still be available afterward for a qualifying event, though OFLA leave is unpaid unless you use accrued PTO. FMLA may run concurrently with either program when the leave qualifies. How the overlap plays out depends on the reason for the leave, your length of service, and your employer’s size, so it’s worth asking HR to lay out the sequence before you file.

If Your Employer Uses an Equivalent Plan

Employers can opt out of the state program by offering an approved private “equivalent plan” that provides the same or greater benefits.¹¹ If your employer has one, you apply through that plan rather than through Frances Online. Your rights to leave length, benefit amount, and job protection stay at least as strong as the state program.

Taxes on Your Benefits

Paid Leave Oregon benefits are subject to federal income tax, and how they’re reported depends on the type of leave. Family and safe leave benefits are reported on Form 1099-G in Box 1; if you don’t itemize, you only include in income the amount that exceeds the contributions you’ve paid into the program.¹² Medical leave benefits are reported on Form 1099-MISC in Box 3 as other income.¹³

Oregon’s Department of Revenue treats the taxability of these benefits as a federal question and doesn’t tax them separately at the state level. The IRS issued Revenue Ruling 2025-4 addressing how state paid family and medical leave payments are taxed starting in 2025. If you itemize, you can deduct your contributions on Schedule A as taxes paid. Federal withholding isn’t automatic, so set money aside if you want to avoid a tax-time surprise.

If Your Claim Is Denied

You have 60 calendar days to appeal a denial.¹⁴ Before filing a formal appeal, contact Paid Leave Oregon through Frances Online or at 833-854-0166. If the problem was missing or incorrect information, the department may reconsider without a formal hearing.

If that doesn’t fix it, you can file an appeal through Frances Online or by mailing a Request a Hearing Form to the Oregon Employment Department. Don’t send the appeal directly to the Office of Administrative Hearings; Paid Leave staff must forward it for you. Once it reaches OAH, an administrative law judge schedules a telephone hearing. You can submit additional documents up until the hearing. The judge’s final order becomes binding 60 days after it’s emailed to you.¹⁴

1
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 657B
2
Paid Leave Oregon. Common Questions About Paid Leave
3
Paid Leave Oregon. Applying for Family Leave
4
Oregon Employment Department. Minimum and Maximum Weekly Benefit Amounts to Increase for New Unemployment Insurance and Paid Leave Oregon Claims
5
Oregon Employment Department. Unemployment Insurance Tax and Paid Leave Oregon Contribution Rate 2026 Press Release
6
Paid Leave Oregon. Employees Overview
7
Oregon Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes 657B.070 – Denying Leave, Discrimination and Retaliation Prohibited
8
Paid Leave Oregon. Paid Leave Oregon Home
9
Oregon.gov. Paid Leave Oregon Model Notice Poster
10
Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. Oregon Family Leave Act – For Workers
11
Paid Leave Oregon. Equivalent Plans
12
IRS. Form 1099-G Certain Government Payments
13
Oregon Department of Revenue. Paid Leave Oregon Benefits – Individuals
14
Paid Leave Oregon. Appeals