You qualify for FMLA leave in Maryland if you have worked for your employer for at least 12 months, logged at least 1,250 hours of actual work in the 12 months before your leave starts, and your worksite has 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius.1U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Frequently Asked Questions All three conditions have to be met. Maryland also runs its own paid leave program with a much lower threshold, so a worker who falls short of federal FMLA may still qualify under state law.2Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code, Labor and Employment 8.3-101
The Three Eligibility Requirements
Federal FMLA eligibility is a three-part test, and missing any one piece means you are not covered.
Your Employer Must Be Covered
A private employer falls under the FMLA if it employed 50 or more workers during at least 20 workweeks in the current or previous calendar year. Headcount alone is not enough, though: those 50 workers also have to be within a 75-mile radius of your particular worksite. A company with thousands of employees nationwide but only 30 near your office does not owe you FMLA leave.1U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Frequently Asked Questions
The 50-employee threshold does not apply to government or school employers. Every federal, state, and local government agency is covered regardless of size, and so is every public and private elementary or secondary school. A small Maryland school district with 15 employees is still a covered employer.
You Must Have 12 Months of Service
Those months do not have to run consecutively. If you worked for the company for eight months, left, and returned two years later, your earlier stint counts toward the 12-month total. Breaks longer than seven years generally wipe out your earlier tenure, with exceptions for military service or a written agreement such as a collective bargaining contract.1U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Frequently Asked Questions
You Must Have Worked 1,250 Hours in the Past Year
Only hours you actually performed job duties count. Vacation days, sick leave, and other paid time off do not add to the total, but overtime does.1U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Frequently Asked Questions Spread across a year, 1,250 hours works out to about 24 hours per week, so most full-time employees clear the bar without thinking about it. Part-time workers should look more carefully.
Your employer is required to maintain accurate records of hours worked. If a dispute arises and the employer has not kept those records, courts have generally put the burden on the employer to prove you did not meet the hours threshold rather than forcing you to prove you did.
How the 75-Mile Rule Works for Remote Workers
If you work from home, your “worksite” under the FMLA is not your house. Federal regulations treat a remote worker’s worksite as the office they report to or receive assignments from.3eCFR. 29 CFR 825.111 – Determining Whether 50 Employees Are Employed Within 75 Miles A Maryland-based remote worker who reports to a Baltimore office counts toward that office’s headcount, and that office’s headcount determines eligibility. If your reporting office has 50 or more employees within 75 miles, you qualify even if you live across the state.
Military Service and the Hours Count
Time away from the job for military service does not kill your FMLA eligibility. Under USERRA, the months and hours you would have worked during your service period are credited toward both the 12-month tenure requirement and the 1,250-hour requirement.4U.S. Department of Labor. FMLA Special Rules for Returning Military Members (USERRA) A returning service member should not lose access to FMLA simply because a deployment consumed months that would otherwise have been spent at work.
You Also Need a Qualifying Reason
Being an eligible employee of a covered employer only earns you the right to take leave for one of the reasons the statute lists. The FMLA provides up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period for:5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2612 – Leave Requirement
- The birth of a child, or placement of a child with you for adoption or foster care, and bonding with that child.
- Caring for your spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition.
- Your own serious health condition that prevents you from performing your job.
- Qualifying exigencies arising from a family member’s active-duty military deployment.
A serious health condition means an illness, injury, or physical or mental condition involving either inpatient care or continuing treatment by a healthcare provider.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2611 – Definitions Routine colds, stomach bugs, and minor injuries do not qualify. The most commonly used standard requires more than three consecutive full calendar days of incapacity, plus either a healthcare visit within seven days and a prescribed course of treatment, or at least two healthcare visits within 30 days of the first day of incapacity.7U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28P – Taking Leave From Work When You or Your Family Member Has a Serious Health Condition Under the FMLA Chronic conditions that flare periodically can qualify without a three-day incapacity, as long as you see a healthcare provider at least twice a year for the condition. Pregnancy, chemotherapy, dialysis, and recovery from surgery all clearly meet the standard.
A separate, larger entitlement exists if you are caring for a service member. If your spouse, child, parent, or next of kin is a current Armed Forces member or a veteran discharged within the past five years with a serious injury or illness incurred or aggravated during active-duty service, you can take up to 26 workweeks of leave in a single 12-month period.8eCFR. 29 CFR 825.127 – Leave to Care for a Covered Servicemember With a Serious Injury or Illness That 26-week block includes the standard 12-week allotment rather than adding to it.
Maryland’s Separate Paid Leave Program
Maryland’s Time to Care Act creates a state-run insurance program called FAMLI with its own eligibility rules that reach far more workers than federal FMLA. You qualify as a covered employee if you worked at least 680 hours in Maryland over the four most recently completed calendar quarters before your leave begins.2Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code, Labor and Employment 8.3-101 There is no minimum tenure with a particular employer, and no employer-size threshold. Every Maryland employer with at least one employee is covered, including small businesses well below the FMLA’s 50-worker cutoff.9Maryland Department of Labor. FAMLI Frequently Asked Questions A part-time worker, or someone who recently changed jobs, can qualify under state law while falling short of federal FMLA.
The qualifying reasons mirror the federal FMLA categories: bonding with a new child, caring for a family member with a serious health condition, your own serious health condition, and military-related exigencies.10Maryland FAMLI. Paid Family and Medical Leave Is Coming to Maryland Eligible workers can receive up to 12 weeks of paid benefits per year, capped at $1,000 per week, with the state program providing its own job-protection guarantee independent of federal FMLA.11Maryland Department of Labor. Maryland Department of Labor Proposes Extending Implementation Timeline for FAMLI
One important timing point: although payroll contributions for FAMLI are already being collected, benefit payments are not scheduled to begin until January 2028.10Maryland FAMLI. Paid Family and Medical Leave Is Coming to Maryland Until then, federal FMLA is the only source of job-protected leave for qualifying Maryland workers, and it is unpaid. Once state benefits begin, workers who qualify for both programs can layer them, drawing FAMLI income during leave that is simultaneously job-protected under the FMLA.