FMLA — Who Qualifies and What Leave It Gives — In Plain Words

This page is general information only. It is not legal advice.

This page explains the Family and Medical Leave Act.

People call it the FMLA for short.

It is a federal law about leave from work for family and medical reasons.

This page covers the federal law (the FMLA) only.

Every rule on this page comes from one source.

That source is Fact Sheet #28 from the U.S. Department of Labor.

The sheet was revised in March 2025.

The short answer

The sheet says the FMLA gives job-protected leave from work for family and medical reasons.

It covers only some employers.

It covers only some employees of those employers.

Those employees are called eligible employees.

An eligible employee of a covered employer can take up to 12 workweeks of leave in a 12-month period for most of the reasons the sheet lists.

For military caregiver leave, the sheet gives up to 26 workweeks in a single 12-month period.

While the employee is on leave, the employer must keep the employee's group health benefits going.

The benefits continue under the same conditions as if the employee had not taken leave.

When the employee comes back, the sheet says the employee must be restored to the same position, or to a virtually identical position.

This page states the sheet's rules.

It does not decide any real case.

Only the employer or the U.S. Department of Labor can decide a real case.

Which employers are covered

The sheet lists three kinds of covered employers.

• Private-sector employers who employ 50 or more employees in 20 or more workweeks in either the current calendar year or the previous calendar year.
• Public agencies. The sheet says this includes Federal, State, and local government employers. They are covered regardless of the number of employees.
• Local educational agencies. The sheet says this includes public school boards, public elementary and secondary schools, and private elementary and secondary schools. They are covered regardless of the number of employees.

Those are the sheet's own words, in plain form.

The sheet does not list any other kind of covered employer.

Which employees are eligible

The sheet gives three tests.

An employee must meet all three.

• The employee works for a covered employer for at least 12 months.
• The employee has at least 1,250 hours of service with the employer during the 12 months before the FMLA leave starts.
• The employee works at a location where the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles.

Each test above is printed the way the sheet prints it.

The sheet also notes two special cases.

Airline flight crew employees have special hours of service eligibility requirements.

The sheet points readers to Fact Sheet #28J for those rules.

For returning servicemembers, the sheet says a period of absence from work due to service covered by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) counts toward the months and hours of service requirements for FMLA leave eligibility.

The reasons the FMLA protects leave for

The sheet lists these reasons.

• The birth of a child, or the placement of a child with the employee for adoption or foster care.
• To care for a child, spouse, or parent who has a serious health condition.
• A serious health condition that makes the employee unable to work.
• Reasons related to a family member's service in the military. The sheet breaks this into two kinds of leave:
  • Qualifying exigency leave — leave for certain reasons related to a family member's foreign deployment.
  • Military caregiver leave — leave when a family member is a current servicemember or recent veteran with a serious injury or illness.

That is the sheet's full list.

This page does not add any other reason.

How much leave the sheet gives

The sheet states two amounts.

• Up to 12 workweeks of leave in a 12-month period, for any FMLA leave reason except military caregiver leave.
• Up to 26 workweeks of military caregiver leave during a single 12-month period.

The sheet says FMLA leave is job-protected, unpaid leave.

It also says FMLA leave may be unpaid, or used at the same time as employer-provided paid leave.

The sheet says an employee may use employer-provided paid leave at the same time as FMLA leave, if the reason for the FMLA leave is covered by the employer's paid leave policy.

The sheet also says an employer may require employees to use their paid leave during FMLA leave.

How the leave can be taken

The sheet says employees have the right to take FMLA leave all at once.

Or, when medically necessary, they may take it in separate blocks of time.

Or they may take it by reducing the time they work each day or week.

The sheet calls this intermittent leave or reduced schedule leave.

The sheet says intermittent or reduced schedule leave is also available for military family leave reasons.

But for bonding with a newborn or newly placed child, the sheet says an employee may use leave this way only if the employee and the employer agree.

The sheet also notes that special rules apply to employees of elementary schools, secondary schools, and school boards.

It says those rules generally apply when an employee needs intermittent leave, or leave near the end of a school term.

Asking for the leave, as the sheet states it

The sheet says employees do not have to specifically ask for FMLA leave.

But they do need to give enough information so the employer is aware the leave may be covered by the FMLA.

The sheet says employees must provide notice to their employer as soon as possible and practical that they will need to use FMLA leave.

The sheet gives one example.

If an employee has a procedure for a serious medical condition scheduled in three weeks, the employee needs to give notice as soon as the procedure is scheduled.

The sheet says employers may ask for information from the health care provider before approving FMLA leave.

The employer must allow 15 calendar days to provide the information.

In some circumstances, the sheet says employees must be allowed additional time.

One example the sheet gives is when the health care provider is not able to complete the certification information on time.

What the leave protects: the job

The sheet says employees who use FMLA leave have the right to go back to work at their same job.

Or they go back to an equivalent job.

An equivalent job has the same pay, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment.

The sheet gives examples of actions that may violate an employee's FMLA rights.

• Changing the number of shifts assigned to the employee.
• Moving the employee to a location outside of his or her normal commuting area.
• Denying the employee a bonus for which the employee qualified before taking FMLA leave.

The sheet says an employer cannot threaten, discriminate against, punish, suspend, or fire an employee because he or she requested or used FMLA leave.

It gives more examples of actions that may violate an employee's rights.

• Writing up the employee for missing work when using FMLA leave.
• Denying a promotion because the employee has used FMLA leave.
• Assessing negative attendance points for FMLA leave use.

The sheet also says employers are prohibited from interfering with, restraining, or denying the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any FMLA right.

What the leave protects: health benefits

The sheet says employers are required to continue group health insurance coverage for an employee on FMLA leave.

The coverage continues under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave.

The sheet gives one example.

If family member coverage is provided to an employee, family member coverage must be maintained during the employee's FMLA leave.

If rights are violated, as the sheet states it

The sheet says the Wage and Hour Division is responsible for administering and enforcing the FMLA for most employees.

The sheet says a person who believes his or her rights under the FMLA have been violated may file a complaint with the Wage and Hour Division.

Or that person may file a private lawsuit against the employer in court.

The sheet adds two limits.

State employees may be subject to certain limitations in pursuit of direct lawsuits regarding leave for their own serious health conditions.

Most Federal and certain congressional employees are also covered by the law, but are subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management or Congress.

The sheet also prints this about itself.

The contents of the sheet do not have the force and effect of law and are not meant to bind the public in any way. The sheet says it is intended only to provide clarity to the public regarding existing requirements under the law or agency policies.

What this sheet does not decide

The sheet states general rules.

It does not decide whether any one person is eligible.

It does not decide whether any one employer is covered in a real case.

Only the employer or the U.S. Department of Labor can decide a real case.

The sheet does not define the words "serious health condition" on this page.

It points to other fact sheets for some topics, such as the special rules for airline flight crews.

Where the sheet is silent, this page is silent too.

This page is general information only. It is not legal advice.