1. What is PFML?
PFML provides job protection and pays benefits when a worker needs time off work for a qualifying reason. PFML provides up to 26 weeks of total leave each benefit year:
- 20 weeks of medical leave for a worker’s serious health condition
- 12 weeks of family leave for a family member’s serious health condition or the birth, foster placement, or adoption of a new child during the first year
- 26 weeks to care for a family member injured while serving the armed forces
- 12 weeks to manage the affairs of a family member on active military duty
The benefit year runs for 12 calendar months from the Sunday before the first day of leave. 458 C.M.R. 2.02. A worker’s benefit amount remains the same for the duration of the benefit year.
PFML protects a worker’s job as soon as the worker notifies the employer that they need time off work for a qualifying reason. A qualifying reason means something that makes a worker eligible for family or medical leave. This can be the worker’s own serious medical condition, a family member’s serious medical condition, the birth, adoption or fostering of a new child, among others. 458 C.M.R. 2.02. In practice, a serious medical condition is any condition that a doctor certifies prevents the worker from working for more than three days and requires medical treatment. The worker must comply with the employer’s reasonable requests for medical documentation. 458 C.M.R. 2.16(2). However, the job is protected whether or not the worker files an application for PFML benefits. 458 C.M.R. 2.02.
PFML pays 60-80% of usual wages. The program has a progressive wage replacement formula. This means lower wage workers have a larger percentage of their wages replaced than their higher earning counterparts. The first week is the unpaid waiting week, so usually the worker will use accrued sick time or vacation during this week. There is a new waiting week each time a worker uses continuous leave in a year and returns to work. Use the online benefit calculator to estimate your benefit amount. A worker can top-off the benefit using sick time or PTO up to 100% if the employer allows it.
Example: A worker takes six weeks of bonding leave following the birth of his son on Thursday, October 5. His benefit year runs from Sunday, October 1 to Monday, September 30 of the following year. He returns to work after 6 weeks. He uses six more weeks of bonding leave in May and June of the following year. The worker will be paid PFML benefits for only 10 weeks total because he is subject to two waiting weeks. He may use up to 14 weeks of medical leave during the benefit year, because 12 bonding weeks are subtracted from 26 total weeks available. On October 1 of the following year, his allotment of weeks resets to 26.
The benefit is flexible and can be used for continuous, reduced schedule, or intermittent time off. Continuous leave is a single time period of consecutive, uninterrupted days off work. A reduced or part time leave schedule is a reduced schedule that is consistent from week to week. Intermittent or episodic leave is made up of multiple episodes of time off that can be irregular or unexpected. For family bonding leaves, an employee’s reduced leave schedule must be approved by the employer.