Maryland Paid Leave Summary & Employer Compliance

Maryland’s Paid Leave Summary

What is Maryland Paid Leave?

• The program is called Maryland Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI).
• It is intended to allow workers to take paid time off for certain family or medical reasons, while retaining job protection.
• Workers will be able to take up to 12 weeks of leave in a 12-month period under the standard benefit.
• In certain cases, an individual may be eligible for an additional 12 weeks (for example, if the leave is taken both for a serious health condition and for bonding with a child) — yielding up to 24 weeks in total in those scenarios.

Covered Reasons for Leave

Under FAMLI, leave can be taken for:

• A worker’s own serious health condition
• Caring for a family member with a serious health condition
• Bonding with a new child (birth, adoption, foster care)
• Certain family military deployment or servicemember care situations
• “Family members” is broadly defined to include: children, parents, spouses or domestic partners, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, etc.

Eligibility & Work Requirements

• To qualify, a worker must have worked at least 680 hours in Maryland over the 12 months prior (i.e., in the four calendar quarters before the leave).
• To be eligibility employee must have worked the hours in a position localized in Maryland.

Job Protection & Return Rights

• Employers must maintain a worker’s position (or a substantially equivalent one) during the leave.
• Health insurance benefits must be preserved during leave, as if the worker had not taken leave.

Funding & Contributions

• The program will be funded via payroll contributions from both employers and employees capped at 1.2% of wages. Minnesota funds its program the same way, through shared employer and employee premiums.
  Employers may withhold up to 50% of the required contribution from employee wages.
• For employers with fewer than 15 employees, counting both in-state and out-of- state may be exempt from paying the employer share (though employees still contribute).

Timing / Implementation Status

As of now, the program is not yet active — it’s in the planning / implementation phase.
Originally, contributions were supposed to begin July 1, 2025, and benefits to start January 2026.
However, the program has been delayed. A more recent law (HB 102) pushed contributions to January 1, 2027, and benefits to start between January 1, 2027 and January 3, 2028. Maine took a different path, with benefit payments starting May 1, 2026.

This is a summary of Maryland’s upcoming Paid Family and Medical Leave (FAMLI) program based on the information from the Maryland Department of Labor site.