California Paid Family Leave - Legislative Guidance

Overview
Employer Coverage
Employee Eligibility
Qualifying Absence Reasons and Leave Duration
How Leave Can be Taken
Certification Requirements
Pay and Benefits
Interaction with Other Laws
Employee and Employer Responsibilities
Resources

💡 Effective January 1, 2028 California Paid Family Leave is updating the provisions allowing a designated person as a qualified family member.

Overview

California Paid Family Leave(CAPFL) also known as Family Temporary Disability Insurance, provides eligible employees with up to 8 weeks of partial pay benefit during a 12- month period. Employees can receive pay benefits when caring for a qualified family member, bonding, adoption/foster care placement, or family member military exigency.

CAPFL is funded through employee and employer tax contributions. California employers can also choose to have an equivalent plan that provides the same or greater benefits than the state program. Equivalent plans must be approved by the California Employment Development Department (EDD). Additionally, EDD allows employers who do not meet the thresholds for employer coverage but still want to offer their employees pay benefits, an optional plan.

The EDD makes determinations on the claims and may request information from an employer to approve the claim. Benefit payments are made directly to the employee from the EDD. CAPFL does not offer job protection.

AbsenceSoft Policies

California Paid Family Leave is configured in AbsenceSoft with the policy code and naming below:

California Paid Family Leave CA-PFL

Legislation codes and statues

The information presented in the guidance relates to the following legislative codes, links to the specific legislation can be found within the 'Resources' section of this document:

California Unemployment Insurance Code section 3300-3308 (Cal. Unemp Ins. Code E § 3300 -3308)

Employer Coverage

Employers are considered covered employers where their employees make in excess of $100 in a calendar quarter.

Exclusions:

Interstate railroad employers
Nonprofit employers
Religious organizations or individuals

Employee Eligibility

An employee is eligible if have earned a certain threshold in wages subject to SDI deductions within a 12-month base period and have a qualifying reason for leave.

Employees collecting other employer paid, state or federally paid benefits, such as unemployment or employer short-term disability coverage, may not be eligible for CASDI.

Exclusions:

Some Domestic Workers (may qualify if they make a certain higher threshold in earnings)
Some governmental employees(campaign workers or lobbyists, etc)

Qualifying Absence Reasons and Leave Duration

Employees may take up to 8 weeks of CAPFL within the 12 month period determined by EDD.

Family Leave

Adoption/Foster Care: Care for and bond with a child during the first year after placement through adoption or foster care.
Bonding: Care for and bond with a new child during the first year after birth.
Family Health Condition: Care for a family member with a serious health condition.

Military Leave

Qualifying Exigency: Employee is attending to matters resulting from the service member's deployment. Factors include financial, legal or childcare planning, counseling services, military events/ceremonies, visitation during rest and recuperation, or addressing the death of a servicemember.

Qualifying Family Member

Child (stepchild, adopted or foster child, legal ward, child of domestic partner, in loco parentis, grandchild; for bonding purposes a child is a minor)
Spouse or domestic partner
Parent (Grandparent, in-law, adoptive/foster/legal guardian, parent who was in loco parentis, or domestic partner's parents)
Sibling
Military member: Spouse/domestic partner, child of any age -meeting the definition above, or parent – meeting the definition above, of the employee who has been called to active duty.

💡 Depending on the qualifying exigency event (QEE) - leave is limited to certain family members.

The below QEEs apply to the spouse/domestic partner, parent(not in-laws), or child (old enough to be in military service; not child's spouse) of the servicemember:

attendance in ceremony/program/event/arrival ceremony/reintegration brief

family support/assistance program/informational briefing promoted by the military or American Red Cross related to call or service

death of servicemember

financial/legal arrangements

Rest and recoup leave

Any other qualifying event the employee and employer agree to (must notify the state of decision)

QEEs that apply to the servicemember's family while servicemember deployed (i.e. Employee's spouse is a servicemember and has a stepchild that may need childcare):

Parent of the servicemember needs care (Parent in law)

Attending counseling (not by a healthcare provider) of the servicemember's child (child is biological, step, legal ward, in loco parentis, adopted, foster child under 18 unless incapable of self-care; if incapable of self-care child can be over 18)

Childcare needs of the servicemember's child: includes finding alternative care, providing childcare on an urgent basis, enrolling/transferring child in a new school, attending school conferences (child is biological, step, legal ward, in loco parentis, adopted, foster child under 18 unless incapable of self-care; if incapable of self-care child can be over 18)

How Leave Can be Taken

Employees may receive pay for consecutive, intermittent, or reduced periods for any qualifying reason.

Consecutive leave: A continuous, uninterrupted period of leave taken for a single qualifying reason.
Intermittent leave: Leave taken in separate, sometimes unpredictable, blocks of time (either hours, days or weeks) between the start and end dates of leave.
Reduced schedule: A reduction to the employees' work schedule that results in either fewer hours per day or fewer days per week. A reduced schedule is consistent from one week to the next.

Certification Requirements

The state provides claimants with the proper verification or certification requirements or forms. Employees must file for benefits within 41 days from the date of leave.

Employers may receive forms from the EDD to confirm certain facts about the leave event. Employers are integrating wages on a regular basis with CAPFL can apply to be a wage integrated employer and may have fewer requests from the state. Timely responses are requested, and if an employer fails to respond within the time frame, the employee may still be approved for benefits.

Employers will not be informed if the employee is approved for benefits unless the employee has agreed to share information with the employer.

Employees will receive any requested documentation from the EDD when they file for their benefits. Employees should return the information directly back to the EDD for processing.

💡 Employers should be mindful of any CAPFL certification documentation that comes back to them rather than EDD. California has medical privacy laws pertaining to employees and their family members. Certain information provided to the EDD is not allowed to be asked for by employers.

Pay and Benefits

There is no waiting period for CAPFL. Where state pay benefits are involved with other law interactions, such as state mandated sick pay leave, employers will want to consider where PTO/employer pay benefit application should occur.

Amount of Pay

CAPFL pays a weekly benefit amount that is determined by comparing the employee's average weekly wage to the state's average weekly wage. Benefits are calculated on a sliding scale, with lower-income employees generally receiving more of their usual wages compared to higher-income employees. Minimum and maximum weekly benefit amounts are based on the state average weekly wage. The state may increase the average weekly wage amount year over year. Employers should monitor the state website for updates in determining top-off calculations.

Use of Paid Time Off (PTO)/Employer Benefits

Once an employee is receiving CAPFL, an employer can't require an employee to use any employer accrued benefits. The employee may choose to use that time to top-off their state pay benefits not to exceed 100% of wages.

Job Protection

There are no job protections with this pay benefit.

Other Protections

The CAPFL does not offer any additional protections itself, however employers should review California discrimination laws to ensure they are applying any discrimination statues where an employee may be filing for CAPFL and are a protected class due to military or affiliation to military family members, pregnancy or disabled family members of the employee.

Benefits

CAPFL does not provide benefit protections.

Interaction with Other Laws

Where an employee meets the definition of family member, qualifying absence reason, or serious health condition, the state and federal laws may interact. Accommodations that are not leave related, would not run concurrently with other state or federal leave laws.

Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

CAPFL may run concurrently with FMLA.

California Family Rights Act(CFRA)

CAPFL may run concurrently with CFRA.

California Pregnancy Disability Leave (CAPDL)

CAPFL will not run concurrently with CAPDL.

California Domestic Violence Leave (CADOM)

CAPFL may run concurrently with CADOM.

California Family Military Leave (CAMIL)

CAPFL may run concurrently with CAMIL.

Unemployment

Certain employees may be disqualified from receiving CAPFL if they are also claiming Unemployment Benefits. Employees will need to contact the state for further guidance on how CAPFL will impact Unemployment or vice versa.²

Worker's Compensation

Employees receiving Worker's Compensation payments are not automatically disqualified from receiving CAPFL benefits. If the employee is not receiving at least what would be paid to them for CAPFL benefits from Worker's Comp - offsets can be made. ³

Employee and Employer Responsibilities

Employee Responsibilities

Notify employer of event;
File claim with the EDD and respond to EDD directly with questions; and
Follow employer policies and procedures for time-off reporting.

Employer Responsibilities

Posting requirements are as follows and all posters must be a place that is conspicuous/frequented by employees:
- Provide required notices at time of hire and when an employee requests leave that may qualify for benefits;
- Notices and posters are provided by the California EDD;
Determine any wage integrations and if employer would like to be on the approved wage integration list;
Respond to inquiries from the state;
Withhold deductions from payroll and label those deductions correctly; and
Set up an account to remit payroll contributions and to answer EDD correspondences.

Resources

California Legislation: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=3302.2.&lawCode=UIC

California Employment Development Department website: https://edd.ca.gov/en/disability/paid-family-leave/

California Fair Employment and Housing Act website: https://www.dor.ca.gov/Home/FairEmploymentAct

^{1 UIC 3302.02}

^{2 UIC 3303.1 (a)(1)}

^{3 UIC 2629(b)}

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