Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave
Overview
Massachusetts offers Paid Family and Medical Leave providing wage replacement and job protection for qualifying employees.
What’s new: Implementing better support to this policy based on upgrades to platform functionality.
The system allocates entitlements based on absence reason categories with a 26-week combined maximum within a 52-week Sunday Forward period.
Family (Bonding, Adoption/foster, Family Health Condition, Qualified Exigency): 12 weeks
Medical (Employee Health Condition and Pregnancy/Maternity): 20 weeks
Military (Care of Injured Servicemember): 26 weeks
For more information about the law, see our Legislative Guidance.
How to Use
Throughout this guidance, look for these labels to quickly identify what actions may be needed:
Automatic: System handles this automatically, no action needed
Manual Action or Tracking Required: User must complete this action or track elsewhere
Configuration Note: How the policy is set up in the platform
Best Practice: AbsenceSoft recommendation for optimal management
Administration Options
Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave can be administered through:
State Plan (default) through the Department of Family and Medical Leave
Private Plans (fully or self-insured) requiring custom policies
Best Practice: Private fully and self-insured plans should disable the core policies and create custom policies to track separately.
Employer Coverage Requirements
Excluded Employers
Refer to Legislative guidance for details.
Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft's policy applies to all Massachusetts employees by default.
Manual Action Required: Manually override eligibility for employees of excluded employers.
Employee Eligibility
Work State Requirements
Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft's policy is configured to apply to employees with Work State = Massachusetts.
Earnings Requirements
Refer to Legislative guidance for details.
Manual Action Required: Override eligibility to ineligible for employees who have not met this earnings requirement based on the state’s determination for ineligibility.
Eligibility Exceptions
Excluded Employees
Refer to Legislative guidance for details.
Manual Action Required: Manually override eligibility for excluded employees who have not opted into the program.
Leave Entitlements and Duration
Entitlement Overview
Absence Reason Category | Entitlement | Period |
|---|---|---|
Family Leave (Bonding, Adoption/Foster Care, Family Health Condition, Qualifying Exigency) | Up to 12 weeks | 52 week Sunday Forward |
Medical Leave (Employee Health Condition + Pregnancy/Maternity) | Up to 20 weeks | 52 week Sunday Forward |
Military (Care of Injured Servicemember) | Up to 26 weeks | 52 week Sunday Forward |
Combined Maximum (all reasons) | 26 weeks | 52 week Sunday Forward |
Automatic: AbsenceSoft automatically calculates entitlement based on the above overview when using core policies.
Configuration Note: The Family and Medical entitlement banks do not share entitlement. Each bank operates independently within the 26-week combined maximum.
Configuration Note: These updates apply only to new cases created on or after the March 2026 release. In-flight cases continue under the previous configuration.
Pregnancy and Bonding Cases
Critical Change: Separate Cases Required
Pregnancy (Medical bank: 20 weeks) and Bonding (Family bank: 12 weeks) have separate, non-shared entitlement allocations.
Manual Action or Tracking Required: Starting March 18, 2026, if Bonding is requested in association with a Pregnancy/Maternity case, the bonding portion must be submitted as a separate case with a Bonding absence reason so entitlement is calculated properly.
A workflow will generate a todo upon case creation of a pregnancy/maternity case that reminds the user to create a separate bonding case if applicable. This generates for employees in work state Massachusetts for new cases that start on or after the March release.
Best Practice:
Create the bonding case without delay if needed to ensure it does not get missed.
Communicate this requirement clearly to employees requesting both pregnancy and bonding leave.
Approve cases in order according to case start date to ensure accurate entitlement renderings in communications.
Manual Action Required: When the Bonding case is created, eligibility may need to be overridden to match the eligibility status as of the start of the pregnancy case. This is only needed if the bonding case immediately follows the pregnancy case.
How Leave Can Be Taken
Refer to Legislative guidance for details.
Manual Action Required: Track intermittent leave based on the state’s decision and deny if minimum thresholds are not met.
Elimination Period
Refer to Legislative guidance for details.
Manual Action Required: Track the 7-day elimination period separately and ensure benefits do not begin until the elimination period is satisfied.
Best Practice: Document elimination period tracking in case notes, including:
Start date of elimination period
End date of elimination period (day 7)
First day benefits are payable
Required Paperwork
Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft provides core paperwork to advise employees of their benefits. This is not required by law. AbsenceSoft provides the paperwork as a courtesy to help employees learn where to file and the benefits available under the law. Paperwork is configured to be sent with the Employee Eligibility packet.
Manual Action Required: Customers with customized communications may need to adjust their configurations to include this paperwork. Those with private plans will need to complete the Private Plans section of the form to provide employee insight on where to file their claim.
Employers must provide in writing when PTO, vacation, personal leave, sick leave, or disability pay are being used in conjunction with the Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave which may require employers to review or make additions their communication templates based on their organization’s preference.
Managing In-Flight Cases
Cases Open Before March 2026
Configuration Note: The updated configuration applies only to new cases created on or after the March 2026 release.
Automatic: Cases that were opened before the March 2026 release (3/18/2026) will continue to operate under the previous configuration (26 weeks shared across all absence reasons).
Manual Action Required: Continue following previous guidance for in-flight cases:
Monitor individual case entitlement based on the state's absence reason limits
Manually deny for exhaustion when individual absence reason limits are reached, even if the 26-week combined maximum has not been exhausted
Cases Created March 2026 or Later
Automatic: All new cases created on or after the March 2026 release (3/18/2026) will automatically use the updated configuration with separate Family and Medical entitlement banks.
Best Practice: Leave Managers should apply decisions in AbsenceSoft based on the state’s determination.
Manual Action Required: If prior usage causes misalignment with the Massachusetts decision on new cases created on or after 3/18/2026, manual denials or exhaustion overrides may be required to align with the state's decision.
Need Help?
For questions about policy configuration or case management, contact your AbsenceSoft support team or consult the Legislative Guidance for compliance details.