Oregon Paid Leave

Overview

Paid Leave Oregon (OR-PL) provides eligible employees with paid, job-protected leave for qualifying family, medical, and safe leave reasons. AbsenceSoft manages OR-PL using two separate core policies that work together: one for wage replacement and one for job protection.

For detailed legislative requirements, see our Legislative Guidance.

Policy Status Decisions

This policy is administered by the state unless the employer has an approved plan to administer on their own.

💡 Best Practice: Follow the state's decision so the policy status matches the state's determination for benefits.

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.

📝 Configuration Note: How the policy is set up in the platform.

💡 Best Practice: AbsenceSoft recommendation for optimal management.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: User must complete this action or track elsewhere.

How AbsenceSoft Manages the Law

AbsenceSoft manages this law through 2 policies.

• Policy Name - Oregon Paid Leave

• Policy Code - OR-PL

• Benefit Type - Paid Leave

• Policy Name - Oregon Paid Leave - Job Protection

• Policy Code - OR-PL-JP

• Benefit Type - Job Protection

✅ Automatic: These policies run concurrently and are automatically applied to new qualifying cases.

Administration Options

Oregon Paid Leave can be administered through:

• State Plan (default) - administered by Oregon Employment Department (OED)

• Private Plans (fully or self-insured) - Requires custom policies

💡 Best Practice: Employers with a private plan should customize the existing policy to meet their state approved requirements and change the policy type to Company to show the policy is owned by the employer.

Employer Coverage Requirements

Excluded Employers

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Excluded employers are not covered under the law and may need to disable the policy in the platform to keep it from rendering. Discuss decisions with legal counsel for best approach.

Employee Eligibility

This policy is a state paid leave program that may have eligibility criteria tied to wages/earnings that are not available in the platform. Employers should follow the state's determination for the wage replacement policy.

Job protection under OR-PL-JP is determined by the employer and may be tied to the employee receiving wages.

💡 Best Practice: Follow the state's decision so the policy status matches the state's determination for eligibility.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Overrides in eligibility may be required if the state determines the employee has not met the eligibility requirements necessary for paid benefits.

Work State Requirements

📝 Configuration Note: Policy is configured with a work state of Oregon - meaning all employees with that work state will be reviewed for eligibility.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Eligibility may need to be overridden if the work state for the employee is different from the policy configured work state, based on the employer's review of the employee's work locations.

Eligibility Exceptions

Excluded Employees

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Manually override eligibility from pass to fail for excluded employees.

Leave Entitlements and Duration

Entitlement Overview

All OR-PL absence reasons share a single combined entitlement of up to 12 work weeks per 52-week Sunday Forward measurement period, with an added allowance for certain Pregnancy/Maternity conditions noted below.

• Adoption/Foster Care

• Bonding

• Domestic Violence

• Employee Health Condition

• Family Health Condition

• Pregnancy/Maternity

  • Complications = No or blank - Up to 12 weeks (base) in a 52-week Sunday Forward period

  • Complications = YES - up to 14 weeks in a 52-week Sunday Forward forward period

• Safe Leave

Entitlement Rules

✅ Automatic: AbsenceSoft automatically calculates and tracks entitlement against the shared 12-week pool across all absence reasons within this policy.

✅ Automatic: The additional 2 weeks for Pregnancy/Maternity with medical complications is automatically applied when Medical Complications = Yes on the case.

📝 Configuration Note: The combined maximum across all absence reasons is 12 work weeks (14 work weeks for conditions related to pregnancy), measured over the 52-week Sunday Forward period.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: In limited circumstances where an employee has overlapping claims in the prior and new benefit years, the measurement period may extend to 53 calendar weeks. AbsenceSoft only supports a consistent 52-week measurement period; for employees requiring a 53-week period, follow the state's determination for adjudicating time used and available, and document any overrides in case notes.

How Leave Can Be Taken

Intermittent Leave Requirements

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

📝 Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft does not enforce a minimum workday increment restriction for intermittent leave.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Employers should track usage based on the state’s decision. Employers may also want to account for time that did not meet the state's minimum leave increment requirement outside the platform, and contact the state for unexpected decision/discrepancies.

Interaction with other Policies

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

📝 Configuration Note: This policy is configured to run Not Concurrent with the related Oregon Family Leave Act policy. These policies cannot run concurrently on the same case.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: If both policies are eligible on a case, the employee decides which law they are seeking benefits under and leave managers must adjudicate so there are no overlapping approved date ranges, or deny one or both policies.

Required Paperwork/Communication

📝 Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft provides core paperwork for OR-PL Paid Leave Oregon (PLOPOSTER) to advise employees of their benefits. Paperwork is configured to be sent as part of the Employee Eligibility packet. Employers with private plans may have different requirements causing the need for a custom paperwork attachment be created with employer specific details.

OR-PL certification forms are made available to the employee through the Oregon Employment Department's online portal when a claim is filed; certifications are not available in the platform.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Updates to existing paperwork items can occur. When updates happen, they are automatically applied to paperwork unless the client has customized. Clients with customizations on the relevant paperwork will need to review to determine how to adopt the new paperwork and apply any new customizations to the updated paperwork manually.

Payroll Calculations

This policy uses a Base Wage Calculation Method developed from information published by the state of Oregon. It aims to closely replicate the calculations performed by the Oregon Employment Department.

Pay History

Uses the 5 most-recent quarterly totals, dropping the most recent quarter and summing the remaining four.

📝 Configuration Note: Gross quarterly totals include all wages reported to the Oregon Employment Department (OED) on the Oregon Combined Quarterly Payroll Report (Form 132), including base wages, overtime, bonuses, commissions, and tips. Annual bonuses are reported in the quarter paid.

Policy Configuration

State Average Weekly Wage (SAWW) and a State Weekly Max are configured in the policy's Benefit Settings.

📝 Configuration Note: Current State Average Weekly Wage (SAWW) is $1,410.13 and State Weekly Maximum is $1,692.16, effective 06/28/2026.

💡 Best Practice: Confirm any policy customizations have the correct rates before relying on them.

Oregon Base Wage Calculation Method Logic

1. Retrieve Pay History:

   1. Retrieve the last five full quarters of pay history prior to the Leave Start Date. Remove the most recent quarter, leaving the oldest four.

2. Calculate the employee's Average Weekly Wage (AWW):

   1. Sum the four quarters and verify the total is more than $1,000.

      1. If more than $1,000, divide the total by 52 to determine the AWW.

      2. If less than $1,000, return $0 as the Base Weekly Wage.

3. Calculate the Base Weekly Wage:

   1. Retrieve the State Average Weekly Wage (SAWW) and state max from Benefit Settings within the Policy Configuration.

   2. For the portion of AWW up to 65% of SAWW, apply the state benefit percent (100%):

      1. If AWW is less than or equal to 65% of SAWW: AWW × 1.00.

      2. If AWW exceeds 65% of SAWW: (SAWW × 0.65) × 1.00.

   3. For the portion of AWW above 65% of SAWW, apply the state benefit percent (50%): (AWW – (SAWW × 0.65)) × 0.50.

   4. Add the two values together to determine the estimated weekly benefit.

   5. If the calculated benefit exceeds the state max, cap the result at the state max.

   6. Return this as the Base Weekly Wage.

📝 Configuration Note: The value returned is an AbsenceSoft estimate based on the state's published formula. This estimate should be used for planning purposes only and confirmed against the official state determination before being treated as final.

Need Help?

For questions about policy configuration or case management, contact your AbsenceSoft support team or consult the Legislative Guidance for compliance details.