Do You Get Paid on Leave of Absence: FMLA, PFML, and PTO

Whether you get paid on a leave of absence depends less on federal law than on which of four sources applies to you: a state paid-leave program, an employer disability plan or PTO bank, a specific paid-leave entitlement (like federal paid parental leave), or accrued time off you choose to use. The main federal leave law, the Family and Medical Leave Act, protects your job for up to 12 weeks but guarantees no paycheck. Thirteen states and the District of Columbia now run paid family and medical leave programs that replace part of your wages, and many employers offer short-term disability coverage or paid time off you can draw down while you are away.

Where Leave Pay Actually Comes From

Federal law does not require your employer to keep paying you during a leave of absence. Income during your time off, if any, comes from one or more of these sources:

A state paid family and medical leave program that pays a percentage of your wages from a state insurance fund
An employer short-term disability policy that replaces part of your salary when illness or injury keeps you from working
Accrued paid time off, vacation, sick, or personal leave that you use to cover unpaid weeks
A specific paid-leave entitlement, such as federal paid parental leave, that applies to your job

The rest of this article walks through each source, the tax treatment of what you receive, and how to keep your health coverage when the paychecks stop.

FMLA Protects Your Job, Not Your Paycheck

The Family and Medical Leave Act gives eligible workers up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period for a birth or placement of a child, a serious family health condition, your own serious health condition, or a qualifying military exigency. A separate provision extends leave to 26 workweeks in a single 12-month period to care for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness.¹

To qualify, you must have worked for the same employer for at least 12 months, logged at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months before your leave starts,² and work for an employer with 50 or more employees within 75 miles of your worksite.³ If you work for a smaller company, FMLA does not apply to you, though your state may have its own leave law with different thresholds.

The law does not put a paycheck in your hand. What it does allow is substitution: you or your employer can apply your accrued paid vacation, personal leave, or sick leave against any part of the 12-week FMLA period.³ Your paid-leave balance goes down while your FMLA clock runs, and you receive your normal paycheck for those weeks. When the paid balance runs out, the remainder of your FMLA leave is unpaid.

State Paid Family and Medical Leave Programs

Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have created paid family and medical leave programs funded through payroll contributions rather than employer budgets. They work like insurance. Workers, and sometimes employers, pay into a state fund through small paycheck deductions, and the fund pays benefits when a qualifying leave event occurs. Several additional state programs are scheduled to begin paying benefits in 2026 and 2027.

When you qualify, the state program replaces a percentage of your average weekly wages, typically between 50 and 90 percent depending on the jurisdiction and your earnings level. Each state caps benefits at a maximum weekly amount, and those caps vary widely. Eligibility generally requires meeting a minimum earnings or hours-worked threshold during a set base period before your leave. Your state’s labor or employment department can tell you whether a program exists in your area, what the current benefit cap is, and how to apply.

These state programs run alongside FMLA, not instead of it. If you qualify for both, the two usually run at the same time: your 12 weeks of FMLA job protection and your state paid benefit period overlap, so the state program supplies income while FMLA supplies job protection.

Paid Parental Leave for Federal Employees

If you work for the federal government, a separate law provides paid parental leave. Under the Federal Employee Paid Leave Act, eligible federal employees receive up to 12 administrative workweeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth or placement of a child.⁴ This paid leave substitutes for unpaid FMLA leave, so you must meet FMLA eligibility requirements to use it. Employees with temporary appointments, intermittent schedules, or fewer than 12 months of qualifying federal service are not eligible.

Before using paid parental leave, you must sign a written agreement to complete a 12-week work obligation after your leave ends.⁴ If you leave your position before finishing that obligation, you may have to repay the money. Spouses who both work for the federal government each get their own full 12-week entitlement; they are not required to share a combined 12 weeks.

Employer Disability Insurance and PTO

Beyond what the law requires, many employers offer their own paid leave benefits. These are governed by company policy or your employment contract, not by statute, so they vary significantly from one workplace to the next.

PTO banks. Many organizations combine vacation, sick, and personal days into a single pool you can use for any absence, including a medical or family leave.
Short-term disability insurance. Some employers carry group disability policies that pay a portion of your salary, often around 60 percent, after a brief waiting period when you cannot work due to illness or injury. These payments are processed as taxable income.
Collective bargaining agreements. If you belong to a union, your contract may include salary continuation for certain leave types or supplemental pay on top of state benefits.

Check your employee handbook, benefits portal, or HR department to find out exactly what your employer offers. Even if your company has no formal paid-leave program, you may be able to use accrued PTO during an FMLA absence as described above.

Jury Duty and Military Leave

Two common leave situations often surprise workers because the federal protection stops short of pay.

Military service. The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act guarantees that you can return to your civilian job after military service.⁵ USERRA does not require private employers to pay your civilian salary while you serve. Your compensation during service comes from military pay. Some employers voluntarily make up the difference, and a few states require differential pay for public employees called to active duty.

Jury duty. Federal law prohibits your employer from firing, threatening, or coercing you because of jury service in a federal court, and an employer who violates that protection faces a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation plus lost wages and reinstatement.⁶ Federal law does not require your employer to keep paying your salary during jury service. Federal jurors receive a $50-per-day attendance fee from the court.⁷ Some states require private employers to pay full wages for a limited number of jury service days, commonly up to three, and others require employers to cover the gap between the court’s stipend and regular earnings. Check your state’s laws and your employer’s policy.

Keeping Health Insurance When the Paychecks Stop

Unpaid leave does not have to mean losing your coverage. Under FMLA, your employer must continue your group health coverage on the same terms as if you were still working.⁸ If your employer covered 80 percent of the premium and you covered 20 percent, that split continues.

You still have to pay your share. With no paycheck to deduct from, the employer may require you to submit payments on a regular schedule, often matching payroll cycles or the schedule used for COBRA payments.⁸ Your employer must give you written notice explaining how and when premium payments are due before your leave begins. If you miss payments, the employer can recover what it covered on your behalf.⁹

Taking FMLA leave by itself does not trigger COBRA. If your leave later ends in a loss of coverage, for instance because you decide not to return and your employment ends, that event may qualify you for COBRA continuation coverage.¹⁰

How Leave Pay Is Taxed

How your leave pay is taxed depends on where the money comes from. Wages from your employer, whether drawn from PTO, salary continuation, or paid parental leave, are taxed exactly like your regular paycheck. State-managed paid leave benefits follow different rules that the IRS clarified in Revenue Ruling 2025-4.

Family leave benefits paid by a state program, for example to bond with a new child or care for a sick relative, are included in your federal gross income regardless of who funded the premiums. They are not treated as wages for Social Security and Medicare tax purposes.

Medical leave benefits for your own serious health condition are more complicated. The portion tied to premiums you personally paid is generally excluded from federal income. The portion tied to your employer’s share of the premiums is included in your gross income and is also subject to employment taxes.¹¹ For 2026, the IRS has extended a transition period that relieves states and employers from certain withholding and reporting requirements on the employer-funded portion of medical leave benefits, but that does not change whether the income is taxable to you. Keep records of any state benefit payments so you can report them accurately.

How to Apply and What to Have Ready

The steps for getting paid during a leave depend on the source of the money. If your pay will come from accrued PTO or an employer disability plan, you will work directly with your HR department. If you are applying for benefits from a state paid-leave program, you will file through that state’s online portal or labor department.

Regardless of the source, gather the following before submitting any request:

Your current PTO, sick, or vacation balance, available on your pay stub or HR portal
A medical certification signed by your health care provider, if applicable
Earnings records from recent quarters, which state programs use to calculate your benefit amount
Your Social Security number and contact information
The start and expected end date of your absence

For state programs, processing commonly takes two to three weeks from submission to the first benefit payment. Most systems send an automated confirmation when your application is received and notify you of approval or denial with details on your weekly benefit amount. If your claim is denied, you generally have the right to appeal in writing within a deadline stated in the denial notice. Missing that deadline can forfeit your appeal rights, so read the letter carefully and act quickly.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2612 – Leave Requirement
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2611 – Definitions
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC Chapter 28 – Family and Medical Leave
4
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Paid Parental Leave
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 38 USC 4301 – Purposes and Sense of Congress
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1875 – Protection of Jurors Employment
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1871 – Fees
8
eCFR. 29 CFR 825.210 – Employee Payment of Group Health Benefit Premiums
9
eCFR. 29 CFR 825.212 – Employee Failure to Pay Health Plan Premium Payments
10
U.S. Department of Labor. FAQs on COBRA Continuation Health Coverage for Workers
11
Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2026-6 – Extension of Transition Period for State Paid Family and Medical Leave Programs