To qualify for FMLA leave, you need to meet the law’s eligibility rules and have a reason the statute recognizes. On eligibility, you must work for a covered employer, have at least 12 months and 1,250 hours of service, and work at a site with 50 or more employees within 75 miles.1eCFR. 29 CFR 825.110 – Eligible Employee On reasons, the law covers the birth or placement of a child, a serious health condition affecting you or a close family member, and certain needs tied to a family member’s military service.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2612 – Leave Requirement Both halves have to line up — a qualifying reason without eligibility gets you nothing, and eligibility without a qualifying reason does the same.
Which Employers Are Covered
A private employer is covered by the FMLA if it has 50 or more employees during at least 20 workweeks in the current or previous calendar year.3eCFR. 29 CFR 825.104 – Covered Employer Part-time and temporary workers count toward the threshold, and the 20 workweeks do not have to be consecutive, so a seasonal business can still be covered based on its busy months.
Public agencies — federal, state, and local — are covered no matter how many people they employ. Public and private elementary and secondary schools are covered on the same basis, even with fewer than 50 employees.3eCFR. 29 CFR 825.104 – Covered Employer
The Three Eligibility Tests You Have to Pass
Working for a covered employer is not enough on its own. Three separate requirements have to be satisfied before your leave begins.
You must have worked for the employer for at least 12 months. Those months do not need to be back-to-back, but breaks in service longer than seven years generally do not count toward the total.1eCFR. 29 CFR 825.110 – Eligible Employee
You must have actually worked 1,250 hours in the 12 months right before your leave starts. Hours are counted under Fair Labor Standards Act rules: overtime hours count, but paid time off during which you did not perform work does not.1eCFR. 29 CFR 825.110 – Eligible Employee This is where a lot of part-time employees fall short: 1,250 hours works out to about 24 hours a week over a full year.
Your worksite must have at least 50 employees of the same employer within a 75-mile radius, measured on the date you give notice. Remote workers and small satellite offices sometimes fail this test even when the employer overall is large.1eCFR. 29 CFR 825.110 – Eligible Employee
Who Counts as a Child, Spouse, or Parent
The relationships that trigger family-based FMLA leave are defined more broadly than many people expect. For the “child” category, you can qualify if you stand in loco parentis to a child — meaning you have day-to-day responsibility for the child’s care or financial support — even without a biological or legal tie.4U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28B – Using FMLA Leave When You Are in the Role of a Parent to a Child Grandparents raising grandchildren, an employee co-parenting a partner’s child, and a relative caring for a niece or nephew after a family death can all qualify. The child having a biological parent at home does not disqualify you.
The Reasons That Qualify You for Leave
An eligible employee is entitled to up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave in a 12-month period for any of the following reasons.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2612 – Leave Requirement
Birth and bonding. Leave for the birth of your child and to bond with the newborn during the first 12 months after birth. Both parents have equal rights to this leave regardless of gender.5U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28F – Reasons That Workers May Take Leave Under the Family and Medical Leave Act
Adoption or foster placement. Leave when a child is first placed with you and to bond with the child during the first 12 months after placement. You can also use FMLA leave before the placement itself for court hearings, counseling sessions, or travel required to finalize the adoption.5U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28F – Reasons That Workers May Take Leave Under the Family and Medical Leave Act
Caring for a family member with a serious health condition. The family member has to be your spouse, child, or parent — the FMLA does not extend to siblings, grandparents, or in-laws for this purpose. Caring for the person includes helping with medical needs, transportation, nutrition, and psychological comfort.5U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28F – Reasons That Workers May Take Leave Under the Family and Medical Leave Act
Your own serious health condition. The condition must make you unable to perform the essential functions of your job.
Military qualifying exigency. Certain needs that come up when your spouse, child, or parent is deployed to a foreign country or has been notified of an impending deployment. This is covered in more detail below.
What Counts as a Serious Health Condition
The serious health condition standard is the piece most people misjudge, because ordinary illness usually does not clear it. The condition has to fall into one of two categories: inpatient care or continuing treatment.6eCFR. 29 CFR 825.113 – Serious Health Condition
Inpatient care means an overnight stay in a hospital, hospice, or residential medical care facility, along with any related recovery period.7eCFR. 29 CFR 825.114 – Inpatient Care
Continuing treatment covers conditions that keep you out of work for more than three consecutive full calendar days and also require either two in-person visits to a health care provider within 30 days of the first day of incapacity, or one visit that results in a course of continuing treatment supervised by a provider. That first in-person visit must happen within seven days of the first day of incapacity.8eCFR. 29 CFR 825.115 – Continuing Treatment
Chronic conditions that cause occasional episodes of incapacity — asthma, diabetes, and epilepsy are the examples the regulations give — also qualify, and pregnancy and prenatal care are covered on their own terms. What does not qualify: routine physicals, eye exams, dental checkups, and self-care such as over-the-counter medications or bed rest without a provider visit.6eCFR. 29 CFR 825.113 – Serious Health Condition A three-day cold you rode out at home is not FMLA leave.
Military Family Leave
Two categories of military-related leave sit alongside the general qualifying reasons and have their own rules.
Qualifying Exigency Leave
When a spouse, child, or parent is deployed to a foreign country, you can use your 12 weeks of FMLA leave to handle needs that arise from the deployment.9eCFR. 29 CFR 825.126 – Leave Because of a Qualifying Exigency The regulations list the covered situations:
- Addressing issues that come up when a family member receives deployment orders with seven or fewer days’ notice.
- Attending official military ceremonies, briefings, or family support programs tied to the deployment.
- Arranging alternative childcare, enrolling a child in a new school, or attending school meetings when the deployment creates the need.
- Preparing powers of attorney, updating wills, transferring bank accounts, or handling military benefit paperwork.
- Attending counseling for yourself or family members when the need arises from the deployment.
- Spending time with a deployed family member during short-term rest and recuperation leave.
Military Caregiver Leave
If your spouse, child, parent, or next of kin is a current servicemember with a serious injury or illness incurred in the line of duty, you can take up to 26 workweeks of unpaid leave in a single 12-month period to provide care.10U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28M(a) – Military Caregiver Leave for a Current Servicemember Under the Family and Medical Leave Act The 12-month period starts on the first day you use caregiver leave and runs 12 months from that date, regardless of your employer’s normal FMLA year. Your total FMLA leave for all reasons combined cannot exceed 26 weeks during that period, so 10 weeks used for your own condition leaves 16 weeks for caregiver leave. The 26-week entitlement is available once per servicemember per injury or illness.
What FMLA Does Not Cover
A few boundaries are worth knowing before you plan on FMLA. The leave is unpaid — the statute guarantees job protection and continued health coverage, not a paycheck. Some states have separate paid family and medical leave programs that provide partial wage replacement, and those run on their own eligibility rules. Sibling, in-law, and grandparent relationships do not qualify for family-care leave unless the in loco parentis rule applies. And an employee who works for a large national company but from a location without 50 co-workers within 75 miles can fail the worksite test even though the employer as a whole is well over the 50-employee coverage threshold.