New York Paid Family Leave has been in effect since January 1, 2018, and it’s grown every year since — both in benefit size and in how often employees actually use it. If you have even one employee in New York, you’re almost certainly required to provide it. Here’s what the coverage does, what it costs, how the benefit is actually calculated, and what you’re on the hook for as an employer.
What Paid Family Leave (PFL) Insurance Covers
Paid Family Leave (PFL) Insurance provides partial wage replacement and job protection for employees taking time off for reasons that have nothing to do with their own health — that’s the core distinction from DBL, which covers an employee’s own disability. Paid Family Leave (PFL) Insurance applies to three situations:
- Bonding with a new child during the first year after birth, adoption, or foster placement — available to either parent, and an employee can apply for leave even before an adoption or foster placement is finalized.
- Caring for a close family member with a serious health condition — spouse, domestic partner, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling.
- A qualifying military event involving a spouse, child, domestic partner, or parent who is on or has been called to active duty.
Paid Family Leave (PFL) Insurance cannot be used for an employee’s own serious health condition or their own military service — those situations fall under DBL or other benefits instead.
How Much Is the 2026 PFL Benefit?
The benefit is 67% of an employee’s average weekly wage, calculated from the 8 weeks of gross salary before the leave begins, capped at 67% of the New York State Average Weekly Wage. For 2026, that cap works out to a maximum weekly benefit of $1,228.53.
Worked Examples
Higher earner: An employee with $20,000 in gross wages over the prior 8 weeks has an average weekly wage of $2,500. 67% of that is $1,675 — but since that exceeds the 2026 cap, the employee receives the maximum: $1,228.53/week.
Lower earner: An employee with $5,000 in gross wages over the prior 8 weeks has an average weekly wage of $625. 67% of that is $418.75/week — below the cap, so that’s the actual benefit paid.
Paid Family Leave (PFL) Insurance can be taken as a continuous block or intermittently in full-day increments, and there’s no waiting period — benefits can begin from the first qualifying day, unlike DBL’s 7-day unpaid wait.
How PFL Benefits Have Grown Since 2023
| Effective Date | Max Weeks | Benefit % | Max Weekly Benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1/1/2023 | 12 | 67% | $1,131.09 |
| 1/1/2024 | 12 | 67% | $1,151.16 |
| 1/1/2025 | 12 | 67% | $1,177.32 |
| 1/1/2026 | 12 | 67% | $1,228.53 |
The percentage has held steady at 67% since the program fully phased in, but the dollar cap rises each year with the state average weekly wage — which means your payroll contribution calculation needs to be refreshed annually, not set once and forgotten.
Who Pays for PFL?
Unlike DBL, PFL is funded almost entirely by employees through payroll deduction — employers aren’t required to contribute, though they’re allowed to cover some or all of the cost voluntarily. The 2026 employee contribution rate is 0.432% of wages, capped at $411.91 per year per employee, based on maximum covered annual wages of $95,348.76. Because Paid Family Leave (PFL) Insurance is required as a rider on a DBL policy, it’s typically invoiced alongside DBL on the same bill, but the two premiums are calculated and itemized separately.
Any employee contributions collected that exceed the actual premium owed must be promptly refunded — this isn’t a fund employers can hold onto.
New York Has No State-Run PFL Fund
Unlike some other states, New York doesn’t administer Paid Family Leave (PFL) Insurance through a state fund. Coverage has to come from NYSIF, a private insurance carrier, or a self-funded plan approved by the Workers’ Compensation Board — and self-funding Paid Family Leave (PFL) Insurance is only an option if your DBL coverage is also self-funded. For nearly every employer, that means PFL and DBL are secured together through the same carrier, not shopped as separate products.
Who’s Eligible, and When
- Full-time employees (20+ hours/week) become eligible after 26 consecutive weeks of employment.
- Part-time employees (under 20 hours/week) become eligible after working 175 days within a 52-consecutive-week period.
- Immigration and citizenship status has no bearing on eligibility.
- Since January 1, 2023, the definition of covered family member includes siblings — biological, adopted, half, or step — in addition to spouse, domestic partner, child, parent, grandparent, and grandchild.
- Starting January 1, 2027, certain construction workers become eligible for PFL if they work for a covered employer under a collective bargaining agreement and have worked 26 weeks in the prior 39-week period — a carve-out worth flagging now for any construction clients.
The Waiver Option Most Employers Don’t Know About
If an employee’s schedule means they’ll never actually reach the eligibility threshold — for example, a seasonal employee working 20+ hours a week but not for 26 consecutive weeks, or a part-time employee who won’t hit 175 days in the coverage period — that employee can be offered a waiver exempting them from the payroll deduction entirely. This is easy to overlook and can mean deducting Paid Family Leave (PFL) Insurance contributions from short-term or seasonal staff who will never be able to use the benefit.
Your Obligations as an Employer
- You cannot opt out of PFL if you’re a covered DBL employer, and there are penalties for noncompliance.
- You must post a PFL notice, in the format prescribed by the Workers’ Compensation Board, somewhere all employees and applicants can see it.
- You must give written guidance to every employee covering their PFL rights and how to file a claim — through a handbook if you have one, or as a standalone document if you don’t.
- When an employee files a claim, you must complete and return the employer section of the claim form within 3 business days.
- You must reinstate the employee to their same or a comparable position and maintain their health insurance during leave — though the employee still has to pay their share of the premium. If that payment is more than 30 days late, you may terminate coverage, but only after mailing a termination notice at least 15 days in advance. Failing to reinstate an employee can expose an employer to discrimination or retaliation claims on top of a straightforward PFL violation.
- You can allow an employee to use accrued paid time off during Paid Family Leave (PFL) Insurance to receive full salary, and then request reimbursement from the carrier at the PFL benefit rate — but you can’t require them to use PTO.
PFL and FMLA
Where an employee qualifies for both, an employer can designate Paid Family Leave (PFL) Insurance and federal FMLA leave to run concurrently rather than back-to-back, which prevents a single leave event from stretching an employee’s total job-protected time far beyond what is necessary. This is a decision an employer makes at the time leave is designated, not something that happens automatically.
What Disqualifies a Paid Family Leave (PFL) Insurance Claim
- An employee who is not working and is already collecting workers’ compensation, volunteer firefighter benefits, or volunteer ambulance worker benefits cannot also collect PFL for the same period.
- PFL is not available for prenatal conditions — that period falls under DBL. PFL bonding time becomes available after the birth.
- Combined DBL and PFL benefits cannot exceed 26 weeks within any 52-week period.
See our full breakdown of how DBL, PFL, and workers’ compensation differ if you’re trying to figure out which program applies to a specific situation.
Get PFL Set Up Correctly, Not Just Compliantly
Because PFL is billed alongside DBL, most employers never shop it as its own line item — but service quality, claims turnaround, and how well a carrier handles the paperwork all vary. Weinsurexyz compares DBL/PFL packages across carriers so your coverage is set up right the first time. Get a free quote.
