Paid Family and Medical Leave Program?General.? The Paid Family and Medical Leave program (PFML) provides partial wage replacement to employees on leave for specified family and medical reasons. ?The program is funded through premiums paid by employers and employees.? The program is administered by the Employment Security Department (ESD).
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Premiums.? Premiums are assessed quarterly and remitted to ESD in conjunction with employer reporting in the month following the end of each quarter. ?Premiums are paid on wages up to the maximum wages subject to tax for Social Security (Social Security cap). ?
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The 2025 total PFML premium rate is 0.92 percent. ?Premiums are split between family leave and medical leave based on the percentage of paid claims for each type of claim. For 2025, the family premium is 48.22 percent and the medical premium is 51.78 percent of the total premium. Employers may withhold from employees up to 100 percent of the family leave premium and up to 45 percent of the medical leave premium. ?For 2025, this would allocate 71.52 percent of the premiums to employees and 28.48 percent of the premium to employers.?
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Small employers with fewer than 50 employees are generally exempt from paying the employer portion of the premium.? If a small employer elects to pay the premiums, the employer is eligible for grant assistance.
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Grant Assistance.? Employers with 150 or fewer employees and employers with 50 or fewer employees who are assessed all premiums may apply to ESD for a grant.? An employer may receive a $3,000 grant if the employer hires a temporary worker to replace an employee on family or medical leave for a period of seven days or more.? For an employee's family or medical leave, an employer may receive a grant of up to $1,000 as reimbursement for significant additional wage-related costs due to the employee's leave.
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An employer may not receive both grants, except that an employer who received a wage-related costs grant may receive a grant of the difference between wage-related costs grant and $3,000 if the employee on leave extended the leave beyond the leave initially planned and the employer hired a temporary worker for the employee on leave.
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An employer may apply for a grant no more than ten times per calendar year and no more than once for each employee on leave.? To be eligible for a grant, the employer must provide ESD written documentation showing the temporary worker hired or significant wage-related costs incurred are due to an employee's use of family or medical leave.? An employer who has an approved voluntary plan is not eligible to receive a grant under this section.
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ESD must assess an employer with fewer than 50 employees who receives a grant for all premiums for three years from the date of receipt of a grant.
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The Superintendent of Public Instruction is responsible for the classification and numbering system of school districts.? Any school district in the state that has a student enrollment of 2000 pupils or more is a school district of the first class. Any other school district is a school district of the second class.
The PFML grant eligibility is modified.? The following employers may apply to ESD for a grant: