CFRA Eligibility: Covered Employers, Service Hours, and Leave Reasons

You qualify for CFRA eligibility in California if two things are true on the day your leave begins: your employer has at least five employees, and you have worked for that employer more than 12 months with at least 1,250 hours logged in the previous 12 months.¹ Meet both and you can take up to 12 workweeks of job-protected leave in a 12-month period for your own serious health condition, to care for a sick family member, to bond with a new child, or for a military qualifying exigency. The 12 weeks are unpaid under CFRA itself, though California’s separate wage-replacement programs can put money in your pocket during that time.

Which Employers Are Covered

Any private business or government agency that directly employs five or more people is a covered employer.¹ State and local government employers are covered regardless of size. The five-employee count includes everyone on the payroll, full-time or part-time, and even workers currently out on disability, disciplinary suspension, or CFRA leave itself.²

Location doesn’t matter. Before Senate Bill 1383 took effect in 2021, CFRA only reached employers with 50 or more workers within a 75-mile radius. That restriction is gone.³ A company with three employees in Los Angeles and two in Sacramento is covered.

Your Length of Service and Hours Worked

Working for a covered employer isn’t enough on its own. You also need to clear two individual benchmarks.

More Than 12 Months of Service

You must have more than 12 months of service before leave begins.¹ Note the wording: “more than,” not “at least.” If you’ve been employed for exactly one year to the day, you haven’t yet crossed the threshold. The months don’t have to be consecutive. If you worked eight months, left, and came back five months later, your cumulative time counts.

At Least 1,250 Hours in the Past Year

You must have worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months immediately before leave starts.¹ Only hours actually worked count. Vacation days, sick time, holidays, and other paid time off do not. For a standard full-time schedule, 1,250 hours is roughly 24 hours a week, so most full-timers clear it without difficulty. Part-time workers should check their payroll records.

Airline Flight Crew Alternative

Pilots, flight attendants, and other cabin or flight deck crew members use a different hours test. You qualify if you worked or were paid for at least 60 percent of your applicable monthly guarantee and at least 504 duty hours over the previous 12 months.¹ Commute time, vacation, and sick leave don’t count as duty hours.

Qualifying Reasons for Leave

Eligibility gets you in the door. CFRA leave itself is only available for four specific reasons.¹

Your Own Serious Health Condition

You can take leave when a health condition makes you unable to do your job. A serious health condition is an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition involving either inpatient care or continuing treatment by a health care provider.² Inpatient care means an overnight stay in a hospital, hospice, or residential facility. Substance abuse treatment qualifies.

Pregnancy is an important exception. Pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions do not count as a serious health condition under CFRA.⁴ Those are handled separately under California’s Pregnancy Disability Leave law, which provides up to four months of its own job-protected leave. The exclusion actually works in your favor, as explained below.

Caring for a Family Member

California defines family broadly for this purpose: children of any age, parents, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, spouses, domestic partners, and a “designated person.”¹ A designated person is anyone related to you by blood or whose relationship with you is the equivalent of a family relationship. Your employer can limit you to one designated person per 12-month period.

Bonding with a New Child

Leave is available to bond with a newborn, a newly adopted child, or a child newly placed in your foster care. Bonding leave must be taken within one year of the birth, adoption, or placement.⁵

Military Qualifying Exigency

If your spouse, domestic partner, child, or parent is called to covered active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, you can take leave for related needs such as short-notice deployment arrangements, military events, childcare coordination, and rest and recuperation visits.¹

How Much Leave You Get

CFRA provides up to 12 workweeks in any 12-month period, covering all qualifying reasons combined.¹ You don’t have to take all 12 at once. Leave can be intermittent or on a reduced schedule, meaning shorter days or individual days off as needed.⁶

Stacking with Pregnancy Disability Leave

Because pregnancy is excluded from CFRA’s definition of a serious health condition, the two entitlements don’t overlap. An employee who takes Pregnancy Disability Leave for up to four months can then take a full 12 weeks of CFRA leave to bond with the baby afterward.⁵ Stacked together, the practical ceiling approaches seven months.

Getting Paid While You’re Out

CFRA itself does not require your employer to pay you during leave. You have three main paths to income.⁶

Accrued vacation. Your employer can require you to use accrued vacation during CFRA leave, unless you’re already receiving Paid Family Leave benefits from the state. Sick leave is different: your employer cannot force you to use it, but you and your employer can agree that you will.
State Disability Insurance. If the leave is for your own serious health condition, apply to California’s Employment Development Department for SDI benefits, which replace part of your wages.
Paid Family Leave. If the leave is for bonding or caring for a seriously ill family member, California’s PFL program provides partial wage replacement. PFL runs concurrently with CFRA, so it doesn’t add extra weeks of job protection, but it does pay you.

Some employers have their own paid leave policies that supplement these programs. Check your employee handbook or ask HR.

Your Job and Health Benefits While on Leave

Your group health benefits continue while you’re on CFRA leave under the same terms as if you were still working.⁶ If your employer normally pays part of your premium, that arrangement stays in place. You’re still responsible for your usual share, and during unpaid leave your employer may arrange an alternative payment schedule for your contributions.

When you come back, your employer must reinstate you to the same position or a comparable one. Comparable means virtually identical in pay, benefits, shift, schedule, geographic location, and working conditions, with the same or substantially similar duties.⁷ You’re entitled to reinstatement even if your employer hired a replacement or restructured your position while you were out. If you missed a required certification renewal, license, or training during your leave, your employer has to give you a reasonable opportunity to complete it after you return.

Requesting Leave

If the need is foreseeable, such as a planned surgery or an upcoming birth, give your employer at least 30 days’ advance notice.⁸ When the need is unexpected, notify your employer as soon as you reasonably can. Notice can be verbal or in writing, though a written request creates a clearer record if a dispute comes up.

Your employer must respond within five business days with a decision on eligibility.⁸ If approved, the approval is retroactive to the first day of leave.

Medical Certification

For leave based on a serious health condition, your employer can require a certification from a health care provider that says when the condition began, how long the leave is expected to last, and that the condition warrants your absence or your role in a family member’s care.⁹ The provider is not supposed to disclose the underlying diagnosis without your consent. Your employer can ask whether you need leave and how long, not what’s wrong with you. The California Civil Rights Department publishes a standardized form that meets all legal requirements.

If You’re Denied or Retaliated Against

Your employer cannot use CFRA leave as a negative factor in hiring, promotion, discipline, or attendance policies.¹⁰ A manager telling you that taking leave “won’t look good” at review time is the kind of interference the law prohibits.

If your employer denies eligible leave, fails to restore your job, or retaliates, you can file a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department. The filing deadline for employment cases is three years from the date you were last harmed.¹¹ Before you file, gather medical records supporting your claim, written leave requests, denial letters, and any emails or texts showing your employer’s response. Consulting an employment attorney is worth considering, particularly if your employer has already terminated you; many offer free or low-cost initial consultations for leave disputes.

1
California Legislative Information. California Government Code 12945.2
2
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. California Code of Regulations Title 2, 11087 – Definitions
3
California Civil Rights Department. Expanded Family and Medical Leave in California
4
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. California Code of Regulations Title 2, 11093 – Relationship between CFRA Leave and Pregnancy Disability Leave
5
California Civil Rights Department. PDL and Baby Bonding Guide
6
California Civil Rights Department. Family Care and Medical Leave Quick Reference Guide
7
Cornell Law Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 2, 11089 – Right to Reinstatement
8
Cornell Law Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 2, 11091 – Requests for CFRA Leave
9
California Civil Rights Department. Certification of Health Care Provider for CFRA or FMLA
10
Cornell Law Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 2, 11094 – Retaliation and Protection
11
California Civil Rights Department. Complaint Process