Colorado workers are covered by two leave laws that stack: the federal Family and Medical Leave Act gives up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected time off, and Colorado’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance program (FAMLI) gives up to 12 weeks of paid leave funded through payroll premiums. Together, the Colorado FMLA and FAMLI laws mean most eligible employees get 12 weeks of paid, job-protected leave per year, because when both apply they run at the same time rather than back to back. FAMLI reaches many more workers than the federal law, pays a weekly benefit, and recognizes a broader set of family relationships and situations.
Who Is Covered
The two laws use very different eligibility rules, and plenty of Colorado employees who fall short of federal FMLA still qualify for paid FAMLI leave.
Federal FMLA
To use FMLA, you need to hit three thresholds: 12 months of employment with your employer, 1,250 hours worked in those 12 months, and at least 50 employees within 75 miles of your worksite.1Family and Medical Leave Insurance – Colorado. FAMLI and FMLA Anyone at a small employer is usually cut off by that last one.
If you work remotely, your “worksite” for the headcount is not your house. The Department of Labor treats it as the office you report to or where your assignments come from, and every employee who reports to that office counts, including other remote workers.
Colorado FAMLI
FAMLI covers almost every Colorado employee, no matter how small the employer. You become eligible for benefits once you have earned at least $2,500 in wages subject to FAMLI premiums over roughly the past year.2Family and Medical Leave Insurance. Individuals and Families There is no minimum tenure with any one employer to collect the money, and self-employed workers and independent contractors can opt in.
Job protection is a separate question. Your employer only has to hold your job if you have been on the payroll more than 180 calendar days before your leave starts.3Family and Medical Leave Insurance – Colorado. Individuals and Families FAQs That is 180 days of employment, not 180 days of actual work. Below that threshold, you can still collect the wage benefit; your employer just is not required to reinstate you.
What You Can Take Leave For
Both laws cover your own serious health condition, caring for a family member with a serious health condition, bonding with a new child by birth, adoption, or foster placement, and qualifying exigency leave tied to a family member’s military deployment.4U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28M(c) – Qualifying Exigency Leave Under the Family and Medical Leave Act
FAMLI adds two situations FMLA does not:5Family and Medical Leave Insurance – Colorado. Reasons To Take FAMLI Leave
- Safe leave, for needs arising from domestic violence, stalking, or sexual assault, including medical attention, legal help, counseling, or safety planning.
- Neonatal care leave, for a newborn who needs extended hospitalization or medical care after birth.
FAMLI also uses a much wider definition of family. Federal FMLA limits “family member” to a spouse, child, or parent. FAMLI reaches your spouse or domestic partner, children, parents (including stepparents and in-law parents), grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, and any person with whom you share a significant personal bond regardless of biological or legal relationship. A close friend or chosen family member counts.
How Much Time and How the Two Run Together
FMLA gives eligible employees up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave in a 12-month period, and up to 26 workweeks to care for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2612 – Leave Requirement
FAMLI provides up to 12 weeks of paid leave per year, with an additional four weeks available for pregnancy or childbirth complications, bringing the maximum to 16 weeks in those cases. You can take it all at once, intermittently, or as a reduced schedule.2Family and Medical Leave Insurance. Individuals and Families Intermittent leave suits ongoing treatments like chemotherapy or physical therapy.
When you qualify for both, they run concurrently. You do not stack them into 24 weeks.
The 12-Month Window
Your employer picks how the 12-month period is measured for FMLA: the calendar year, a fixed 12-month period (like an anniversary date or fiscal year), a period measured forward from your first day of leave, or a rolling 12 months measured backward from each day of leave used.7U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28H – 12-Month Period Under the Family and Medical Leave Act The rolling method is the strictest because it prevents stacking leave at the boundary between two periods. The chosen method has to be applied consistently to everyone. If your employer never chose one, the calculation defaults to whichever gives you the most leave.
What FAMLI Pays
FAMLI replaces a share of your wages, weighted toward lower earners. If your average weekly wage is at or below 50 percent of the state average weekly wage, you get 90 percent of your wages. Above that line, you get 90 percent of the first half of the state average weekly wage plus 50 percent of the amount your wages exceed it. The weekly benefit is capped at $1,381.45.8Family and Medical Leave Insurance – Colorado. Premium and Benefits Calculator
Your employer cannot force you to burn through your accrued vacation, sick time, or other PTO before you use FAMLI.2Family and Medical Leave Insurance. Individuals and Families You can choose to top up FAMLI with employer-provided paid leave, but it is your call.
FAMLI benefits are taxable at the federal level. Colorado reports payments on IRS Form 1099-G, and you include the amount on your federal return.9IRS. Form 1099-G – Certain Government Payments If you itemize, you can deduct the premiums you paid into FAMLI on Schedule A as taxes paid. If you take the standard deduction, you only include the portion of benefits that exceeds your total contributions.
Telling Your Employer
When you know in advance you will need leave, federal FMLA rules require at least 30 days’ notice: planned medical treatments, an expected birth, a scheduled adoption or foster placement.10eCFR. 29 CFR 825.302 – Employee Notice Requirements for Foreseeable FMLA Leave If 30 days is not possible because the situation changed or a medical emergency came up, tell your employer the same day you learn of the need or the next business day.
The first time you request leave for a specific condition, you do not have to say “FMLA” or cite the statute. You have to give enough for your employer to recognize the absence may qualify: what the medical situation is in general terms, when you will be out, and roughly for how long.10eCFR. 29 CFR 825.302 – Employee Notice Requirements for Foreseeable FMLA Leave If you later need leave for the same condition, reference the earlier qualifying reason or mention FMLA. Ignoring your employer’s follow-up questions about whether an absence qualifies can cost you your FMLA protection, so answer reasonable inquiries even if they feel intrusive.
Getting Your Job Back
When you come back from FMLA leave, your employer has to restore you to the same position or an equivalent one with the same pay, benefits, and working conditions.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2614 – Employment and Benefits Protection Equivalent means genuinely comparable, not a demotion wearing the same salary.
FAMLI adds the same job protection once you have been employed more than 180 days. Your employer cannot fire you, demote you, cut your hours, or take any other adverse action because you applied for or used FAMLI leave.12Family and Medical Leave Insurance – Colorado. Job Protection and Retaliation
If your position is eliminated while you are on leave, the employer has to show the elimination was a legitimate restructuring that would have happened anyway. Courts look closely at whether employees who did not take leave were kept on in similar roles.
The Key Employee Exception
Federal FMLA has one narrow carve-out. If you are a salaried employee in the highest-paid 10 percent of all employees within 75 miles of your worksite, your employer can deny reinstatement, but only if restoring you would cause “substantial and grievous economic injury” to its operations.13eCFR. 29 CFR 825.217 – Key Employee, General Rule That is a high bar. The employer has to notify you in writing as soon as it makes that determination, explain its reasoning, and give you a chance to return before finalizing the denial.14eCFR. 29 CFR 825.219 – Rights of a Key Employee Skip the written notice and the employer forfeits the right to deny reinstatement entirely. Even key employees cannot be denied leave itself, just the guarantee of getting the job back.
Health Insurance and Premiums
Your employer has to keep your group health insurance going during FMLA leave at the same level and on the same terms as if you were still working.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2614 – Employment and Benefits Protection If your employer normally covers 80 percent of the premium and you cover 20 percent, that split continues. You still owe your share, and falling behind can trigger a lapse in coverage. Company-wide plan changes reach you the same as everyone else. FAMLI leave follows the same principle: paid state leave should not interrupt your employer-sponsored coverage.
If you burn through your FMLA leave and decide not to return, your employer can recover the premiums it paid on your behalf during the unpaid portion.15eCFR. 29 CFR 825.213 – Employer Recovery of Benefit Costs Two exceptions: the employer cannot recover premiums if you cannot return because of an ongoing or new serious health condition, or because of circumstances beyond your control, such as a spouse being transferred to a distant job or being laid off while you are on leave. Choosing to stay home with a healthy newborn does not count as beyond your control.
You are considered to have “returned to work” if you come back for at least 30 calendar days.15eCFR. 29 CFR 825.213 – Employer Recovery of Benefit Costs After that, the employer loses the right to claw back premiums. And when FMLA leave is covered by paid leave (including FAMLI benefits), the employer cannot recover premiums for that paid portion at all.
When Employers Push Back on Your Medical Certification
Your employer can ask for a medical certification from your provider to verify a serious health condition. If it doubts the first certification, it can require a second opinion from a different provider at its own expense.16eCFR. 29 CFR 825.307 – Authentication and Clarification of Medical Certification; Second and Third Opinions That provider cannot be someone who regularly works for the employer. While the second opinion is pending, you remain provisionally entitled to leave and continued health benefits.
If the first and second opinions disagree, the employer can require a third exam, again at its expense. You and your employer jointly pick the third provider, and that opinion is final and binding.16eCFR. 29 CFR 825.307 – Authentication and Clarification of Medical Certification; Second and Third Opinions The employer also has to reimburse you for reasonable travel to any of these appointments and generally cannot make you travel outside your normal commuting distance.
How FMLA and FAMLI Interact With Workers’ Comp and Disability
A work injury covered by workers’ compensation can also qualify as a serious health condition under FMLA. When that happens, FMLA runs alongside the workers’ comp absence, so the 12-week clock ticks even while you are collecting workers’ comp benefits. If the injury leaves a lasting impairment, you may also have a right to additional leave as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Employers have to follow whichever law gives you the greater benefit.
Private short-term disability is separate from FAMLI. You generally cannot collect short-term disability and FAMLI for the same period, but you may be able to use them in sequence. After giving birth, for example, you could take short-term disability during initial recovery and then FAMLI for bonding. Coordination rules depend on the specific policy, so check the plan.
If Your Rights Are Violated
If your employer denies leave, refuses to reinstate you, or retaliates against you, the enforcement route depends on which law was broken.
For federal FMLA violations, file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division or sue directly.17U.S. Department of Labor. elaws – Family and Medical Leave Act Advisor – Enforcement of the FMLA Lawsuits have to be filed within two years of the violation, or three years for willful violations.18Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2617 – Enforcement Remedies include lost wages, reinstatement, and attorney’s fees.
For FAMLI violations, file with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment’s FAMLI Division. If the Division finds an unlawful action, the employer can be liable for monetary damages and ordered to reinstate you.12Family and Medical Leave Insurance – Colorado. Job Protection and Retaliation You can also appeal a denied benefit claim through the Division’s appeals process.2Family and Medical Leave Insurance. Individuals and Families
Document everything from the start. Save your leave request, the employer’s written responses, medical certifications, and any messages that hint at retaliation. Those records are what separate a complaint that lands from one that stalls.