New York has one of the strongest paid leave programs in the country, and it also has a gap that catches people off guard: the state’s Paid Family Leave program does not cover your own illness. If you are the one who is sick, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is what protects your job, and a different state benefit handles the paycheck.
To get FMLA leave in New York, you notify your employer, complete the certification form they provide, have a licensed provider fill out the medical portion, and return it by the deadline. Then, depending on whether the leave is for your own condition or for a family member, you file separately for either New York disability benefits or New York Paid Family Leave. The certification supports your request. Your employer, leave administrator, or insurance carrier makes the final decision.
Key takeaways
- New York Paid Family Leave covers family care, bonding, and military family needs, but not your own serious health condition. For your own illness or injury, the relevant state benefit is New York’s statutory disability program.
- The two state benefits pay very differently. For 2026, Paid Family Leave pays 67 percent of your average weekly wage up to $1,228.53 per week, while statutory disability pays 50 percent up to $170 per week.
- FMLA and the state benefits are separate applications. Job protection comes from FMLA. Money comes from your employer’s insurance carrier. Filing one does not file the other.
Does New York have its own FMLA law?
Not in the way California or a few other states do. New York does not have a general state family and medical leave statute that mirrors FMLA for your own health condition. What New York has instead are two insurance programs, both administered through your employer’s insurance carrier rather than through a state agency office.
New York Paid Family Leave (PFL) provides up to 12 weeks of job-protected, partially paid leave in a 52-week period. According to the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board, employees taking Paid Family Leave in 2026 receive 67 percent of their average weekly wage, capped at 67 percent of the New York State Average Weekly Wage of $1,833.63, which puts the maximum weekly benefit at $1,228.53 and the maximum total benefit at $14,742.36.
PFL covers three situations:
- Bonding with a new child during the first 12 months after birth, adoption, or foster placement
- Caring for a family member with a serious health condition, including a spouse, domestic partner, child, parent, parent-in-law, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling
- Assisting when a family member is deployed abroad on active military service
New York disability benefits (often called DBL) cover your own off-the-job illness, injury, or pregnancy-related disability. The benefit is 50 percent of your average weekly wage up to a maximum of $170 per week, for up to 26 weeks, with a seven-day unpaid waiting period at the start. That $170 cap has not changed in decades, which is why many New Yorkers are surprised by how little it replaces.
There is a combined limit. Paid Family Leave and disability benefits together cannot exceed 26 weeks in a 52-week period.
Where FMLA fits in
Because New York’s disability benefit is wage replacement rather than job protection, FMLA does real work here. If you are out for your own serious health condition, FMLA is generally the law that requires your employer to hold your position and maintain your group health coverage.
The Department of Labor describes general FMLA eligibility as working for a covered employer with at least 50 employees within 75 miles of your worksite, having worked for that employer for at least 12 months, and having worked at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months before leave begins. Eligible employees get up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period.
The eligibility rules for New York’s programs are different, and in some ways easier to meet:
- Paid Family Leave: full-time employees generally become eligible after 26 consecutive weeks of employment; employees working fewer than 20 hours per week generally become eligible after 175 days worked.
- Disability benefits: full-time employees generally become eligible after four consecutive weeks of employment; part-time employees after 25 days.
This creates a common situation where someone qualifies for the state benefit but not yet for FMLA, or the reverse. When both apply, employers usually run FMLA concurrently with Paid Family Leave, so the weeks are counted once rather than twice.
Understanding how job-protected leave and disability wage replacement work together is the single most useful thing you can do before filing anything, because most people need both and the two are handled by different offices.
Who qualifies, and for what condition?
Both FMLA and New York Paid Family Leave require a serious health condition, which is a defined legal term rather than a description of how bad you feel. It generally involves inpatient care or continuing treatment by a healthcare provider, and it includes chronic conditions that flare up periodically. Our guide to what counts as a serious health condition walks through the categories.
New York disability benefits use a different standard. The question there is whether an off-the-job injury or illness prevents you from performing your regular work.
Conditions that commonly support a claim include surgery and recovery, cancer treatment, cardiac conditions, autoimmune disease, gastrointestinal conditions, neurologic conditions, pregnancy complications, and mental health conditions that meaningfully limit function. Eligibility is determined by a licensed provider based on your symptoms, treatment history, and functional limitations, not by the diagnosis by itself.
How to get FMLA in New York, step by step
- Notify your employer. Give 30 days’ notice when the need is foreseeable and notice as soon as practicable when it is not. You are not required to disclose your diagnosis, but you do need to give enough information for your employer to recognize the request as potentially qualifying.
- Ask for both sets of paperwork. The FMLA certification form comes from your employer or their leave administrator. The state benefit forms come from your employer’s insurance carrier. Ask for the carrier’s name and contact information at the same time, because that step is easy to miss.
- Identify which state benefit applies. For your own condition, you are filing a disability benefits claim. For family care or bonding, you are filing a Paid Family Leave request, which includes a health care provider certification when you are caring for a family member.
- Have a licensed provider complete the medical sections. For intermittent leave, the form must state the expected frequency and duration of episodes, for example three episodes per month lasting one to two days each.
- Submit everything on time. Employers typically allow 15 calendar days for the FMLA certification. New York’s benefit claims have their own filing windows measured from the first day of leave, and missing them can reduce or forfeit benefits. Confirm current deadlines with your carrier or at paidfamilyleave.ny.gov.
- Watch for the carrier’s decision. For Paid Family Leave, the insurer generally must pay or deny a request within 18 calendar days.
If you are up against an employer deadline and your own provider cannot see you in time, you can book a 15-minute secure video visit with a board-certified physician who can evaluate you and complete the certification. You will need to book for the state where you will be physically located at the time of the visit.
Two New York benefits people frequently miss
Paid prenatal leave. Since January 1, 2025, New York Labor Law section 196-b entitles private-sector employees to 20 hours of paid prenatal leave per 52-week period for pregnancy-related health care appointments. There is no accrual requirement and no minimum length of service, so new hires are covered from day one. It is separate from New York sick leave and separate from Paid Family Leave, and your employer cannot require you to use one before the other.
New York paid sick leave. Depending on employer size and location, you may have accrued paid sick time that can cover shorter absences without touching your FMLA entitlement at all. New York City and Westchester County have their own additional rules.
Neither of these replaces FMLA for an extended absence, but both can bridge gaps while certification is pending.
Intermittent leave in New York
Intermittent leave, meaning leave taken in separate blocks of hours or days rather than all at once, is available under FMLA and under New York Paid Family Leave, though the mechanics differ. PFL is taken in full-day increments when used intermittently, and the total is tracked in days rather than hours.
For chronic and episodic conditions such as migraine, inflammatory bowel disease, or a mental health condition with unpredictable flares, intermittent certification is usually the right fit. The most common reason these requests come back for clarification is a certification that leaves the frequency and duration fields vague. Our overview of intermittent FMLA certification explains what providers need to document.
Common mistakes and delays
- Assuming Paid Family Leave covers your own illness. It does not. That is the disability benefit.
- Filing with the state instead of the carrier. Unlike California, New York routes these claims through your employer’s insurance carrier.
- Not asking who the carrier is. Employers do not always volunteer it, and you cannot file without it.
- Budgeting around the wrong number. The $170 weekly disability cap surprises people who assumed the 67 percent Paid Family Leave rate applied to their own illness as well.
- Submitting an incomplete certification. Missing dates, a blank frequency field, or an unsigned provider section will send the form back. Our checklist on getting FMLA paperwork filled out without delays covers the fields that most often cause problems.
Frequently asked questions
Does New York Paid Family Leave cover my own surgery or illness? No. Paid Family Leave covers bonding, family care, and military family needs. For your own condition, you file a New York disability benefits claim, and FMLA is what protects your job during that time.
How much does New York pay during leave? For 2026, Paid Family Leave pays 67 percent of your average weekly wage up to $1,228.53 per week for up to 12 weeks. Statutory disability pays 50 percent of your average weekly wage up to $170 per week for up to 26 weeks, after a seven-day waiting period.
Can I use FMLA and New York Paid Family Leave at the same time? Yes, and employers commonly designate them to run concurrently when both apply. That means the same weeks count against both entitlements rather than stacking.
What if my employer has fewer than 50 employees? Federal FMLA generally would not apply, but New York Paid Family Leave and disability benefits apply to employers with as few as one employee. You may have state benefits without federal job protection, which is worth clarifying with HR before you take time off.
How long does certification take? Employers generally allow 15 calendar days to return the FMLA form. At MyFMLA, same-day certification is available for eligible intermittent FMLA requests when all required information is available, and continuous FMLA or more comprehensive requests are typically completed within 1 to 3 business days after the appointment.
Do I have to be in New York during a telehealth visit? Yes. You must book for the state where you will be physically located at the time of the appointment.
Getting your certification completed
If your regular doctor will not complete your paperwork, you do not currently have a primary care provider, or you are facing an employer deadline, MyFMLA connects you with a board-certified physician for a 15-minute secure video visit. Intermittent FMLA certification is $149.99 with same-day certification available for eligible requests, continuous FMLA is $179.99, and the FMLA plus Short-Term Disability package is $249.99. Documentation is delivered through the secure patient portal.
Sources
- Family and Medical Leave Act, U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division
- Fact Sheet 28: The Family and Medical Leave Act, U.S. Department of Labor
- 29 CFR Part 825, The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations
- New York State Paid Family Leave, New York State
- Paid Family Leave benefit levels for 2026, New York State Workers’ Compensation Board
- Wage Benefits Calculator, New York State Paid Family Leave
- New York State Workers’ Compensation Board, Disability Benefits, New York State
- Paid Prenatal Leave: Information for Employees, New York State
- Paid Sick Leave, New York State Department of Labor
- Disability Discrimination and Reasonable Accommodation, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice.
Medical documentation supports your request but does not guarantee approval. Final decisions are made by your employer, insurance carrier, leave administrator, school, or applicable state program.
