“We're under fifty, so FMLA doesn't apply to us.” That's usually true, and it's usually the wrong conclusion.
Family and medical leave in Maryland isn't one law. It's four, with different thresholds, and they don't line up. The one that catches small employers is the one that exists because they're too small for the federal rule.
What applies at your size
Employees
What you're subject to
1–14
Unpaid sick and safe leave · FAMLI from 2027 (employee share only)
15–49
Paid sick and safe leave · Maryland Parental Leave Act · FAMLI from 2027 (employer share too)
50+
Paid sick and safe leave · Federal FMLA · FAMLI from 2027
The one people miss: the Maryland Parental Leave Act
If you have between 15 and 49 employees, you must provide six weeks of unpaid parental leave for the birth, adoption or foster placement of a child.
This law exists precisely to cover the gap beneath FMLA. Being under fifty doesn't exempt you from it — it's what makes you subject to it.
Who qualifies: employees with twelve months of service and 1,250 hours in the prior year — the same test FMLA uses.
What it obliges you to do beyond granting the time:
· Maintain their health insurance through the leave
· Return them to the same or an equivalent position
· Terminate only for cause during the leave
· You may require 30 days' written notice where the timing is foreseeable
That first one is the reason this article sits on an insurance broker's website. Continuing coverage through an unpaid leave is a benefits administration question, and it's where small employers most often get it wrong — usually by stopping premiums when the paychecks stop.
And one change from October 2025
Maryland amended the Parental Leave Act effective October 1, 2025, so that employers covered by federal FMLA are now exempt from it.
Before that, a company growing past fifty could find itself subject to both, with two overlapping sets of rules. Now crossing fifty swaps which law applies rather than adding one.
Practically: if you're at forty-five employees and growing, your parental leave obligation changes shape when you cross the threshold — from six weeks under state law to twelve weeks under federal, covering far more than parenthood.
What federal FMLA actually covers
At 50 or more employees, FMLA gives eligible staff 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave a year.
Eligible means twelve months of service and 1,250 hours in the past year — so not every employee at a covered employer qualifies.
It's broader than the state parental law: childbirth, adoption and foster placement, but also an employee's own serious health condition, caring for a seriously ill family member, and certain military family situations.
The two you're already subject to
Paid sick and safe leave applies at any size — paid at fifteen or more employees, unpaid below that, with identical tracking obligations either way. We've written about that separately.
FAMLI — Maryland's Family and Medical Leave Insurance program — is coming. Payroll contributions begin January 1, 2027 at 0.90% of covered wages, split with employees at fifteen or more staff. Benefits become available no later than January 3, 2028.
What to check this month
1. Count your employees properly — the threshold tests use a twenty-workweek lookback across the current or preceding year, not today's headcount.
2. If you're between 15 and 49, does your handbook mention parental leave at all? Most don't.
3. Does anyone know to keep health coverage running through an unpaid leave? Check who'd handle that if someone gave notice tomorrow.
4. If you're near fifty, know which side of the line you're on and what changes when you cross it.
5. Put FAMLI in the 2027 budget.
None of this is complicated. It's just four laws that nobody introduces to each other.
