FMLA in California in 2020 and 2021: What Changed

This article is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal, financial, or tax advice, and no attorney-client relationship is formed by reading it. Laws, regulations, official guidance, and related information vary by jurisdiction, change frequently, and may have changed or become outdated since publication. Always verify current information with authoritative sources and consult a qualified professional about your specific circumstances. The author and publisher assume no liability for actions taken based on this information.

Searches for “FMLA California 2020” or “FMLA California 2021” often concern a California law change, not an amendment to the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. Federal FMLA remained the national baseline. The California Family Rights Act, or CFRA, changed substantially on January 1, 2021. This historical guide explains which rule applied at each date; the broader FMLA in California guide addresses the current state-and-federal framework.

The federal FMLA baseline in both years

Federal FMLA generally provided an eligible employee of a covered employer with up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period for specified family and medical reasons. It also required continuation of group health coverage on the same terms during protected leave and generally required restoration to the same or an equivalent job.

For a private-sector employee, the federal eligibility test generally required employment with the employer for at least 12 months, at least 1,250 hours of service during the preceding 12 months, and a worksite at which the employer employed at least 50 employees within 75 miles. Public agencies and public or private elementary and secondary schools were covered employers without the ordinary 50-employee employer-coverage threshold, although their employees still had to satisfy individual eligibility requirements.

Qualifying reasons included the employee’s own serious health condition, care for a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition, and bonding after birth, adoption, or foster-care placement. Separate federal provisions governed qualifying military exigency leave and up to 26 workweeks of military caregiver leave. The planned FMLA eligibility guide examines those federal tests without the historical California overlay.

What California law looked like during 2020

Before SB 1383 took effect, CFRA generally applied to private employers with 50 or more employees within 75 miles of the employee’s worksite and to California public employers. An eligible employee generally needed more than 12 months of service and at least 1,250 hours during the previous 12 months. CFRA offered up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected family-care and medical leave.

The pre-2021 CFRA family-member list was narrower than the list adopted for 2021. It covered care for a child, parent, spouse, or registered domestic partner with a serious health condition, as well as the employee’s own serious health condition and new-child bonding. It did not yet include siblings, grandparents, or grandchildren as separate covered family relationships.

California also had the New Parent Leave Act in 2020. That law extended up to 12 weeks of job-protected bonding leave to eligible employees at many employers with 20 to 49 employees, filling part—but not all—of the gap below CFRA’s 50-employee threshold. It did not create the same broad family-care and medical-leave coverage that the 2021 CFRA expansion later supplied.

What changed on January 1, 2021

California Senate Bill 1383 lowered CFRA’s employer threshold to five employees. It also eliminated the requirement that 50 employees work within 75 miles of the employee’s worksite. The employee-side service tests remained: more than 12 months with the employer and at least 1,250 hours of service in the prior 12 months.

The 2021 law expanded covered family care to include grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, and domestic partners, in addition to children, parents, and spouses. The law also expressly included a child of any age, removing the former age-and-dependency limitation for an adult child.

SB 1383 repealed the New Parent Leave Act because the expanded CFRA absorbed bonding coverage for employers with five or more employees. It also removed the former exception that could permit denial of reinstatement to certain salaried employees among the employer’s highest-paid 10 percent.

Another change affected parents who worked for the same employer. The earlier rule could require parents to share a combined 12-week bonding entitlement. Starting in 2021, each eligible parent had a separate CFRA entitlement, subject to the law’s other requirements.

Why FMLA and CFRA did not always match

When an absence qualified under both laws, an employer could generally designate the time to run concurrently, so one week could count against both 12-week entitlements. The laws did not automatically create 24 weeks simply because both names appeared on a leave notice.

After the 2021 expansion, however, an employee could be protected by CFRA but not federal FMLA because the employer had between five and 49 employees or because the federal 50-employees-within-75-miles test was not met. CFRA could also cover care for a sibling, grandparent, or grandchild even though ordinary federal FMLA did not recognize that relationship.

Pregnancy created a different boundary. CFRA did not treat pregnancy disability itself as an employee’s CFRA serious health condition, while federal FMLA could cover incapacity related to pregnancy when its eligibility rules were met. California Pregnancy Disability Leave supplied a separate state protection, and eligible CFRA bonding leave could follow pregnancy-disability leave after birth. That sequence depended on distinct statutes and should not be described as a single 24-week FMLA entitlement.

Leave protection and wage replacement were separate

FMLA and CFRA were generally unpaid job-protection laws. California Paid Family Leave was a wage-replacement benefit, not an independent guarantee of reinstatement. A qualifying absence could involve PFL benefits while CFRA or FMLA supplied job protection, but eligibility under one program did not establish eligibility under another.

California increased the maximum duration of PFL benefits from six weeks to eight weeks beginning July 1, 2020. That historical benefit change is separate from the CFRA coverage expansion that began six months later. The planned California Paid Family Leave guide focuses on wage replacement rather than treating PFL as another name for FMLA.

The temporary federal COVID-19 leave was another law

In 2020, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act created temporary federal paid sick leave and expanded family-and-medical leave requirements for specified COVID-19 reasons. Those requirements took effect April 1, 2020 and expired December 31, 2020.

The 2021 appropriations law extended certain employer tax credits for voluntarily provided leave through March 31, 2021, but it did not continue an employee entitlement to FFCRA leave after December 31, 2020. Historical records therefore should distinguish ordinary FMLA, California CFRA, California PFL benefits, and the temporary FFCRA program.

How to read a 2020 or 2021 leave record today

The legally important date is usually when the leave was requested or taken, not when a dispute was later reviewed. A 2020 record should not be tested against CFRA’s five-employee rule merely because that rule is familiar today. Conversely, a leave beginning on or after January 1, 2021 may fall within expanded CFRA coverage even when federal FMLA did not apply.

Notices and payroll records may use “FMLA” informally even when the operative protection was CFRA, pregnancy-disability leave, or a wage-replacement program. Accurate historical analysis separates the source of job protection, the source of pay, the qualifying reason, the employer-size rule, and the effective date. Current California law has changed further since 2021, so this page preserves the 2020–2021 transition rather than presenting those rules as a current eligibility checklist.

Sources

• California Legislature: SB 1383 bill text
• California Civil Rights Department: 2020 legislative summary
• California Civil Rights Department: 2021 family and caregiving leave workshop
• U.S. Department of Labor: Family and Medical Leave Act text
• U.S. Department of Labor: FMLA Fact Sheet 28
• U.S. Department of Labor: expiration of FFCRA leave requirements
• California EDD: Paid Family Leave extension effective July 2020
• California Civil Rights Department: family care and medical leave guide