What paid family and sick leave does Michigan require in 2026?
A hybrid. Michigan has no state paid family leave programme, so federal FMLA is the only job-protected family-leave floor, at employers with 50 or more employees. But the state does mandate paid sick time: every employee accrues 1 hour per 30 hours worked under the Earned Sick Time Act.
· Michigan, United States guide
Illustration · Detroit, Michigan
Michigan is a hybrid. There is no state paid family leave programme, no payroll premium and no benefit claim to file, so the only job-protected family-leave floor is federal FMLA at 50 or more employees. Paid parental leave and any wage replacement are yours to design.
Paid sick time is the part the state does mandate. Under the Earned Sick Time Act every Michigan employee accrues 1 hour per 30 hours worked, with no headcount floor and no waiting period to begin accruing. So an FMLA-only handbook is short in Michigan from the first paycheque, even though the family-leave side is left to your offer letter.
Does Michigan require paid family leave?
No. Michigan has no state paid family leave law. Around a dozen states plus Washington DC run mandatory paid-family-leave programmes funded by payroll contributions; Michigan is not one of them.
There is no state PFL line on a Michigan payslip, no contribution rate, and no family-leave benefit claim to file. The wage-replacement cost that adds a fraction of a percent of wages in California, New York or Washington simply does not exist here.
Michigan runs no state family-leave fund and no state disability programme, so a Michigan hire carries no family-leave payroll deduction at the state level. The flip side is that none of the wage-replacement protection a coastal candidate takes for granted is provided by the state for a new baby, a serious illness, or a family emergency. Compare that with Ohio, which shares a similar no-state-PFL position, or Wisconsin, where the same federal-only floor applies.
For a hire below the FMLA threshold there is no statutory job hold for family leave at all. Whatever paid parental, paid family-care or paid bereavement leave a Michigan employee receives beyond accrued sick time is the leave the employer chose to write into the offer. That is a competitive decision, not a compliance one. The sick-leave question below is the opposite: there, the state has already decided. For the full Michigan hiring picture, wages, termination and tax sit alongside this leave framework.
How much paid sick leave does Michigan require?
This is the part Michigan does mandate. Under the Earned Sick Time Act every Michigan employee accrues paid sick time at 1 hour for every 30 hours worked, with no employer-size threshold and no waiting period to begin accruing.
Large employers, with 10 or more staff, may cap annual use at 72 hours; small employers, with 10 or fewer, may cap use at 40 hours.
The Earned Sick Time Act took effect on 21 February 2025 and was amended the same week. The amended version is the law in force for 2026, and the figures below are the amended ones, not the pre-amendment rules that briefly applied. Small employers had to comply from 1 October 2025, so by 2026 the Act reaches employers of every size.
Covered uses are broad: an employee's own illness, care for a family member, and safe time related to domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking. Accrual starts on the first day of work, and you may either track accrual at 1 hour per 30 worked or frontload the full annual allotment. A national policy that grants less than 72 hours of paid sick time, or less than 40 for a small employer, is short on a Michigan payroll. Pair this with Michigan wage and overtime rules when you're setting your pay policies.
| ESTA element | 2026 rule |
|---|---|
| Accrual rate | 1 hour per 30 hours worked |
| Annual use cap, large employer (10+ staff) | 72 hours |
| Annual use cap, small employer (10 or fewer) | 40 hours |
| Headcount floor | None; the Act applies to every employer |
The distinction that catches out-of-state employers: ESTA has no 50-employee floor the way FMLA does. Your three-person Michigan team accrues sick time under the same Act as a 3,000-person enterprise; only the annual cap differs by size.
What does federal FMLA give Michigan employees?
Federal FMLA gives eligible Michigan employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per 12-month period, with group health coverage continued at the employer's normal contribution. It is the only job-protected family-leave floor in Michigan.
It applies only to employers with 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius. The employee qualifies after 12 months of tenure and 1,250 hours worked in the prior year.
FMLA is the federal floor for unpaid, job-protected leave. Because Michigan has no state paid family leave programme, FMLA is the whole family-leave floor here. The 50-employee threshold counts your entire US workforce, not just Michigan staff, which catches multi-state employers off guard.
Source: US Department of Labor, Family and Medical Leave Act
If you have 30 Michigan staff and 25 staff in another state, you cross the 50-employee line even though neither state alone reaches it. Once tripped, the obligation runs for the rest of the current calendar year and the full following year, even if headcount later falls back.
| FMLA element | Federal rule |
|---|---|
| Employer threshold | 50+ employees within 75 miles, 20+ weeks in the current or prior year |
| Employee eligibility | 12 months employed and 1,250 hours worked in the prior 12 months |
| Standard leave | 12 weeks unpaid, job protected, per 12-month period |
| Military caregiver leave | 26 weeks in a single 12-month period |
| Pay during leave | None; FMLA is unpaid by statute |
FMLA gives no wage replacement of its own, and Michigan adds none. Below 50 employees, or for a worker in their first 12 months, there is no FMLA right and no Michigan mini-FMLA to fall back on. Accrued earned sick time is the only paid leave the state guarantees. If a Michigan hire later becomes one you want to keep permanently, read the Michigan termination and at-will rules before you act.
What pregnancy and disability protections apply in Michigan?
Federal law applies and sets the floor. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act requires reasonable accommodation for pregnancy, childbirth and related conditions at any employer with 15 or more employees.
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act apply at the same 15-employee threshold, and the PUMP Act gives nursing employees break time and a private space at almost every employer.
Between 15 and 50 employees there is a real gap on the family-leave side. The PWFA covers accommodation, such as modified duties, schedule changes, time off for appointments and lactation breaks, but FMLA does not yet apply, so no statute gives a Michigan worker a 12-week job hold for the birth itself.
Accrued sick time narrows that gap a little, because accrued hours can be used for the employee's own health condition, but they do not replace a parental-leave policy. The most retention-critical voluntary line for a Michigan hire is paid parental leave, because federal unpaid FMLA at 50 and PWFA accommodation at 15 leave a wide space that only a written policy fills. Use the Employer Cost Calculator to model the total cost of a Michigan hire including any voluntary leave you add.
Michigan employers under 50, military leave and jury duty
Below 50 employees Michigan imposes no mandatory family-leave law, with exceptions that apply at any size: the Earned Sick Time Act, PWFA accommodation at 15 employees, USERRA reemployment for service members, and jury-duty protection.
The Earned Sick Time Act is the one with no size floor at all, so even the smallest Michigan employer owes paid sick time. USERRA protects a service member's civilian job for up to five years of cumulative service. Michigan law bars firing or disciplining an employee for answering a jury summons.
USERRA reinstates a returning service member to the position they would have reached had they not been called up, not simply the job they left. Health-plan continuation runs alongside, and the protection applies regardless of company size.
For a small Michigan employer the mandatory picture is: accrue earned sick time at 1 hour per 30 worked with a 40-hour annual cap, accommodate pregnancy at 15 employees, reinstate service members, and protect jury service. Everything beyond that, including the 12-week FMLA job hold and the 26-week military caregiver entitlement that both arrive at 50 employees, is either a federal trigger you grow into or a voluntary benefit you choose. Hiring in other Midwest states? The leave picture in Ohio and Wisconsin follows a similar structure.
How Teamed runs Michigan leave end to end
Teamed becomes your legal employer of record in Michigan for $599 per employee per month flat, with zero FX mark-up. We run the Earned Sick Time Act accrual ledger and you design the family-leave package on top.
Earned sick time accrual at 1 hour per 30 worked with the right annual cap by size, FMLA eligibility and the 50-employee threshold measured across your whole US payroll, PWFA accommodation logging, USERRA reinstatement and jury-duty pay continuation all run on one platform.
Real HR and legal experts handle your Michigan hires and know the ESTA, FMLA, PWFA and USERRA stack in detail. An actual person, not a chatbot or a pooled queue. The sick-leave ledger accrues 1 hour per 30 worked and applies the 72-hour or 40-hour cap by your headcount automatically. There is no setup fee and no exit fee, and statutory employer cost (FICA, FUTA, SUTA, workers' compensation) passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
Contractor onboarding, EOR payroll and entity graduation all live on one platform. A Michigan contractor who converts to W-2 keeps their record, and that same employee can graduate to your own US entity without switching systems when the model no longer fits. Use the Crossover Calculator to see the month the model flips, or the Employer Cost Calculator to price a Michigan hire today. Pair this page with Michigan state tax and UI for the full cost picture. EOR is the right model for a first Michigan hire, until it isn't.
Michigan is a split decision. On family leave it is a no-program state: federal FMLA at 50 employees is the only job hold, and everything paid is the policy you write. On sick leave it is the opposite, because the Earned Sick Time Act mandates accrual from the first hour worked at every employer, large or small. The mistake we see is a handbook that treats Michigan as fully hands-off. Get the sick-time accrual and the size-based cap right, then design the parental-leave line the state leaves to you.
Michigan splits the difference. It writes no paid family leave law, so federal FMLA at 50 employees is the only job hold.
But it does mandate sick time: 1 hour for every 30 worked, at an employer of any size.
Treat Michigan as fully hands-off and you are short from the first paycheque. The accrual is the part you cannot skip.
