--- title: "Nebraska Paid Family and Sick Leave 2026" description: "No state paid family leave, but Nebraska now mandates paid sick time: 1 hour per 30 worked, capped 40/56 hours. Federal FMLA holds the job." canonical: https://www.teamed.global/country-hiring-guides/united-states/nebraska/paid-family-and-sick-leave --- United States · Nebraska · Leave child Served by Teamed US Inc., Delaware · Payroll via SUNA Solutions # Does *Nebraska require paid family or sick leave* in 2026? Split answer. Nebraska has no state paid family leave law, but it now requires paid sick time: employees accrue 1 hour for every 30 hours worked at employers with 11 or more staff. Federal FMLA holds the job; the sick-leave mandate is new as of October 2025. Last reviewed 6 June 2026 · Nebraska, United States guide ![Golden hour over the Nebraska Sandhills, rolling grass-covered dunes stretching to the horizon, a windmill and a few cattle beside a quiet prairie creek under a wide amber sky.](/cluster-assets/country-hiring-guides/united-states/nebraska/paid-family-and-sick-leave/images/hero.webp) Illustration · Sandhills, Nebraska Nebraska splits the leave question. There is no state paid family leave programme, no payroll withholding line, and no claim portal for family or medical leave; the only job-protected floor for that is [federal FMLA](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fmla) at **50 or more employees**. Paid sick time is the new exception. Since October 2025 the [Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act](https://dol.nebraska.gov/PaidSickTime) has required paid sick time at employers with **11 or more employees**: 1 hour accrued per 30 hours worked, capped at **40 hours** a year below 20 staff and **56 hours** at 20 or more. Below 11 employees the mandate falls away and the offer letter is the whole story again. ## Does Nebraska require paid family leave? No. Nebraska has no state paid family leave law. Around a dozen states run mandatory paid-family-leave programmes funded by payroll contributions; Nebraska is not one of them, and bills to create a programme have not passed. There is no state PFL line on a Nebraska payslip, no contribution rate, and no family-leave benefit to claim. For comparison, neighbours [Iowa](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/iowa/paid-family-and-sick-leave) and [Kansas](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/kansas/paid-family-and-sick-leave) are also PFL-free states, so the federal floor is the only shared reference point in this part of the Midwest. For family and medical leave, Nebraska leans entirely on the federal floor. There is no state mini-FMLA, no state wage replacement for bonding with a new child, and no state job hold for a serious illness or a family emergency beyond what [federal FMLA](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fmla) provides at 50 employees. Hire your first Nebraska employee and you are working in a leave-by-offer environment for anything beyond sick time. Whatever paid parental, paid bereavement or paid family-care leave a Nebraska employee receives above the federal minimum is the leave you wrote into the offer. That is a competitive decision, not a compliance one. The compliance line in Nebraska sits with sick time, which the state now mandates, and which the next section covers in full. See how [Nebraska termination law](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/nebraska/termination-law-and-at-will-exceptions) shapes the broader employment relationship. ## Does Nebraska require paid sick leave? Yes. Since **1 October 2025** the [Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act](https://dol.nebraska.gov/PaidSickTime) has required paid sick time. Your employees accrue **1 hour for every 30 hours worked** at any employer with **11 or more employees**. The annual cap depends on size: up to **40 hours** a year for employers with 11 to 19 employees, and up to **56 hours** at employers with 20 or more. New hires begin accruing after 80 consecutive hours worked in Nebraska. This is recent law, and it is narrower than the ballot measure voters passed. Initiative 436 was approved in November 2024; before it took effect, the legislature passed LB 415 (signed June 2025), which exempted employers with 10 or fewer employees, set the 40 and 56-hour caps by size, and added the 80-hour eligibility delay. The current rule under [the Nebraska Department of Labor](https://dol.nebraska.gov/PaidSickTime), not the ballot text, is what you follow. | Paid sick time element | Nebraska rule (2026) | | --- | --- | | Coverage threshold | Employers with 11+ employees; fewer than 11 are exempt | | Accrual rate | 1 hour per 30 hours worked | | Annual cap, 11 to 19 employees | 40 hours accrual and use | | Annual cap, 20+ employees | 56 hours accrual and use | | New-hire eligibility | After 80 consecutive hours worked in Nebraska | Covered uses are broad: your employee's own illness, care for a family member, and safe time related to domestic violence or sexual assault. Unused time carries over year to year, though the annual use cap still holds. A national policy that grants less than 1 hour per 30 worked falls short on every Nebraska payroll at 11 employees and above. Cross-check [Nebraska wage and overtime rules](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/nebraska/wage-overtime-and-meal-break-law) to make sure your pay practices support the accrual correctly. ## What does federal FMLA give Nebraska employees? Federal FMLA gives your eligible Nebraska employees up to **12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave** per 12-month period, with group health coverage continued at your normal contribution. 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. US DOL Wage and Hour Division · FMLA Hire a Nebraska employee and reach 50 total US staff, and you owe up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for childbirth, adoption, a serious personal illness, or a family-member health crisis. That 50-employee count spans your entire US workforce, not just Nebraska, so multi-state growth can trip the trigger before you expect it. Source: [US Department of Labor, Family and Medical Leave Act](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fmla) An employer with 30 Nebraska staff and 25 staff in another state crosses 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](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fmla) gives no wage replacement of its own. Below 50 employees, or for a worker in their first 12 months, there is no FMLA right at all, and Nebraska has no state family-leave law to fall back on. The [US hiring overview](/country-hiring-guides/united-states) maps how these federal floors interact across all 50 states. ## What pregnancy and disability protections apply in Nebraska? Federal law applies and Nebraska adds no separate state programme on top. The [Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA)](https://www.eeoc.gov/pregnancy-discrimination) 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 you have a real gap on job protection. [PWFA](https://www.eeoc.gov/pregnancy-discrimination) 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 Nebraska worker a 12-week job hold for the birth itself. Nebraska's paid sick time does help inside that gap, but only at its own scale: at 11 or more employees a worker can use accrued sick hours for prenatal appointments and recovery, capped at 40 or 56 hours a year. For genuine parental leave the decision still sits with your offer letter, because federal unpaid FMLA at 50 and [PWFA](https://www.eeoc.gov/pregnancy-discrimination) accommodation at 15 leave a wide space that only a written policy fills. The [Employer Cost Calculator](https://www.teamed.global/tools/employer-cost) helps you model what a competitive parental-leave policy adds to your total employment cost in Nebraska. ## Nebraska employers under 50, military leave and jury duty Below 50 employees Nebraska imposes no family-leave law, though paid sick time still applies from 11 employees. Three further protections apply at any size: PWFA accommodation at 15 employees, USERRA reemployment for service members, and jury-duty protection. USERRA protects a service member's civilian job for up to five years of cumulative service and reinstates them on the escalator principle. Nebraska law bars firing or penalising 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 Nebraska employer the mandatory picture is short but not empty: paid sick time at 11 or more employees, pregnancy accommodation at 15, reinstatement for service members, and jury-service protection. The 26-week military caregiver entitlement arrives with FMLA at 50 employees. Below 11 employees even the sick-time mandate falls away. Nebraska's [at-will termination rules](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/nebraska/termination-law-and-at-will-exceptions) shape how you document these protections when a departure follows a leave period. ## How Teamed runs Nebraska leave end to end Teamed becomes your [legal employer of record](/lp/employer-of-record) in Nebraska for [**from $599 per employee per month flat**](/pricing), with **zero FX mark-up**. You design the family-leave package; we administer it, run the paid sick time accrual, and track every federal trigger for you. Sick-time accrual at 1 hour per 30 worked with the 40 or 56-hour cap, 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 Nebraska hires and know the [Healthy Families and Workplaces Act](https://dol.nebraska.gov/PaidSickTime), FMLA, PWFA and USERRA stack in full. **An actual person, not a chatbot or a pooled queue.** 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. The sick-time ledger accrues automatically and applies the right cap by your Nebraska headcount. Contractor onboarding, [EOR payroll](/lp/employer-of-record) and entity graduation all live on one platform. A Nebraska 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](https://www.teamed.global/tools/crossover-calculator) to see the month the model flips, and the [Employer Cost Calculator](https://www.teamed.global/tools/employer-cost) to model Nebraska total employment cost before you hire. EOR is the right model for a first Nebraska hire, **until it isn't**. Teamed Legal Operations Nebraska is no longer the clean no-program state it was a year ago. There is still no paid family leave, so federal FMLA holds the job at 50 employees and nothing fills the gap below it. But paid sick time is now real law: 1 hour per 30 worked, capped at 40 or 56 hours by size, at every employer with 11 or more staff. The work is two-sided now, voluntary parental policy on one hand and a genuine sick-time accrual to administer on the other, and getting the headcount thresholds right is the whole game. A note from Tom Price-Daniel Nebraska changed. There is still no state paid family leave, so federal FMLA at 50 employees is the only job hold. But paid sick time is now mandatory at 11 staff and up: 1 hour per 30 worked, capped at 40 or 56 hours a year. An FMLA-only handbook is short in Nebraska now. The accrual is real, and someone has to run it. Tom Price-Daniel · Co-founder, Teamed ## Related United States guides - [Nebraska state tax & unemployment insurance](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/nebraska/state-income-tax-and-unemployment-insurance)sibling - [Nebraska wage, overtime & meal break law](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/nebraska/wage-overtime-and-meal-break-law)sibling - [Nebraska termination law & at-will exceptions](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/nebraska/termination-law-and-at-will-exceptions)sibling - [Hiring in the United States, overview](/country-hiring-guides/united-states)country parent - [Iowa paid family & sick leave](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/iowa/paid-family-and-sick-leave)neighbour - [Kansas paid family & sick leave](/country-hiring-guides/united-states/kansas/paid-family-and-sick-leave)neighbour - [Employer of Record overview](/lp/employer-of-record)core - [Pricing, Zero FX Fixed](/pricing)core - [EOR vs Entity Crossover Calculator](https://www.teamed.global/tools/crossover-calculator)tool - [Employer Cost Calculator](https://www.teamed.global/tools/employer-cost)tool - [Talk to an expert](https://www.teamed.global/contact)CTA A note on this page. This is a guide, not legal advice. Nebraska has no state paid family or medical leave law, but it does require paid sick time under the Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (Initiative 436, as amended by LB 415), effective 1 October 2025. The accrual rate, caps and thresholds, along with federal FMLA, the PWFA, the ADA, USERRA and jury-duty rules, set the floor and can change when a rule is amended or a court rules. Confirm specific figures with the Nebraska Department of Labor, the US Department of Labor, the EEOC or your Teamed US specialist before relying on any number here.