What paid family and sick leave does Oregon require in 2026?

The assumption that catches out-of-state employers is the 50-employee rule. Federal FMLA hits at 50 employees, but Paid Leave Oregon and Oregon Sick Time apply from your first Oregon hire. A three-person Portland team carries the same contribution and sick-time accrual as a 3,000-person enterprise. See also how your Oregon wage and overtime obligations stack on the same payroll.

The benefit replaces 100% of wages for lower earners and tapers above, paying a maximum of $1,692.16 a week in 2026, the highest weekly cap of any state paid-leave programme. Compare that with California's paid family leave to see why Oregon's weekly benefit stands out. The Oregon Employment Department pays the benefit directly to the employee, so your payroll runs unchanged during the leave period.

If you have fewer than 25 employees, you skip the employer share but still withhold and remit the employee share. Eligibility turns on an earnings test in the qualifying period, not on federal tenure, so an employee can draw Paid Leave Oregon wage replacement before they qualify for FMLA job protection.

Covered uses are broad: your employee's own illness, care for a family member, safe time related to domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking, and time to give blood from 1 January 2026. Accrual starts on your employee's first day of work. You may also front-load at least 40 hours at the start of the year instead of running a rolling accrual.

A national sick-leave policy that accrues less than 1 hour per 30 worked is short on every Oregon payroll. The paid-versus-unpaid line is the trap for multi-state employers: a company with one small Portland office can cross the 6-employee Portland threshold and owe paid time it assumed was unpaid. If you also hire in Washington, note that Washington runs its own paid sick leave programme on a separate accrual clock. For your full Oregon cost picture, including sick-leave liability, run the Oregon employer cost calculator.

Out-of-state employers most often get this wrong because OFLA used to overlap heavily with Paid Leave Oregon. After SB 1515, the two serve different purposes: Paid Leave Oregon pays the wages for family, medical and safe leave, while OFLA holds the job for sick-child leave, pregnancy disability and bereavement. Bereavement under OFLA is capped at two weeks per family member, up to four weeks in a leave year.

An Oregon employee can carry several entitlements at once: Paid Leave Oregon wage replacement, OFLA job protection, federal FMLA, and accrued Oregon Sick Time. Coordinating them so they run concurrently, rather than stacking into more leave than the statutes require, is the real compliance task. Check your Oregon termination and at-will obligations as well, because reinstatement rights after OFLA and Paid Leave Oregon leave interact with Oregon's broader job-protection rules.

Where both apply, run them concurrently: the Paid Leave Oregon claim funds the wages while FMLA and OFLA preserve the role. FMLA also adds up to 26 weeks of military caregiver leave. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), enforced by the EEOC, requires reasonable accommodation for pregnancy-related conditions at any employer with 15 or more employees, separate from any leave entitlement. See also how your Oregon payroll tax and unemployment insurance obligations sit alongside these leave contributions.

What that looks like, day to day: real HR and legal experts file the employer verification with the Oregon Employment Department and track the 12-week clock against the $1,692.16 weekly cap; the sick-time ledger accrues 1 hour per 30 worked and applies the paid-versus-unpaid threshold by work location, including the 6-employee Portland rule; and OFLA job protection is coordinated so leave does not stack beyond what the statutes require.

There is no setup fee and no exit fee, and statutory employer cost passes through at cost, itemised on every invoice. Contractor onboarding, EOR payroll and entity graduation all live on one platform: an Oregon contractor who converts to W-2 keeps their record, and that same employee can graduate to your own US entity without switching systems. Use the Crossover Calculator to see the month the model flips. EOR is the right model for a first Oregon hire, until it isn't. Talk to our team at teamed.global/contact about your first Oregon hire.