Does Virginia require paid family or sick leave in 2026?
Not as a general mandate yet. Virginia operates no statewide paid family leave programme and no broad paid sick leave law in 2026. Federal FMLA gives 12 weeks unpaid at employers with 50 or more employees, one narrow carve-out covers certain home health workers, and two enacted programmes phase in from 2027 and 2028.
· Virginia, United States guide
Illustration · Richmond, Virginia
Virginia mandates no general paid family leave and no general paid sick leave in 2026. There is no statewide programme to file against and no payroll contribution line on a Virginia payslip this year. The only job-protected floor is federal FMLA, and it reaches only employers with 50 or more employees.
Two real wrinkles sit on top. Certain home health workers already accrue paid sick leave at one hour for every 30 hours worked, and any Virginia employer may buy a voluntary family-leave-insurance policy from a private carrier regulated by the Virginia Bureau of Insurance. Two enacted programmes, a general paid sick leave law and a statewide paid family and medical leave fund, then phase in from 2027 and 2028, so the offer letter is the story now and the calendar is the story next.
Does Virginia require paid family leave?
Not in 2026. Virginia operates no mandatory state paid family leave programme this year, so there is no contribution line on a Virginia payslip and no benefit claim to file with the state.
What Virginia does have is a voluntary route. State law lets a private insurer sell a family-leave-insurance policy that you may choose to buy, and a separate statewide paid-family-and-medical-leave fund has been enacted and begins collecting in 2028. Compare how a neighbouring state handles this now: Maryland's paid family and sick leave is already live.
The voluntary product is set out in the Virginia Code as an insurance policy you purchase, written as a rider to or part of a group disability-income policy, or as a standalone group policy. It pays a portion of an employee's income during leave for a birth, an adoption, a foster care placement, a serious family health condition, or a military-family event. No Virginia employer is required to offer it and no state agency administers it. It is a benefit you elect, priced by a carrier regulated by the Virginia Bureau of Insurance, not a payroll tax. Source: Code of Virginia § 38.2-107.2, Private family leave insurance.
Virginia also enacted a statewide Paid Family and Medical Leave programme, administered by the Virginia Employment Commission. It is future-dated: contributions begin 1 April 2028 and benefits open 1 December 2028, with up to 12 weeks of paid leave at up to 80 percent of average weekly wage. Nothing is owed or withheld for it in 2026. For a Virginia hire today, paid family leave is therefore either a voluntary insurance line you choose to offer or unpaid FMLA job protection, and the wage-replacement piece is yours to design in the offer letter until the state fund switches on. Check how wages and overtime interact with your leave policy in Virginia wage and overtime law.
Does Virginia require paid sick leave?
There is no broad paid sick leave mandate in 2026, but Virginia is not a clean no. One narrow law already requires paid sick leave for certain home health workers, who accrue one hour for every 30 hours worked, capped at 40 hours a year unless the employer sets a higher limit.
That carve-out covers home health workers who provide consumer-directed Medicaid care and work regular part-time hours. For every other Virginia employee in 2026, paid sick days are still whatever the offer letter says. Compare the picture in a neighbour: North Carolina paid family and sick leave follows the same federal-floor-only pattern.
The home health carve-out is real and operative now. Under Code of Virginia § 40.1-33.4, enforced by the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, a covered home health worker accrues paid sick leave from the first day of work at one hour for every 30 hours worked, may carry unused leave forward, and is capped at 40 hours of accrual and use a year unless you set a higher limit. Leave can be taken for the worker's own illness or a family member's, for diagnosis or treatment, or for preventative care. Source: Code of Virginia § 40.1-33.4, Accrual of paid sick leave.
A broader law is coming but is not yet binding. Virginia enacted a general paid sick leave statute in 2026 using the same one-hour-per-30-hours rate and 40-hour cap, phasing in by employer size: employers with 50 or more employees from 1 July 2027, 15-plus from 1 January 2028, and every employer from 1 January 2029. That general law expressly leaves home health workers on their own existing provision. So in 2026 the only enforceable paid-sick-leave duty is the home health one, and the wider mandate is a date to plan for, not a deduction to run. Your Virginia termination obligations also interact with how sick leave balances are treated at separation.
What does federal FMLA give Virginia employees?
Federal FMLA gives eligible Virginia 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 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.
Hire a Virginia employee and FMLA is the only leave statute that binds you for the whole of 2026, because the state's own programmes are either narrow or future-dated. The 50-employee threshold counts your entire US workforce, not just Virginia staff, catching multi-state employers off guard.
Source: US Department of Labor, Family and Medical Leave Act
Add 30 Virginia staff to 25 staff in another state and 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. See also the United States hiring overview for how this applies across your US footprint.
| 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. Below 50 employees, or for a worker in their first 12 months, there is no FMLA right at all, and in 2026 no general Virginia mini-FMLA to fall back on. The voluntary family-leave-insurance policy, available from carriers regulated by the Virginia Bureau of Insurance, is the one private route to paid time off before the state fund opens in 2028.
What pregnancy and disability protections apply in Virginia?
Federal law applies and Virginia layers its own anti-discrimination duties on top. 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, the Virginia Human Rights Act mirrors them, 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. 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 Virginia worker a 12-week job hold for the birth itself in 2026.
That gap is the decision your offer letter has to make explicit until the state paid-family-and-medical-leave fund opens in 2028. The most retention-critical voluntary line for a Virginia hire is paid parental leave, because federal unpaid FMLA at 50 and PWFA accommodation at 15 leave a wide space that today only a written policy or a voluntary insurance line fills. See how wage obligations interact in Virginia wage and overtime law, and how separation is handled in Virginia termination law.
Virginia employers under 50, military leave and jury duty
Below 50 employees Virginia imposes no general mandatory leave law in 2026, with narrow exceptions that apply at any size: the home health paid-sick-leave carve-out, 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. Virginia 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. With one of the largest military and veteran populations in the country, Virginia employers hit this rule more often than most. Review your Virginia termination obligations alongside USERRA reinstatement rights.
For most small Virginia employers in 2026 this is the mandatory picture: pay home health workers their accrued sick leave under the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry rules, accommodate pregnancy at 15 employees, reinstate service members, and protect jury service. Everything beyond that, including the 26-week military caregiver entitlement that arrives with FMLA at 50 employees and the general paid-sick-leave duty that begins at 50 employees on 1 July 2027, is either a federal trigger you grow into, a state date you plan for, or a voluntary benefit you choose. Use the Employer Cost Calculator to model the full cost of a Virginia hire including voluntary leave benefits.
How Teamed runs Virginia leave end to end
Teamed becomes your legal employer of record in Virginia for $599 per employee per month flat, with zero FX mark-up. You design the leave package; we administer it and track every federal trigger and every enacted Virginia date for you.
FMLA eligibility, the 50-employee threshold measured across your whole US payroll, the home health sick-leave accrual, PWFA accommodation logging, USERRA reinstatement and jury-duty pay continuation all run on one platform.
Real HR and legal experts handle your Virginia hires and know the FMLA, PWFA and USERRA stack, plus the 2027 paid-sick-leave start and the 2028 paid-family-and-medical-leave fund. 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 so you see every cost.
Contractor onboarding, EOR payroll and entity graduation all live on one platform. A Virginia contractor who converts to W-2 keeps their record, and that same employee can graduate to your own US entity when the model no longer fits, without switching systems. Use the Crossover Calculator to see the month the model flips, or check Virginia state tax and unemployment insurance to understand the full payroll picture. EOR is the right model for a first Virginia hire, until it isn't.
Virginia just stopped being simple. For 2026 you still have no general paid family or sick leave to withhold, and federal FMLA only bites at 50 employees, so today the work is policy design, not compliance. A narrow home health sick-leave law is already live, a general sick-leave mandate starts in 2027, and a statewide paid-family-and-medical-leave fund opens in 2028. The Virginia hire weighing your offer is comparing your voluntary leave package against a state floor that is about to rise, so the package you write now is the one you will be measured against.
Virginia funds almost no leave in 2026. Federal FMLA starts at 50 employees and stops at unpaid.
One carve-out is live, paid sick leave for home health workers at an hour per 30 worked, plus a voluntary insurance line you can buy.
A general sick-leave mandate lands in 2027, a state paid-leave fund in 2028. The offer letter is the policy now, the calendar next.
