An entitlement that runs the opposite way to a UK one
Anybody used to the UK's statutory holiday entitlement is used to a paid right: 5.6 weeks of annual leave, funded by the employer, no test beyond simply being an employee. The Family and Medical Leave Act does not work like that, and describing it as a US version of statutory holiday would be wrong in the way that costs somebody something. The Department of Labor states it directly in Fact Sheet #28: "FMLA is job-protected, unpaid leave." What the Act guarantees is that the job stays open and group health cover carries on, not a wage while someone is off. Where a state runs its own paid family leave scheme, that is a separate, paid instrument sitting on top of this federal floor, not part of it.
The three tests, and the one built to be missed
29 CFR 825.110(a) sets an eligible employee as someone who has worked for a covered employer for at least 12 months, has at least 1,250 hours of service in the 12 months before leave starts, and is "employed at a worksite where 50 or more employees are employed by the employer within 75 miles of that worksite." All three, or none of the 12 weeks applies.
The third test is the one this tool exists for, because it is measured at the worksite rather than across the employer as a whole. A company with thousands of staff can still have a site, depot or branch with fewer than fifty people within 75 miles, and anyone whose worksite that is fails the test regardless of the employer's overall size. For anybody with no fixed worksite, construction crews and delivery routes included, 29 CFR 825.111(a)(2) counts from the yard, depot or office they report to and get work from, not the job they happen to be on. And the headcount itself, per 825.105(c), counts every person on the payroll, part time included: it is a headcount, not a full-time-equivalent total.
Twelve months, and what a long gap does to them
Service does not need to be continuous. 29 CFR 825.110(b) lets separate stints with the same employer add together, and a gap under seven years never costs anything. A gap of seven years or more drops the earlier service from the count, unless it was military service covered by USERRA or there is a written agreement about the employer's intention to rehire. Missing this either way changes the answer: it can turn a rehire with years of good standing into someone who reads as brand new, or apply a penalty to a short gap that was never long enough to matter.
Why employer type is not asked here
29 CFR 825.104 covers a private employer once it reaches 50 employees for 20 weeks of a year, and covers public agencies and schools regardless of size. That question matters for whether an employer is covered by FMLA at all, but it cannot change whether a specific worker passes the tests above: passing the worksite test already means the employer clears the headcount route to coverage, and failing it disqualifies the worker whatever kind of employer this is. So it is left out, on the same principle as everywhere else on this site: a field that cannot change the answer should not stand between somebody and it.
FMLA is unpaid, so there is no payment to work out
It does not calculate a payment, because FMLA leave is unpaid and there is nothing to calculate. It does not check any state's own paid family or medical leave program, which is a different, paid instrument with its own rules. And it does not tell anybody that they are or are not entitled to leave as a settled fact. It reports what the three federal tests say against the figures put in, which is the most a page like this can honestly do; whether those figures are complete, and what happens next, is between the employee, the employer and, where it comes to it, the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.
No personnel record gets created
Eligibility turns on an employee's hours, their tenure and often the reason for the leave, which is health information about a named person. Working that out here creates no record anywhere: the three tests run on your device, nothing is transmitted, and there is no file for anybody to request, subpoena or leak later.
Common questions
Why does a worker at a huge company sometimes fail this, when a two-person firm can pass it?
Because one of the three tests is measured at the worksite, not across the whole company. 29 CFR 825.110(a)(3) requires the employee to work "at a worksite where 50 or more employees are employed by the employer within 75 miles of that worksite." A company with ten thousand staff nationally can still have a branch, depot or site where fewer than fifty people work within 75 miles, and anyone based there fails this test regardless of how large the employer is everywhere else. A small employer with every worker at one busy site of fifty or more passes it easily. Size of the company is not the test; density around one worksite is.
What counts as my worksite if I do not have a fixed one, like a construction crew or a delivery route?
29 CFR 825.111(a)(2) covers this directly, and its own example is a construction company: "the worksite is the site to which they are assigned as their home base, from which their work is assigned, or to which they report." A construction worker hired locally to a job site is counted there. Someone sent out from a head office or a yard, such as a foreman or an engineer dispatched to different sites, keeps that head office or yard as their worksite. So the right number to use is the headcount at the depot, yard or office the person reports to and gets work from, not whichever site the crew happens to be working at this month.
Does the 75-mile distance mean a straight line on a map?
No. 29 CFR 825.111(b) is specific: "The 75-mile distance is measured by surface miles, using surface transportation over public streets, roads, highways and waterways, by the shortest route." It is a driving distance by the shortest practical route, not a radius drawn on a map. Only where no surface transport exists between two points does the regulation fall back to the most frequently used alternative, such as airline miles.
Is FMLA leave paid?
No, and this is the point most likely to be assumed wrongly by anyone used to a UK statutory holiday entitlement, which is paid time off by default. The US Department of Labor states it plainly in Fact Sheet #28: "FMLA is job-protected, unpaid leave." The Act guarantees the job stays open and group health cover continues on the same terms, not a wage. An employee can choose, or an employer can require, that accrued paid leave (vacation or sick pay) runs alongside FMLA leave, which is a separate benefit the employer already offered, not something FMLA itself pays. Some states also run their own paid family or medical leave programs, which are a different, paid instrument layered on top of this federal unpaid floor, not part of the federal Act.
How much leave does FMLA actually provide?
Up to 12 workweeks in a 12-month period for the ordinary reasons: a new child, a serious health condition of the employee or a close family member, or certain military family circumstances. Military caregiver leave, for a current servicemember or recent veteran with a serious injury or illness, runs up to 26 workweeks in a single 12-month period instead. Both figures are from Fact Sheet #28, and both describe unpaid, job-protected time, not a payment.
Does the type of employer, a business, a government agency or a school, change the answer?
It changes which route gets an employer covered by FMLA at all, but it does not change whether a particular worker passes the eligibility tests, which is why this tool does not ask about it. 29 CFR 825.104 covers a private employer once it has 50 or more employees for 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or preceding year, and covers public agencies and public or private elementary or secondary schools regardless of size. But every employee, at every type of covered employer, still has to separately clear the worksite test in 825.111. Passing that test already means the employer clears the headcount route to coverage too, and failing it is disqualifying whatever kind of employer this is. The employer-type question can only change the explanation, never the outcome, so it is left out of the form.
I had a break in service with this employer. Does my earlier time still count?
Usually yes. 29 CFR 825.110(b) states that the 12 months "need not be consecutive," and a gap of under 7 years never costs anything: earlier service is added straight to whatever has been worked since. A gap of 7 years or more is different: that earlier service drops out of the count unless the gap was military service covered by USERRA, or there is a written agreement, including a collective bargaining agreement, about the employer's intention to rehire. Get this the wrong way round and a rehire with years of good service behind them can look freshly hired, or a short gap that should never have mattered gets treated as if it reset the clock.
Does this tool calculate what FMLA leave is worth, or check a state paid-leave law?
No, on purpose. FMLA itself has no pay to calculate, so there is nothing for this tool to work out beyond the three eligibility tests: the worksite headcount, the months of service and the hours worked. A number of states run their own paid family or medical leave schemes on top of this federal, unpaid floor, and those are a genuinely different, paid instrument with their own separate eligibility rules, not a state version of the federal Act. Checking one of those needs that state's own program, not this page.