The new year, as always, brings with it new developments in labor and employment law. Likewise, the ever-growing labyrinth of state and local paid leave laws, including paid sick leave and family and medical leave laws, continues to develop in 2026. Some states have expanded their existing leave provisions, while others are enacting wholly new leave programs. As paid leave requirements grow and change, so too do compliance difficulties and litigation risks for multijurisdictional employers. Below is a summary of key developments in state and local leave laws, as well as states to watch as the year progresses.
State Leave Laws Going into Effect in 2026
Delaware: Under the Healthy Delaware Families Act, eligible employees now may take up to 12 weeks of paid leave per year to care for a new child, or six weeks of paid leave per year to address a personal serious health condition, assist while a loved one is on an overseas military deployment, or care for a family member with a serious medical condition. The Healthy Families Act provides state-funded wage replacement benefits, and most employers with 10 or more employees are required to participate. Although payroll deductions began in 2025, benefits under this law have just become available to eligible employees effective January 1, 2026.
Maine: On May 1, 2026, employees will start receiving paid benefits for Maine’s Paid Family and Medical Leave program. Maine’s Paid Family and Medical Leave program allows eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of paid time off to care for their own medical needs; to bond with a child after birth, fostering, or adoption; to care for a loved one with a serious health condition; to prepare for a family member’s military deployment; or to find safety after abuse or violence. Although payroll deductions began in 2025, benefits under this law will become available to eligible employees effective May 2026.
Minnesota: Minnesota’s Paid Leave law took effect on January 1, 2026. This new law provides eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of paid medical leave or paid family leave, and employees who need both medical and family leave in a single benefit year may qualify for up to 20 weeks. The Paid Leave Law provides job protection beginning 90 days after an employee’s date of hire, requires that health insurance and group insurance plans continue while an employee is on leave, and makes unlawful employer retaliation against or interference with an employee’s application for paid leave under this law. Importantly, employers were required to notify employees of their rights and benefits under the Paid Leave Law by December 1, 2025.
Recent Expansions of Existing State and Local Leave Laws
California: California is expanding its Paid Family Leave law to allow eligible employees to use leave to care for a “designated person,” which is defined as “any care recipient related by blood or whose association with the individual is the equivalent of a family relationship.” The law will allow employees to designate one individual per 12-month period as their “designated person” for the purposes of leave usage under this law. Although Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law on October 13, 2025, the change will not take effect until after July 1, 2028.
Colorado: Colorado has expanded its Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program to offer neonatal care leave, providing an additional 12 weeks of leave for parents with children in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Colorado is the first state to provide leave specifically for care of NICU newborns, and it may indicate a trend toward providing neonatal intensive care leave in state paid leave programs. This expansion took effect on January 1, 2026.
Connecticut: Connecticut has been gradually expanding the types and sizes of employers covered by its Sick Leave Law, and it continues this trend in 2026. Beginning January 1, 2026, employers with 11 or more employees are covered by the state’s Sick Leave Law. Connecticut employers should be mindful that, in 2027, virtually all employers will be covered by this law when the threshold number of employees drops to just one employee on January 1, 2027.
New Hampshire: Effective January 1, 2026, New Hampshire’s Family and Medical Leave law will require covered employers to provide 25 hours of unpaid leave for an employee’s own medical appointments for childbirth, medical appointments for postpartum care, and medical appointments for an infant’s pediatric care.
New York City: Effective February 22, 2026, New York City’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA) will expand its covered reasons to take earned safe and sick time to include reasons related to caregiving, subsistence benefits and housing, workplace violence, and public disasters. It will also add a separate bank of 32 hours of unpaid earned safe and sick time in addition to the 40 or 56 hours of paid leave already provided under the ESSTA.
States to Watch
As more states establish and expand their sick leave and family and medical leave programs, employers should be aware of likely changes to come in the states in which they operate. For example, a change in political leadership in Virginia may result in new leave laws. The legislature in Virginia created and passed two paid leave programs over the past two years, both of which were vetoed by then-governor Glenn Youngkin. However, after Governor Abigail Spanberger’s inauguration on January 17, 2026, the legislature will have an opportunity to try once again to pass a paid leave program with a new governor who may prove friendlier to the legislation.
Similarly, a New Jersey bill that would lower the threshold for exempt small businesses from 30 employees down to 15 employees for the state’s family leave law recently won committee approval.
Lastly, in 2025, the Pennsylvania legislature introduced a new paid leave program establishing a state-wide Family and Medical Leave Program that would provide eligible employees 20 weeks per year to care for themselves or 12 weeks per year to care for a family member.
Conclusion
Managing multijurisdictional leave laws is complicated, particularly for employers operating in many states. Additionally, while some of these changes may be set for predictable times, such as the beginning of the year, some states have leave laws that will become enforceable later in the year. Employers that have employees residing in the states listed herein should be vigilant in reviewing their leave policies and practices, updating them as needed while also keeping an eye toward future potential changes.
Victoria E. Grieshammer is an attorney with Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP in Raleigh, North Carolina, and can be reached at victoria.grieshammer@wbd-us.com.
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