Colorado FAMLI: Employer Guide
FAMLI, short for Colorado’s Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance, is the state program that pays eligible workers while they are on leave. Employers register, collect premiums and follow the notice and job-protection requirements.
Below you will find who qualifies, the length and pay of leave, how the program is financed and what employers must do. Contribution rates and dollar caps are adjusted frequently, often yearly, so check current numbers with the agency.
Employers, employees and reasons for leave.
Eligibility depends on where an employee works, how much they earned and the reason for leave.
Employers. Employers with at least one employee each working day for 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or prior year, or paying $1,500 or more in wages in any quarter of the prior year. The state and its political subdivisions are employers, and local governments may opt out. The federal government is excluded. There is no small-employer exclusion.
Employees. At least $2,500 in premium-subject wages in the base or alternative base period, or elected coverage for the self-employed. Job protection requires 180 days with the current employer.
Reasons for leave. Reasons for leave: bonding with a new child, caring for family, the worker’s own serious health condition, a qualifying exigency from a relative’s military service, and safe leave.
How long leave lasts and what it pays.
FAMLI pays part of a worker’s wages for a limited number of weeks.
Duration. Up to 12 weeks in an application year for all reasons combined, with as many as 4 added weeks for pregnancy or childbirth complications.
Pay. The weekly benefit works out to 90 percent of wages up to 50 percent of the state average weekly wage, plus 50 percent of wages above that, never exceeding 90 percent of the state average weekly wage. Wages come from the job where the leave is taken.
Job protection. Yes, once an employee has 180 days on the job: the same or an equivalent position, continued health benefits, and protection against retaliation.
How the program is paid for.
Contributions are collected or paid by the employer, and how the cost is split varies from state to state.
Funding. The premium was fixed at 0.9 percent of wages for 2023 and 2024. After that the director sets it every year, applying it up to the Social Security wage base. An employer with 10 or more employees may withhold as much as half from workers but must remit the whole premium; a smaller employer remits half.
Private plans. Approved private plans must give at least the same rights and benefits at no greater employee cost, and they exempt the employer from remitting premiums.
When it started. Benefits began January 1, 2024. Premiums began January 1, 2023.
Employer duties.
Here is what the agency and the statute expect of employers.
Core duties. Sign up and send premiums through the agency’s employer portal, display the program notice, provide written notice at hire and when a qualifying event occurs, and keep health benefits going during leave.
Based somewhere else? Because coverage follows the place where the employee works, an employer based outside Colorado that has staff there should ask the agency whether it must register. Michigan-headquartered employers with remote employees in other states encounter this often.
Check current figures. Rates, wage bases and benefit caps are revised over time. The agency page linked below has the up-to-date figures.
Where this connects.
State leave operates alongside federal leave and your own leave policies.
State Paid Family and Medical Leave Laws
A rundown of each state program we follow, with start dates and key requirements.
FMLA and Group Health Coverage
How federal FMLA leave fits with group health coverage.
Benefits Compliance Alerts
Recent developments touching employer plans.
Colorado FAMLI Division · Colorado FAMLI program information (C.R.S. 8-13.3-501 and following)
We map which state programs your employees fall under.
For multi-state employers we sort out which programs reach your people, how payroll should withhold and report, and how leave under state law sits next to FMLA and your internal leave policy.
Related pages.
State Paid Family and Medical Leave Laws
Each state program we follow.
FMLA and Group Health Coverage
How federal leave and group health coverage interact.
USERRA and Employer Health Coverage
Health coverage rules that apply to employees on military leave.
Federal Policy Tracker
Each federal benefits law we cover, sorted by what it requires of an employer.
Benefits Compliance Alerts
Recent developments touching employer plans.
A Compliance Calendar for Your Plan Year
Dated filings, notices and deadlines that an employer plan runs on.
Questions that come up.
Quick answers to what we hear most often, each linking to the full page.
Which employers does Colorado’s program cover?
Employers with at least one employee each working day for 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or prior year, or paying $1,500 or more in wages in any quarter of the prior year. The state and its political subdivisions are employers, and local governments may opt out. The federal government is excluded. There is no small-employer exclusion.
Does Colorado’s program protect an employee’s job?
Yes, once an employee has 180 days on the job: the same or an equivalent position, continued health benefits, and protection against retaliation.
How is Colorado’s program funded?
The premium was fixed at 0.9 percent of wages for 2023 and 2024. After that the director sets it every year, applying it up to the Social Security wage base. An employer with 10 or more employees may withhold as much as half from workers but must remit the whole premium; a smaller employer remits half.
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