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Count your FMLA leave and see when it resets

Enter your weekly hours and the leave you've taken to estimate your balance under federal FMLA rules. From Certicare, where medical leave forms are completed and signed by a state-licensed provider.

How much FMLA leave do you have left?

FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) leave for an eligible employee "is limited to a total of 12 workweeks of leave during any 12-month period." How fast that runs out depends on two things: the hours in your normal workweek, and the method your employer uses to measure the 12 months. Enter both, add the leave you've already taken, and the calculator does the arithmetic.

The hours you're scheduled to work in a normal week, including overtime your employer requires. If your schedule varies so much that your normal week can't be determined, use your average scheduled hours over the 12 months before your leave started.

How your employer measures the 12 months

Your employer's FMLA rights-and-responsibilities notice states this. HR or your leave administrator can tell you too.

Runs January 1 to December 31 and starts over every January 1.

A set 12-month year, such as a fiscal year or one that starts on your work anniversary, that starts over on the same date each year.

The 12 months start on the day your first FMLA leave begins.

On any day you use FMLA leave, the 12 months before that day are counted, so hours come back 12 months after you used them.

See the estimate under each method.

FMLA leave you've already taken

Add a row for each stretch of FMLA leave: the date it started and the hours you missed. For a partial day, enter only the hours you were off.

For leave that ran over several days, add the last day. The hours are spread evenly across those days.

Count scheduled hours only. If you took a full week off, enter your full normal week's hours, even if it included a holiday. A holiday during leave of less than a full week doesn't count unless you were scheduled and expected to work that day.

Today's date is filled in. Change it to check your balance on a different date, like the day a planned leave starts. To check a future date, also add any leave you expect to take before it.

Enter your weekly hours and pick a method to see an estimate.

This calculator doesn't cover military caregiver leave, which allows 26 workweeks in a single 12-month period under separate rules.

The calculator runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to Certicare.

When does FMLA reset?

There's no single reset date. Under 29 CFR 825.200(b), each employer chooses one of four ways to measure the 12-month period:

  • The calendar year. Everyone starts over on January 1.
  • A fixed 12-month leave year, such as a fiscal year, a year required by state law, or a year that starts on your employment anniversary. It starts over on the same date each year.
  • Forward from your first leave. The 12 months start on the date your first FMLA leave begins, and "the next 12-month period would begin the first time FMLA leave is taken after completion of any previous 12-month period."
  • Rolling, measured backward. Each time you use FMLA leave, the 12 months before that date are counted.

Same leave, four clocks

  • Leave taken
  • 12-month period
  • Leave comes back

  1. Calendar year

    12 months: Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2026. Comes back: Jan 1, 2027, all 6 weeks.

  2. Fixed leave year (July 1 start)

    12 months: Jul 1, 2025 – Jun 30, 2026, then Jul 1, 2026 – Jun 30, 2027. Comes back: the March leave on Jul 1, 2026; the September leave on Jul 1, 2027.

  3. Forward from your first leave

    12 months: Mar 9, 2026 – Mar 8, 2027. Comes back: Mar 9, 2027, all 6 weeks.

  4. Rolling, looking back

    12 months counted on Sep 25, 2026: Sep 26, 2025 – Sep 25, 2026. Comes back day by day: Mar 9 – Apr 3, 2027 and Sep 14 – Sep 25, 2027.

Example: 4 weeks of FMLA leave from March 9, 2026 and 2 weeks from September 14, 2026, for someone who works 40 hours a week.

The rolling method has no reset day at all. Leave returns "in the same manner and amounts in which it was used," so 16 hours used on one date come back 12 months later. It's also why, in the rule's words, employees "may fall in and out of FMLA protection".

An employer's rights-and-responsibilities notice must include "the applicable 12-month period for FMLA entitlement" (29 CFR 825.300(c)(1)(i)). If you can't find yours, ask HR or your leave administrator.

The chosen method has to be applied "consistently and uniformly to all employees." Switching methods takes at least 60 days' notice to all employees, and during the switch employees keep "the full benefit of 12 weeks of leave under whichever method affords the greatest benefit to the employee." The rule adds: "Under no circumstances may a new method be implemented in order to avoid the Act's leave requirements." If an employer hasn't selected a method, "the option that provides the most beneficial outcome for the employee will be used."

The paperwork side of your leave

Certicare is a telehealth service where leave and accommodation paperwork is completed and signed by a state-licensed provider after an evaluation. $49 covers one leave case: the clinical review, the forms that case needs, and any follow-up your employer or leave administrator asks for afterward. Turnaround is usually within 24 hours after we have everything needed.

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$49 flat, refunded if we can't complete your request

Completing our intake form starts the review; it does not guarantee a signature, and if the review does not support your request you are refunded in full.

How the $49 medical leave forms service works

How many hours of FMLA do you get per year?

Twelve times your normal workweek. That's 12 workweeks — 480 hours if your normal week is 40 hours, or 360 if it's 30. 480 is the 40-hour figure, not a cap that applies to everyone.

If your hours vary and your normal week can't be determined, the rules use "a weekly average of the hours scheduled over the 12 months prior to the beginning of the leave period". After a permanent or long-term change to your schedule, made for reasons other than FMLA and before you gave notice of your need for leave, the new schedule is the one used.

Hours left only matter if FMLA applies to you in the first place. Eligibility takes a covered employer, a worksite with 50 or more of its employees within 75 miles, 12 months of employment, and 1,250 hours worked in the 12 months before leave. Even then, the reason for the leave is a separate test; see what counts as a serious health condition.

How do partial days and holidays count?

Only the time you actually miss counts: "only the amount of leave actually taken may be counted." The Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #28I puts the math in one line: "The amount of FMLA leave taken is divided by the number of hours the employee would have worked."

  • 8 hours off in a 40-hour week: 1/5 of a workweek.
  • 4-hour days on a reduced schedule, in a normal 40-hour week: 1/2 of a workweek each week.
  • 10 hours off in a 30-hour week: 1/3 of a workweek.
  • 8 hours off in a 48-hour week where the overtime is required: 1/6 of a workweek.

Required overtime you miss can count. Voluntary overtime can't: "Voluntary overtime hours that an employee does not work due to an FMLA-qualifying reason may not be counted against the employee's FMLA leave entitlement." For intermittent leave, your employer counts time in increments no larger than the smallest it uses for other leave, "provided that it is not greater than one hour".

You also can't be charged FMLA leave for time you spend working. For the details on counting intermittent time, see intermittent FMLA explained.

A holiday in a week you take entirely as FMLA leave changes nothing: "the week is counted as a week of FMLA leave". In a week with less than a full week of leave, "the holiday will not count against the employee's FMLA entitlement" unless the employee "was otherwise scheduled and expected to work during the holiday". Days when the employer has temporarily shut down and employees aren't expected to report for one or more weeks don't count either.

Is FMLA leave paid?

"Generally, FMLA leave is unpaid leave." You can choose to substitute accrued paid leave, and if you don't, "the employer may require the employee to substitute accrued paid leave." For how short-term disability pay fits alongside FMLA, see short-term disability vs. FMLA.

When your leave needs medical forms, they can be completed and signed by a state-licensed provider.

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$49 flat, refunded if we can't complete your request