All You Need to Know About Florida Leave Laws: An In-Depth Guide for Workers and Employers

Florida Leave Laws Overview

The Florida Leave Laws provide more detail and guidance to Florida employers and employees regarding employee leave. However, Florida Leave Laws do not provide any new rights regarding leave that are not already provided under federal law. For example, the Florida Sick Leave Law (FLSA) does not provide employees with rights to leave that go beyond the FMLA. However, the FLSA provides additional guidance to Florida employees, and to Florida employers, regarding the rights and obligations of these parties with respect to employee leave.
FMLA. The Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) establishes a right to leave for certain employees of employers that have at least 50 employees within a 75-mile radius of that employer’s worksite (and that have employed the employee for at least 12 months). Under the FMLA, eligible employees are entitled to up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period for:
Florida law in turn incorporates the FMLA, except for those provisions that conflict with Florida law or are not permitted under Florida law. The Florida FMLA also incorporates the military leave provisions of the federal FMLA, but that specific section of the federal FMLA is not represented in the Florida law .
Maternity Leave. In addition to the Florida law concerning FMLA leave, the Florida Maternity Leave Law establishes a right to up to three months of unpaid maternity leave for employees of employers with at least 15 employees within a 75-mile radius of that employer’s worksite. Those leave rights may be exercised before or after childbirth with regard to the employee’s own childbirth, or the employee may exercise the leave rights of his or her spouse with regard to pregnancy, childbirth, or caring for a newborn child.
Jury Service Absences. Florida law establishes that no employer shall "deprive any person of employment, or threaten to do so, or otherwise coerce such person not to attend court when required by the proper authorities on any day for which the person’s attendance at court has been required by any summons of a court." Employers who violate this right could be punished with fines or imprisoned.
Voting Absences. The Florida Voting Rights Act guarantees an employee’s right to take time off to vote on any day that there is an election, including primaries and general elections. Florida law allows the employer to set the time by when the employee must report to work after voting takes place.

FMLA in Florida

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that applies to employees in the state of Florida. Administered by the United States Department of Labor, the FMLA specifically "entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if that employee had not taken leave."
To be eligible for FMLA leave, an employee must meet the following criteria:
Under the Family and Medical Leave Act, an eligible employee can take unpaid, job-protected leave for any of the following reasons:
Job protection and health care coverage are two of the major components of the FMLA.
With regard to job protection, an employer must hold the employee’s job for the period of leave or provide the employee with an equivalent job (meaning the same pay and benefits) when the employee returns from leave. For health care coverage, an employer must continue the employee’s group health insurance coverage during the leave just as if the employee continued working.

Florida Maternity and Family Leave

Maternity and parental leave in Florida requires some level of understanding for both employees and employers. First things first: whether you work for one employer or have multiple employers, fourteen weeks of unpaid leave for maternity or paternity is available to you under the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Requirements for maternity and parental leave under the FMLA are set forth in the previous section "Key Concepts and Terminology in Florida Leave Laws." You must be employed for at least one year and worked 1,250 hours during that time to be eligible for FMLA. As a state, Florida provides greater protections to employees seeking maternity and parental leave. Specifically, Florida Statute § 110.221 permits up to six months of unpaid maternity and/or paternity leave for employees who have worked for the state for at least three consecutive months. Part-time employees and OPS employees are also covered by Florida law when they work more than half-time for three consecutive months, but this is subject to salary caps. Maternity and parental leave under FMLA would run concurrently with any state-mandated maternity leave.
Florida is one of the few states that have gender-neutral parental leave for parents. Male and female employees will be afforded the same level of parental leave under state law. By contrast, many other states have only provided maternity leave to female employees. Florida’s state-wide parental leave policy is particularly progressive because it allows both biological and adoptive parents to take parental leave.

Florida Military Leave Laws

Florida does not have a state law requiring employers to provide their employees with sick leave. Employers are generally not required to provide paid or unpaid sick leave under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for time spent away from work due to illness. However, Florida law does require employers to allow employees at least three days of unpaid leave for illness pursuant to FL Stat. § 112.19 and three additional days of unpaid leave for an employee’s serious health condition pursuant to FMLA, but only if the employer is already covered by the FMLA, which requires the employer to employ 50 or more employees within 75 miles.
Moreover, local government ordinances in Florida may impact sick leave policies. The City of Miami Beach ordinance requires employers located in the city and employers doing business in Miami Beach to provide one hour of compensated sick leave for every 37 hours worked, up to a total of 40 hours of sick leave per year for covered employees who work at least 8 hours per week in Miami Beach, unless the employer is already providing comparable sick leave benefits. The City of Orlando ordinance extends similar sick leave requirements to private employers with 15 or more employees in Orlando, though the Orlando ordinance provides for an exemption for employers that provide comparable sick leave benefits. The Miami-Dade County ordinance contains similar requirements to the Miami Beach ordinance, but it applies to employers with 11 or more employees in Miami-Dade County—unless the employer already has a policy in place that provides sick leave benefits to employees (as contemplated by the ordinance). The cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg and Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Collier counties do not currently have sick leave ordinances that apply to private employers.

Florida Sick Leave Laws

Florida law does not mandate that employers provide their employees with vacation benefits, nor does it require that vacation time be paid to departing employees. These benefits are generally a matter of agreement between an employer and an employee, or employer policy. In addition, some employers are required by contract or under federal law, such as the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, to provide paid medical leave and/or family leave. Many employers do provide these, or similar benefits as a matter of good business, and in order to remain competitive in the marketplace for talent.
If an employer does elect to provide this benefit, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity requires that an employer provide a written policy detailing the specific terms of the plan . The plan must have written criteria for qualifying and non-qualifying events, the amount of leave granted, how leave is accrued, how sick leave affects other leave, and whether unused leave can be cashed in or whether it forfeits to the company. Most employers will indicate in these policies whether unused leave can be paid out during employment or at termination. In addition, if there is any limit on the amount of accrued time off that employees may carry over from year to year, this must also be demonstrated in the policy.
Whether or not the vacation and personal leave policies provide that the employee is entitled to cash out for unused vacation and sick leave, it is generally the custom that employees leaving an employer receive pay for all accrued vacation time. Even if there is no contractual right to unused vacation time, however, an employer should pay any outstanding wages to a terminated employee for used but unpaid vacation time, since this would constitute unpaid wages within the meaning of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Vacation and Other Personal Leave Policies

An employee who is a member of any branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, including the Florida National Guard, is entitled to leave of absence from work for military training or duty. Depending on the type of service performed, Florida law provides protections to employees and responsibilities to employers, as described below.
National Guard members participation in "annual encampments, trainings, formations, and drills" does not affect their rights or status with regard to their civilian employment. Employers are not required to provide them any paid time off, but must give them time off as necessary to serve and return to work. The employer may not penalize or retaliate against the employee because of his or her absence from work due to such service.
Employees serving in the military are entitled to re-employment with the same seniority as generally accorded the employee provided that they meet certain requirements. First, the employee must leave their employment (e.g., by resignation or termination) to perform active military duty, and request re-employment within a prescribed time after returning from duty. Second, the employee must be absent from work for less than five years. Third, the employee must notify the employer of the intention to return to work within a specified period of time after completing the period of military duty. Fourth, the employee must not have been concealed or misrepresented during the period of absence from work. Finally, the employee must report for re-employment within a specified time period after completing the military duty.
Florida law provides certain exemptions for small employers. Most importantly, for smaller employers, it is an unlawful employment practice for an employer "with fewer than 15 employees and with fewer than 75 percent of employees normally engaged 40 hours per week" to deny or limit an employee’s right to military leave, restore the employee to employment, or otherwise discriminate against the employee.
Federal law is somewhat broader, and in certain instances provides stronger protections for employees who serve in the military.

Duties and Compliance Under Florida Leave Law

An important thing for employers to be aware of in Florida, is that in most cases they are not required to offer more leave than what is mandated by state or federal law (also see the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act). When an employee is unable to return to work from a leave that was approved as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA, they are only entitled to the leave required under state or federal law (in most cases).
For example, under the federal FMLA, employees are eligible for 12 weeks of leave in a 12‐month period for the specific qualifying events listed above and the employer is not required to provide additional leave (unless the employer wants to or is required to provide additional leave under the ADA, state law, or an employer policy or collective bargaining agreement).
It is also important that employers provide supervisors with the tools and resources necessary to accurately identify potential leave issues and manage those issues. If they do not, employers risk creating other legal liability in addition to the FMLA, ADA, or state law issues presented by the leave request. For example, if a supervisor has the habit of denying any leave request that is not provided for by an employer policy, a court could find that supervisor lacks the authority to grant leave as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA and that the supervisor had the intent to deny leave so as to discriminate against an employee with a disability in violation of the ADA.

Florida Leave Law FAQs

Common questions employers and employees have regarding leaving Florida leave laws include:
Q: Does the law require my employer to grant me leave?
A: While covered employees are not necessarily entitled to leave, exceptions to the duty to provide leave may include statutory leave laws (e.g. the FMLA, the Florida Family Leave Act (FMLA) for school or other special events) or company policies that permit employees to take time off from work. These exceptions, however, should be analyzed carefully and presented in writing to the employer.
Q: I took family leave and when I returned I was demoted from my former position. Was that lawful?
A: Depending on your employer, this may or may not be lawful . Covered employers cannot retaliate against employees for exercising their rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). If you believe your employer retaliated against you in violation of federal or state law for exercising your rights to take protected leave, a complaint can be filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Florida Commission on Human Relations, or spent some time filing a lawsuit against your employer.
Q: I filed a complaint following retaliation from my employer for requesting time off for medical leave and am seeking reinstatement and lost wages. Should I take a settlement offer that I received in response to the complaint?
A: You should discuss any settlement offers with your attorney or human resources professional before deciding whether to accept or make a counter-offer.