How this calculator works
This calculator handles the full picture of US maternity leave: federal
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) for job protection, state Temporary
Disability Insurance (TDI/SDI/DBL) for medical recovery, state Paid Family
Leave (PFL/FLI) for bonding leave, and any voluntary employer benefits you
have on top.
The wizard asks a short series of questions: which state you work in,
your role in welcoming the child, your tenure and hours worked, employer
size, salary, pay frequency, birth type, and multiples. From those answers it produces a
personalized week-by-week timeline showing each phase of your leave, how
much each week pays, dated action items (when to file FMLA, when to file
your state claim, when to add baby to insurance), and a "How we calculated
this" section citing primary sources for every program that contributes to
your timeline.
How the data stays current
State paid family leave parameters typically update annually around January 1,
when new wage caps and contribution rates take effect. An automated weekly
monitor watches each state government's program pages for changes; detected
changes are flagged for human verification before any update propagates to the
calculator. The result: when New Jersey raises its weekly cap or California
adjusts its tiered replacement rates, you see the new numbers within days,
not months. See the methodology page for the full
data freshness pipeline.
What this calculator doesn't model
Federal income tax and FICA withholdings (your wage replacement is taxable;
we show gross figures). Self-employed and 1099 contractors (most state
programs are opt-in and require pre-pregnancy enrollment). Multi-state work
arrangements with edge cases around remote employment across state lines.
Employer top-up plans that supplement state PFL to 100% of pay vary too widely
to model precisely.
Read the full methodology, learn more
about Maternity Tally, or review our
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