Fourteen states across the US provide employees with paid family or medical leave, but Mississippi isn’t one of them. If, however, you employ people in Mississippi, you still have to comply with federal leave laws.
Keep reading to learn what paid family and medical leave (PFML) entails, which employers have to abide by the federal leave law, and how to give your employees basic leave benefits.
What is paid family and medical leave?
PFML programs give workers essential time off—plus weekly paychecks—in the wake of significant life changes and challenges. Most PFML programs include parental and caregiving leaves, as well as personal medical leaves and military-related leaves.
As of 2026, 14 states (plus the District of Columbia) provide some form of paid leave to workers, funded by both employer and employee contributions. Most states give workers anywhere from 50-90% of their usual wages during leave, depending on what they earn, and 12 weeks off.
Most of the programs also offer some form of job protection, so employees can return to their roles when they’re back. The states that have passed PFML laws include:
Massachusetts
Minnesota
New Jersey
Oregon
Rhode Island
Virginia
Washington
Benefits of paid family leave
Paid leave programs are beneficial for employees, employers, and communities at large.
For employees, paid leave: | For employers, paid leave: | For communities, paid leave: |
Provides financial security Improves physical and mental health outcomes Prevents burnout Increases job happiness Offers much-needed flexibility for family matters | Increases employees’ job satisfaction Improves workplace productivity and engagement levels Raises long-term employee retention rates Facilitates recruitment and hiring | Improves maternal health outcomes Reduces risk of infant health issues Raises overall family well-being Supports elderly people Stimulates local economies |
What types of employee leave are available in Mississippi?
Mississippi doesn’t have a state-mandated paid leave program for private-sector workers. Employees only get paid leave if their employer provides it; otherwise, they have to see if they qualify for unpaid federal leave. Mississippi also doesn’t mandate sick time or disability leave, so it’s up to individual employers to choose which benefits to offer employees.
However, as of January 2026, eligible state employees (including employees at public state universities like MSU) can take six weeks of paid parental leave—paid at 100% of their usual salary—following the birth or adoption of a child.
To qualify, employees need to meet two requirements:
Be designated as the primary caregiver after birth or adoption and
Have been employed in a regular, full-time position by the state of Mississippi for at least 12 consecutive months before taking leave.
How does federal leave work in Mississippi?
Federal leave is one of the only fallbacks Mississippi workers have if they need extended time off work. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires covered employers to give eligible workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave. Covered employers are any employers with 50 or more employees working within a 75-mile radius.
Under FMLA, employees can take leave to:
Care for and bond with a child (including newborn, adopted, and fostered children)
Care for a family member (including spouses, children, and parents) dealing with a serious health condition
Manage a serious personal health condition
Manage affairs when a family member (including spouses, children, and parents) is on or called to active duty
Who qualifies for FMLA leave?
Mississippi employees have to meet all these requirements to be eligible for FMLA leave:
Work for an employer that has at least 50 employees working within 75 miles
Need to take time off for bonding, caregiving, medical, or military leave
Have worked for their employer for at least one year, consecutively or non-consecutively
Have worked at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months before leave begins
4 FMLA compliance tasks employers need to handle
If you’re a covered employer under FMLA, there are clear legal guidelines you need to follow. First, you can’t discriminate against employees for requesting leave, nor can you prevent them from taking leave. Second, you can’t ignore the Department of Labor’s (DOL) notification requirements. If you do, you might face fines or employee lawsuits.
To keep your company compliant, take these steps on an ongoing basis:
1. Inform employees of their leave rights
The DOL requires you to check off two notification requirements:
Post this general notice in your workplace (in all primary languages your employees speak) explaining what FMLA leave involves, who’s eligible to take it, and how to apply.
Send official written notice to all your FMLA-eligible employees—aka people who’ve worked for you for 12 months and have over 1,250 hours of work time—with instructions on how and when to request a leave. They need to provide 30 days of notice whenever possible.
2. Provide the correct FMLA notices
Your employees are responsible for notifying you of their need for leave, ideally 30 days or more before they need to take it. Once they request leave, you have two obligations:
Give them a Rights and Responsibilities Notice within five days of their request telling them whether or not they’re eligible for leave based on their work history and hours accrued. The document also outlines when the leave can take place; reinforces that your employee is entitled to job protection and continued health insurance during leave; explains that your employee can use sick/vacation time during FMLA leave; and tells them whether they need to provide official certification (medical or otherwise) for the leave.
Give them a Designation Notice before they take leave to let them know their requested leave officially qualifies as FMLA leave.
3. Maintain employee leave protections
FMLA leave comes with two vital employee protections: ongoing health insurance and job restoration. You need to continue paying the employer portion of your employees’ premiums, and return them to their jobs when they’re back from leave.
4. Keep all leave-related records
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recommends keeping all payroll and personnel records for at least three to four years, including:
Employment contracts
Employee contact information
Employee job classification
Job start date
Timesheets
Payroll receipts
Documentation of employees requesting leave
Copies of all FMLA notices
Copies of leave certification paperwork
How to provide paid leave to your Mississippi employees
FMLA leave gives employees the bare minimum—and many Mississippi workers don’t even qualify for that bare minimum. Or, if they do, they might not be able to afford taking 12 weeks off without pay. Data gathered by The National Partnership for Women & Families shows that unpaid leave is inaccessible to 67% of Mississippians.
That’s why it’s nothing short of life-changing if you can offer your employees some type of paid leave. Even six weeks of pay—on par with the state’s parental leave offering for government employees—can go a long way toward supporting people financially, physically, and mentally.
If you don’t provide paid leave yet, here’s how you can get started:
1. Figure out the finances
Talk to insurance providers to get a feel for the cost of leave insurance premiums. How much would you have to contribute per employee for basic or comprehensive PFML coverage? Then sit down with your finance executive or CPA to review your current payroll breakdown and assess how you could move money around to cover paid leave insurance.
Once you have a better idea of what’s financially feasible, you’ll have more information on how to structure your leave offering.
Related: Check out these other vital employee benefits.
2. Determine the leave details
It’s smart to be as inclusive as possible with your leave policies. If you can, offer several different types of leave to accommodate employees at different ages and life stages. Think: parental leave, caregiving leave, personal medical/mental health leave, and compassionate leave, which could cover everything from fertility treatments and pregnancy loss to domestic violence recovery.
Then, offer the same types and amount of leave to everyone—regardless of their gender, family dynamic, or seniority. For example, give dads as much parental leave as moms. And maintain broad definitions of what constitutes certain types of leave. Parental leave, for instance, should account for caring for a child after birth, adoption, foster placement, and kinship placement.
Here are all the details you need to determine:
Qualifying leave situations
Leave eligibility requirements
Wage replacement amounts
Employee and employer contribution amounts
Instructions on how to request a leave
Leave protections (like job protection or continued health insurance)
Leave requirements (like medical certification forms or whether you’ll require employees to use their paid time off on leave)
How paid leave interacts with any existing sick time or paid time off policies
Use this template to write an effective, thorough leave policy.
3. Communicate clearly with everyone
Any time you change a workplace policy, it’s important to communicate it clearly and proactively to upper management and employees. Start by hosting a training for managers and senior leaders to get up to speed on the new policy and how they’ll be expected to help enforce or support it.
Then, create a series of company-wide communications about the new policy, including an email announcement, an updated employee handbook, and a PDF guide explaining how employees can request a leave. Most importantly, you need to give your employees plenty of notice about insurance premium contributions, like when you’ll begin paying them and what the deadline is to opt in or out.
More state-specific business support
Want more Mississippi resources? Save these guides for actionable tips and compliance checks:
