Nearly every employee needs to take a leave of absence at some point, but not every employer is set up to support people on leave. That’s why many states have built their own paid family and medical leave (PFML) programs, which give employees weekly wage replacement benefits when they’re taking time off to, say, care for an ill family member or a new baby.
If you own a business in Nebraska or employ people who work remotely from The Cornhusker State, you need to follow state and federal leave laws. Keep reading for insight into which regulations apply to your operation, and strategies for updating your employee leave policy.
Does Nebraska have paid family and medical leave?
Nebraska doesn’t have a state-run PFML program that requires employers to provide paid leave. Most employees in Nebraska either rely on their employer’s generosity or take leave at the federal level.
Like many other states, though, Nebraska offers eligible state employees (including government workers and staff and faculty at public universities) eight weeks of paid parental leave. Employees can take parental leave to:
Care for and bond with a newborn or adopted child
Care for a birth parent
Tend to their own health during pregnancy, after childbirth, or if there’s a serious complication related to childbearing
Nebraska requires state employees to use all their available sick time on leave. If they don’t have enough hours to stretch across the full eight weeks, the state will cover the remainder of time at the employee’s regular rate of pay.
Nebraska mandates paid sick time
The Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, which went into effect on October 1, 2025, requires employers with at least 11 workers to give them paid sick time.
People can use sick time to attend medical and mental health appointments; take personal sick days or care for sick family members; and care for their kids if their daycare or school closes due to a public health emergency.
All employees accrue one hour of sick time for every 30 hours they work. The minimum amount of sick time you have to provide depends on the size of your workforce.
Employers with 1-10 employees → Don’t have to provide any paid sick time
Employers with 11-19 employees → Have to let employees accrue at least 40 hours annually
Employers with 20+ employees → Have to let employees accrue at least 56 hours annually
For more details on the act, review the Nebraska Department of Labor’s FAQs.
How federal leave works in Nebraska
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that applies to employers across the country with 50 or more employees. Covered employers are required to give eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for four medical and family-related reasons:
Qualifying reasons for FMLA leave | Applies to |
Bonding with a new child | Newborns, adopted, and fostered children |
Caring for a family member with a serious health condition | Spouses, children, and parents |
Managing a serious personal health condition | The employee in question |
Managing affairs for a family member on or called to active duty | Spouses, children, and parents |
Leave eligibility
To qualify for leave, employees in Nebraska have to meet all the following criteria:
Need time off for bonding, caregiving, medical, or military leave
Work for a covered employer for at least 12 months, consecutively or non-consecutively
Work at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months before leave begins
Work at a location where the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles
How to abide by federal leave laws
If you’re subject to FMLA, there are four steps you should take to maintain compliance:
1. Notify employees about their rights
If you don’t follow the Department of Labor’s (DOL) posting and notification requirements, you could receive a civil money penalty. Here are your three jobs:
Post a general notice in your workplace explaining what FMLA leave is, who’s eligible, and how to file a complaint with the Wage and Hour Division. Make sure the poster is in English, as well as any other languages your employees speak.
Give written notice to employees who become eligible for FMLA leave (when they’ve hit 12 months of work service and 1,250 hours) explaining how and when to request a leave. You can print a separate form for employees or include a general FMLA write-up in your employee handbook.
Give written notice to new hires explaining how FMLA works and what they need to do to become eligible. You can use one of the DOL’s sample notice templates.
2. Review employee leave requests
You have five business days after your employee requests leave to give them a Rights and Responsibilities Notice. This form details:
The 12-month period in which your employee’s leave can take place, along with their expected leave start and return dates
Your employee’s right to job protection
Your employee’s right to substitute paid time off for FMLA leave, and whether or not you’ll require that
Your employee’s right to receive continued health insurance, and whether or not they need to continue paying health insurance premiums while on leave
Whether or not your employee needs to provide certification for the leave
Then, just before leave begins, give your employees a Designation Notice to let them know their requested leave officially qualifies as FMLA leave.
3. Keep paying health insurance and hold your employee’s job
Employees who take FMLA leave are entitled to continued health insurance and job protection, so make sure you keep paying the employer portion of insurance premiums and reinstate your employees when they return from leave.
4. Keep a thorough record of leave-related documents
You’ll want to save all your payroll and personnel records, not only so you can accurately confirm an employee’s FMLA leave eligibility, but also so you have evidence of your business’s compliance.
Keep your payroll receipts, paystubs, official employee requests for leave, documentation of leave start and end dates, and copies of FMLA notices.
Nebraska needs more paid leave opportunities
Without a state program in place, Nebraskans don’t have a lot of options for taking a leave of absence. According to data gathered by the National Partnership for Women & Families, about 79% of Nebraskans don’t have access to paid leave through their employers. And 63% can’t access FMLA leave either, either because they don’t qualify, don’t work for a covered employer, or can’t afford to forgo multiple paychecks.
Without paid leave, workers are forced to either continue working and compromise their personal health or family well-being (sometimes both), or quit and lose valuable work and wages. Women, who make up 47% of the state’s workforce and 26% of its business owners, are disproportionately affected by the lack of paid leave in Nebraska.
When women are forced to leave the workforce to care for themselves or their families, local and state economies suffer. In Nebraska, women’s wages are essential; 83% of Black mothers, 44% of Latina mothers, 52% of white mothers, and 46% of AAPI mothers in the state are key family breadwinners.
On the flip side, paid leave supports everyone. Here are the broad benefits:
Employees’ mental and physical health outcomes improve
Families have more time to bond together during transitional periods
Women—key family providers and caretakers—can remain in the workforce more easily
Businesses benefit from healthier, more financially secure employees
Local and state economies stay active
Options for providing paid leave
Until Nebraska implements its own PFML program, it’s up to employers to fill in the paid leave gaps. Even if it seems financially impossible or too logistically complicated to offer paid leave, putting in the effort now can pay dividends later—in both employee retention and business success.
Here are some ways to introduce or beef up your paid leave offerings:
Take a cue from states like Delaware and Maryland, and offer 12 weeks of paid parental, caregiving, and medical leave at 50-90% of an employee’s usual wages
Copy Nebraska’s policy for state employees, and offer eight weeks of paid parental leave
Meet the minimum with six weeks of paid leave
Offer six weeks of paid leave at 100% pay, then six weeks of paid leave at 50% pay
Give employees additional or unlimited PTO, and allow them to use it for leave purposes
Follow the federal leave law even if you’re not a covered employer, and give your employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid time
Set your sick time caps higher, at 120 or 200 hours per year, and frontload the accrual so employees can take time off when they need it and not just once they’ve earned it
The easiest way to provide paid leave is to purchase leave insurance through a private insurer. Talk with your benefits broker about what’s possible.
Nebraska employer resources
