Step 1: which wages count
No program uses the salary in your offer letter. Each one reads the wages your employers reported, either for calendar quarters or for recent weeks, and turns them into an “average weekly wage”. There are four families of rule:
- One best quarter ÷ 13 — California, Colorado, Minnesota, Maryland and, in effect, Rhode Island (which multiplies the quarter by a percentage instead). A strong quarter can lift your benefit even if the rest of the year was thin.
- Two best quarters ÷ 26 — Washington, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Smooths out one exceptional quarter.
- A whole year ÷ 52 — Oregon, Maine, Delaware, DC (four best of five quarters) and New Jersey (divided by the weeks you actually earned in). Every gap in work pulls the figure down.
- Recent weeks — New York averages your last eight weeks; Hawaii uses last week’s salary or an eight-week average.
Quarter-based programs look backward. Most use the base period: the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters, which ends three to six months before your leave. A raise you received recently may not count yet; some programs offer an “alternate” base period of the last four quarters if you would not qualify otherwise.
Step 2: how much is replaced
Three structures are in use. Flat rates replace one share of everything: New Jersey 85%, Delaware 80%, New York PFL 67%, Hawaii 58%, Vermont and New Hampshire 60%. Two-band formulas replace a high share of pay up to a line tied to the state’s average wage (or, in Connecticut and DC, to the minimum wage) and a lower share above it — Washington, Colorado and Massachusetts use 90%/80% and 50%; Oregon replaces 100% below its line. Three bands appear in Minnesota (90%, 66%, 55%). California picks a single rate, 90% or 70%, depending on which side of its line your best quarter falls.
The banded designs are deliberately progressive: a lower earner gets a bigger share of pay replaced than a higher earner, even before any cap applies.
Step 3: floors, caps and weeks
Every program caps the weekly benefit, most often at a share of the state average weekly wage, so the cap rises each year. A few fix it in law — Delaware’s $900 for 2026–2027, DC’s $1,100, Maryland’s $1,000 for 2028, New York disability’s $170. Some set a floor ($50 in California, $100 in Washington, New York PFL and Delaware). Finally the number of paid weeks is limited, and some programs keep the first week back as an unpaid waiting week.
The same $60,000 salary in every state
To see how much these choices matter, here is one worker — $60,000 a year, steady pay, taking the longest new-child leave each program allows (own-health leave in Hawaii, which has no family leave) — starting on the date our figures were verified. Every number comes from the calculator’s engine.
| Program | Weekly benefit | Share of pay | Paid weeks | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California SDI | $1,039 | 90% | 8 | $8,312 |
| Paid Leave Oregon | $1,035.22 | 90% | 12 | $12,422.64 |
| DC Paid Family Leave | $1,018.52 | 88% | 12 | $12,222.24 |
| New Jersey TDI & FLI | $980 | 85% | 12 | $11,760 |
| Washington Paid Leave | $942 | 82% | 12 | $11,304 |
| Minnesota Paid Leave | $932.30 | 81% | 12 | $11,187.60 |
| CT Paid Leave | $928.96 | 81% | 12 | $11,147.52 |
| Maine PFML | $913 | 79% | 12 | $10,956 |
| Delaware Paid Leave | $900 | 78% | 12 | $10,800 |
| Colorado FAMLI | $898.71 | 78% | 12 | $10,784.52 |
| Massachusetts PFML | $865.30 | 75% | 11 | $9,518.30 |
| New York PFL & DBL | $773.08 | 67% | 12 | $9,276.96 |
| Rhode Island TDI & TCI | $693 | 60% | 8 | $5,544 |
| Vermont FMLI | $692.31 | 60% | 5 | $3,461.55 |
| New Hampshire PFML | $692.31 | 60% | 5 | $3,461.55 |
| Hawaii TDI | $670 | 58% | 25 | $16,750 |
The spread is large: the most generous program pays this worker $1,039 a week and the least generous $670. Totals differ even more, because leave length runs from 6 to 12 weeks for a new child.
Where the caps bite
At $150,000 a year ($2,884.62 a week) almost every program hits its maximum. The cap, not the percentage, decides the benefit:
- California SDI: $1,765 a week (61% of pay) — capped
- Vermont FMLI: $1,730.77 a week (60% of pay)
- New Hampshire PFML: $1,730.77 a week (60% of pay)
- Paid Leave Oregon: $1,692.16 a week (59% of pay) — capped
- Washington Paid Leave: $1,647 a week (57% of pay) — capped
- Colorado FAMLI: $1,448.02 a week (50% of pay) — capped
- Minnesota Paid Leave: $1,423 a week (49% of pay) — capped
- Maine PFML: $1,250 a week (43% of pay) — capped
- Massachusetts PFML: $1,230.39 a week (43% of pay) — capped
- New York PFL & DBL: $1,228.53 a week (43% of pay) — capped
- Rhode Island TDI & TCI: $1,150 a week (40% of pay) — capped
- New Jersey TDI & FLI: $1,119 a week (39% of pay) — capped
- DC Paid Family Leave: $1,100 a week (38% of pay) — capped
- CT Paid Leave: $1,016.40 a week (35% of pay) — capped
- Delaware Paid Leave: $900 a week (31% of pay) — capped
- Hawaii TDI: $871 a week (30% of pay) — capped
Each program’s exact formula, rounding rule and base period are listed on the methodology page, and its sources on the sources page. Maryland is left out of these tables because its benefit depends on a 2028 state average wage that has not been published.