Paid Leave Calc
Figures verified 2026 program values · 2027 where publishedIndependent · not a government site

Massachusetts · Paid Family and Medical Leave

Massachusetts PFML Calculator

Massachusetts pays 80% of your wage up to half the state average weekly wage and 50% above it, up to $1,230.39 a week for benefit years starting in 2026 — 12 weeks of family leave, 20 of medical leave, 26 combined.

Massachusetts PFML estimate

Reason for leave
All jobs covered by the program, before tax and deductions.
Pay changed recently? Enter it quarter by quarter

Programs look at the wages paid in specific calendar quarters. Leave a box empty to use your pay above for that quarter.

Family leave: up to 12 weeks; 7-day wait unless it directly follows pregnancy medical leave.
Sets which year's maximum and rules apply.

Estimated weekly benefit · Bonding with a new child

$1,057.60/week

Total for 12 weeks: $11,633.60Replaces 69% of your weekly wage

  • Verified figures · 2026
Your average weekly wage (two highest of the last four completed quarters ÷ 26)$1,538.46
80% of wages $0–$961.24$768.99
50% of wages $961–$1,538.46$288.61
Weekly benefit$1,057.60
Week 1 — unpaid waiting week$0
Weeks paid × weekly benefit11 × $1,057.60
Total benefit for this leave$11,633.60
PFML (most an employer may withhold) 0.46% up to $184,500$368/yr
Your payroll deduction$368/yr · $7.08/wk

What this leaves out: the base-period earnings test (30 × your weekly rate plus an indexed minimum), partial weeks, offsets for employer payments, and private plans.

Rule window: Jan 1, 2026 – Dec 31, 2026. Source: Massachusetts Legislature · checked · all sources

Your leave, week by week

  • Benefit
  • Usual pay
  • Unpaid waiting week
  • Waiting week paid back
  • Weekly maximum

How Massachusetts PFML works out your benefit

The Department of Family and Medical Leave looks at the last four completed calendar quarters, takes the two in which you earned the most, and divides by 26. If you worked in only one or two quarters, it uses the single highest quarter instead.

You receive 80% of that average up to half the state average weekly wage — $961.24, half of $1,922.48, for 2026 — and 50% of the rest, capped at 64% of the state average: $1,230.39. The year in which your benefit year starts fixes the figures for that whole benefit year.

No benefit is paid for the first 7 calendar days of a leave, with one exception: family leave that follows straight on from a pregnancy-related medical leave does not wait again.

Massachusetts figures by date

Figures for leaves (claims) whose first day falls in each window. Sources are numbered below.
WindowWeekly maximumOther figuresYour contribution
Jan 1, 2026 – Dec 31, 2026 $1,230.39 State average weekly wage: $1,922.48
 PFML (most an employer may withhold): 0.46% up to $184,500

After the last window, the calculator switches to an explicit “enter the official figure” mode rather than reusing an old maximum.

Worked example

Take a worker paid $80,000 a year with steady pay, taking 12 weeks off (bonding with a new child) from Oct 5, 2026, when the figures for Jan 1, 2026 – Dec 31, 2026 apply. Massachusetts PFML uses the two highest of the last four completed quarters ÷ 26: $1,538.46.

The formula gives 80% × $961.24 = $768.99 + 50% × $577.22 = $288.61: a weekly benefit of $1,057.60, or 69% of their usual weekly pay. The first week is an unpaid waiting week, so 11 paid weeks come to $11,633.60.

Over a year, their own payroll contribution is $368 — about $7.08 a week.

At $200,000 a year, the same leave pays $1,230.39 a week — the maximum, 32% of that worker’s weekly pay, for a yearly contribution of $848.70.

What catches people out in Massachusetts

  • Medical and family weeks share a ceiling. Up to 20 weeks of medical leave and 12 of family leave, but no more than 26 in total in a benefit year (26 weeks of family leave are available to care for a covered servicemember).
  • Your share of the cost: in 2026 the total rate is 0.88% of wages up to the Social Security cap, and employers may withhold up to 0.46%. A 2026 law swaps the family and medical splits from 2027.
  • 2027 figures were not confirmed. The law requires them by October 1, 2026, but we could not verify them from the state’s site on October 5, so a leave starting in 2027 asks for the official maximum.
  • There is an earnings test: base-period wages of at least 30 times your weekly benefit, plus an indexed minimum the state sets each year.

Official Massachusetts resources

Related programs

New England neighbors — two of them voluntary.

Sources for this page

  1. Massachusetts Legislature: M.G.L. c.175M §3 (benefit amounts). Supplies: 80% up to half the state AWW plus 50% above; maximum 64% of state AWW; 7-day waiting period. Checked .
  2. Massachusetts Legislature: M.G.L. c.175M §2 (leave entitlement). Supplies: 12 weeks family, 20 weeks medical, 26 combined; no family waiting week after pregnancy medical leave. Checked .
  3. Massachusetts DFML: How PFML weekly benefit amounts are calculated and/or changed. Supplies: 2026 state AWW $1,922.48; maximum $1,230.39; AWW from two highest of last four quarters. Checked . mass.gov blocks automated requests; read via the Internet Archive copy dated Oct. 2, 2026.
  4. Massachusetts DFML: Employer contribution rates and calculator. Supplies: 2026 total 0.88%; employee may pay up to 0.46%; contributions capped at the Social Security maximum. Checked . Read via the Internet Archive copy dated Sept. 16, 2026.
  5. Massachusetts Legislature: Chapter 101 of the Acts of 2026. Supplies: Swaps the family/medical employee shares from 2027. Checked .
  6. Massachusetts Legislature: M.G.L. c.151A §1 (definitions). Supplies: Average weekly wage = one twenty-sixth of the two highest quarters. Checked .

Figures on this page verified . Spotted a difference from your agency’s notice? Report a correction.