What does NYS Paid Family Leave, FMLA pay for maternity leave?
Megan Holz, 34, a senior project architect for H2M architects + engineers in Melville, with her husband George, 34, an energy consultant, at their East Meadow home. Both parents plan to take paid family leave. Credit: Newsday/Howard Schnapp
A variety of programs are available to parents taking maternity or paternity leaves, typically a combination of disability insurance, federal Family Medical Leave, New York State Paid Family Leave, earned paid time off and any additional pay or time off under a specific company’s policies.
As soon as they are ready to disclose their pregnancy to the employer, expectant parents should talk to their human resources department, so they understand what they are entitled to and can plan ahead, advises Jami Schultz, senior director of human resources for Canon U.S.A., based in Melville.
Liz Uzzo, chief human resources officer for H2M architects + engineers, based in Melville, says she has seen more men taking family leave since the New York Paid Family Leave Act launched in 2018. "I think in the beginning people were probably embarrassed and felt intimidated for a guy to do this," Uzzo says. "Now the guys are wanting the same flexibility."
Uzzo says often parents are trying to keep the baby out of day care for the first year and are coordinating their leaves to stretch the time with a parent at home as long as possible.
Here is information about each program:
New York State Short Term Disability
- Paid at $170 per week to the mother after birth; generally, six weeks if vaginal birth, eight weeks if Caesarean section.
Federal Family Medical Leave Act
- Unpaid leave of up to 12 weeks to care for a family member, in this case the baby. Employees are entitled to return to work in the same job position as when they left. Benefits are continued while they are on leave, but employees must continue to pay their regular contribution portion.
New York Paid Family Leave
Credit: Newsday Illustration / Jessica Asbury; NYS Workers' Compensation Board
- New York State program that provides eligible employees who work in the state up to 12 weeks off at 67% of their pay to a maximum cap of $1,177.32 per week or $14,127.84 total for 2025 to care for any eligible family member, including a newborn. New York is one of the few U.S. states to offer paid family leave; employees contribute to the program through their paychecks.
- "One of the really nice things about New York Paid Family Leave is that it can be a continuous 12 weeks, or it can be spread out in the year after the baby is born. A lot of employees spread it out incrementally, taking three days a week," Schultz says.
- Often FMLA and New York Paid Family Leave must be taken concurrently, in other words, the employee can’t take 12 weeks of FMLA and 12 weeks of Paid Family Leave for a total of 24 weeks. "It’s not intended to extend the leave, that’s the bottom line," Uzzo says.
Paid Time Off
- This is an employee’s own earned paid vacation and personal days.
- Other employer perks: Some companies will supplement the New York Paid Family Leave amount so that an employee has full pay for the 12 weeks of maternity or paternity leave. H2M supplements the disability $170 payments to the mother, for instance, to give the employee full pay for some or all of the weeks, depending on how long they’re worked for the company, Uzzo says.
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
