State Updates
Delaware
With the January 1, 2026 go-live date of Delaware’s Paid Family Medical Leave Insurance Program (DE PFML) approaching rapidly, the state recently enacted House Bill 128 to amend some aspects of the program effective immediately. Here’s what you’ll need to know so you can be prepared for the new year.
- Employees cannot be required to use accrued paid time off prior to receiving DE PFML benefits, however both the employee and employer may agree to the use of employer-provided accrued paid time off to supplement benefit payments provided.
- The DE PFML program will now be the primary payor, so employers must coordinate other income replacement benefits an employee may be eligible for according to their applicable policies (e.g., short-term disability plans).
- Individuals filing for DE PFML will be required to disclose whether they owe child support obligations. If they do, the Department will notify the state or local child support enforcement agency, and deduct and withhold the child support obligations from the individual’s benefit amount.
- Employers with an approved private plan will not be required to submit claim documentation to the Department, unless said claim is the subject of an appeal, complaint, audit, or specific inquiry from the Department. Further, private plan employers with fewer than 25 employees that voluntarily elect to provide coverage will be subject to all of the provisions of the law.
We’ll keep you updated about any further changes to the DE PFML program between now and its live date. In the meantime, you can brush up on the other aspects of the program from our previous newsletters, or within our Compliance Center portal.
Illinois
Governor Pritzker signed SB 220 on August 1, 2025 (effective upon signing) which makes the Prairie State (and the Land of Lincoln) the first state to provide paid leave for employees who serve on a funeral honors detail. The leave is its own entitlement and not part of the Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers Act nor is it part of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). Although The Larkin Company will not administer this leave law, we wanted to provide you with the details:
- Covered employers are those with 51 or more employees. The law doesn’t specify if the 51 employees are those working in Illinois, nationally, or globally.
- To be eligible, an employee must work for a covered employer for at least 12 months and has performed at least 1,250 hours of service during the 12-month period immediately preceding the start of the leave.
- An employee may use up to 8 hours per calendar month to participate in a funeral honors detail and up to a total of 40 hours per calendar year.
- An employee is qualified to take paid leave if they are trained to participate in a funeral honors detail at the funeral of a veteran; and is either:
- A retired or active member of the armed forces of the United States or a member of a reserve component of the armed forces of the United States, including the Illinois National Guard; or
- An authorized provider, or a registered member of a nonprofit or other organization that is an authorized provider, including a member of a veterans service organization.
- Reasonable notice must be given, as is practicable, by the employee to their employer and employers may request confirmation from the relevant veterans service organization, or any official notice provided to the employee as proof of the employee’s participation in the detail.
- Employees are entitled to job restoration and benefit continuation.
- The law does not require employers to provide written notice to employees of their rights nor is a written policy required. There is no workplace poster and employers do not need to track and report paid leave balances to employees as we’ve seen with other paid leave laws in other states.
Governor Pritzker also signed SB 212 which amends the Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act which requires employers to provide reasonable break time to an employee who needs to express breast milk for up to one year after their child’s birth. SB 212 goes further and requires employers to pay employees during the break time. Employers are prohibited from requiring employees to use paid leave during the break or reduce the employee’s compensation in any other manner. The amendment goes into effect on January 1, 2026.
Maine
Under the Pine Tree State’s Earned Paid Leave law, employees are entitled to earn one hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked and accrual begins at the start of employment. Employers are not required to permit use of the leave before the employee has been employed for 120 days during a one year period.
Recently passed LD 55 will allow employees to roll over any unused paid leave hours to the following year (up to 40 hours) under the state’s Earned Paid Leave law. In other words, an employee who accrued 40 hours of paid leave last year but didn’t utilize the hours will have the 40 hours available in the current year on top of the 40 hours that may be accrued in the current year. Therefore, employees may have up to 80 hours of paid leave available in a given year. The law goes into effect on September 24, 2025. As a reminder, The Larkin Company does not administer paid sick leave.
Minnesota
Minnesota Paid Leave has released the required workplace poster in English, and it should be placed in the workplace by December 1, 2025. The poster will soon be available in other languages as well, so please be sure to place the notice in any language spoken by five or more employees. Additionally, the notice should be provided to new hires and annually thereafter.
New Hampshire
New Hampshire has established two new leave of absence laws that will be effective January 1, 2026; one law is for employees to attend medical appointments for childbirth, postpartum care, and infant pediatric medical appointments, and the other law is for military spouses in the event of involuntary deployment of service members.
Leave to attend medical appointments for childbirth, postpartum care, and infant pediatric medical appointments
Employers with 20 or more employees must provide up to 25 hours of unpaid leave from work to attend the employee’s own medical appointments for childbirth, postpartum care, or the employee’s child’s pediatric medical appointments within the first year of the child’s birth or adoption. Where both parents of a child are employees of the same employer, the parents can be required to share the duration entitlement and collectively take a combined total of 25 hours. While the leave is unpaid, employees can choose to substitute any accrued vacation time or other appropriate paid leave for leave under this law.
Employees requesting leave should provide reasonable notice prior to the leave and make a reasonable effort to schedule leave so as not to unduly disrupt the operations of the employer. Employers may ask for documentation to ensure the time is being used for its intended purpose, although there’s no clear indication at this time of what sufficient documentation may entail. You can find the new leave law within HB 2, An Act Relative To State Fees, Funds, Revenues, And Expenditures.
Family Military Leave
Spouses of military service members involuntarily mobilized in support of war, national emergencies, or contingency operations now have employment protections in New Hampshire due to the passing of HB 255. This law will apply to covered employers with 50 or more employees at the same location in New Hampshire.
These employment protections ensure job security for families during military conflicts, as well as protection from layoff during their spouse’s mobilization for up to 1 year and 1 day in support of war, as an employer shall not discharge, refuse to hire, or take any adverse employment action against an employee based on the involuntary mobilization of that employee’s spouse.
Employees should notify their employers within 30 days of their spouse receiving official notice of such mobilization, with employers needing to provide written acknowledgement. Should a leave of absence be provided to the employee, it may be unpaid, and benefits or accrual of benefits can be provided at the employer’s discretion. For the same duration of time reemployment rights under USERRA apply for the employee’s spouse, employers are required to reemploy the employee in the position they held, or in a position of like seniority, status, and pay for which they are qualified. Employees will be required to report to or submit a timely application for employment upon completion of the mobilization.
New York
Friendly reminder that New York’s COVID-19-related Emergency Paid Sick Leave expired as of July 31, 2025. Employees can still be eligible for other existing laws, such as the state’s general Paid Sick Leave law, the Disability Benefits Law (DBL), or Paid Family Leave (PFL).
Puerto Rico
Governor Jenniffer González Colón signed Act No. 87-2025, also known as the Puerto Rico Breastfeeding Code. This Code repeals Law 427-2000, essentially replacing it (as well as several other various statutes and regulations on breastfeeding) and introduces new changes to the content.
The following are some of the most notable updates:
- Employers must provide a dedicated lactation/breastfeeding room that is not a bathroom and guarantees privacy and security for the nursing mother. The room should also have access to water, electrical outlets, ventilation, chair, and a refrigerator.
- Upon returning from a maternity leave and for a minimum of 12-months afterward, both full-time and part-time employees must be provided with reasonable time within each working day to breastfeed their child or express milk. The time allowed should not be less than 1 hour for each working day and should be considered time worked (i.e., there should not be a reduction in salary and medical certification is not required for this entitlement).
- Employers may not discriminate against, retaliate, or take any adverse employment action against a nursing mother who has requested to use the breastfeeding or lactation period.
- The Code is providing an annual tax exemption to private employers who grant its employees a breastfeeding period. The tax exemption is equivalent to 1 month’s salary of the employee covered by the Code, and the exemption does not apply to the employee.
Rhode Island
The Ocean State made headlines late last month with the passing of HB 6161 for being the first in the nation to require workplace accommodations for menopause and related conditions, effective June 24, 2025. These amendments affect the currently existing law, the Rhode Island Fair Employment Practices Act, which already requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation for an employee’s or prospective employee’s condition related to pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition.
“Related conditions” include, but are not limited to, lactation or the need to express breast milk for a nursing child, or the need to manage the effects of vasomotor symptoms, i.e., hot flashes or night sweats – the latter being a new addition to the definition. The definition of “reasonably accommodate” was left unchanged, so it may be possible that we’ll see an update to this as well.
Employers should provide written notice to new employees upon hire, to existing employees by October 22, 2025 (120 days after the law’s effective date), and within 10 days to any employee who notifies the employer of their pregnancy or menopause. A written notice should also be posted in a conspicuous area in the workplace that is accessible to employees – A copy of the notice can be found under the “Workplace Discrimination Posters” section of the required posters provided on the RI Department of Labor and Training website.
