Florida does not have a traditional paid or unpaid state family and medical leave law (e.g. covering such as medical leaves/pregnancy disability, family care leave, parental leaves, military exigency, and military caregiver leaves).

However, the state enacted House Bill 0721 (effective May 2023), which authorizes life insurers to sell paid family leave (PFL) insurance. This, in turn, allows employers to include PFL reasons (i.e. bonding, family care leave, military exigency) within their policies within Florida (Tennessee and Arkansas also have a similar law – see here). We understand that this legislation is intended to give employers the option and to encourage employers to provide PFL benefits to employees, without the need for the state legislature to enact a formal state provided PFL program. This law does not require an employer to provide paid family and medical leave to employees, or to purchase a policy. If you do move forward to include PFL in your policy, please update your Larkin Account Manager so we can inform your employees on PFL and relevant benefits.

The Larkin Company generally recommends if you do wish to provide PFL benefits to employees, that you do so by developing a salary continuation/top-up program instead of providing PFL via your STD program. There are typically less stringent paperwork requirements for employees under salary continuation/top-up programs, compared with STD PFL plans. Further, if you have an insured STD plan, including PFL in your insured STD plan may result in increased insurance premiums due to increased employee claims.

Note: If you have a self-insured plan, there is nothing to prevent employers from adding PFL reasons into your STD plan. However, The Larkin Company, again, recommends providing salary continuation/top-up program for PFL reasons, so employees do not have additional paperwork on top of paperwork they may have to already provide under FMLA/company leave policy. If you have questions, please reach out to your Larkin Account Manager.

Some leave laws require that you notify your employees about their rights under the law, such as, by providing a prescribed notice to new hires, displaying a poster in the workplace, and/or including information about that leave law in your company handbook. Below you will find a summary of the requirements for each law.

State Law and Regulation(s)

Florida House Bill 0721 (PFL)
Miami-Dade Family Leave Ordinance (DAD-FLO)