Your rights

If you’re employed in Washington and meet all the requirements, you have the right to take paid time off using Paid Family and Medical Leave.

You don’t have to share any medical information with your employer if you don’t want to. Your healthcare provider will decide how much time you need to take off to care for yourself or a family member. That information will only be shared with the State of Washington’s Employment Security Department.

When you apply for Paid Leave, your employer will receive a letter with some information from the state: the date you applied, the expected start and end dates of your Paid Leave, and the date you indicated you provided them notice. Your employer will also receive a letter once your application is approved or denied. This letter does not include personal medical information.

Your employer is not required to keep your job for you if any of the following is true:

• You work for a company that employs fewer than 50 people
• You’ve worked for that company for less than a year
• You’ve worked less than 1,250 hours (about 24 hours a week) for that company in the year before you took leave

You may designate an authorized representative to act on your behalf. The Designation of an Authorized Representative form is available by request from the Customer Care Team.