• Covered employees are entitled to take up to 12 workweeks of FMLA leave.

Before any employee begins leave, employers benefit from knowing how long the employee is entitled to be on leave, what the leave year is, and how to handle paid leave in regard to Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave.

Covered employers must allow eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of FMLA leave in a 12-month leave year period for certain reasons. In some situations, eligible employees are not automatically entitled to intermittent or reduced schedule leave. Eligible employees are entitled to up to 26 weeks of FMLA leave in a single 12-month period for military caregiver reasons.

The 12 weeks are not necessarily 480 hours. A week of FMLA leave for an employee depends on what the employee's usual workweek is.

The FMLA is an employee entitlement law; a company may not deny FMLA leave simply because an employee’s absence would pose a challenge. The law does not include an undue hardship defense. How the work gets done despite an employee’s absence is generally up to employers to determine.