TL;DR: California Paid Family Leave (CA PFL) pays 90% of wages for lower earners (70% for higher earners), up to $1,765 a week, for up to 8 weeks of bonding or caregiving leave. It's administered by the EDD and funded through the CASDI payroll deduction on your paystub. Separately, CFRA leave protects your job at any California employer with 5+ workers — nearly four times broader than federal FMLA's 50-employee cutoff. Pregnant employees can also draw on Pregnancy Disability Leave, worth up to 17 weeks on its own. Here's how all three actually stack.
Most people find out about CFRA leave and CA PFL the way you probably did: mid-crisis, googling from a hospital waiting room or right after HR mentioned "PFL" without explaining what it means. That's the gap this guide closes. You'll get the CFRA job-protection rules, the exact CA PFL wage-replacement math from the EDD, how Pregnancy Disability Leave fits in for expecting parents, and a walkthrough of how the three programs stack into the longest paid leave available in any state.
Quick Stats: California Leave Programs
Program | What it does | Key figure |
|---|---|---|
CFRA (California Family Rights Act) | Job protection | 12 weeks, employers with 5+ employees |
CA Paid Family Leave (CA PFL) | Wage replacement for bonding/caregiving | 90% of wages (70% for higher earners), up to $1,765/week, 8 weeks |
Pregnancy Disability Leave (PDL) | Job protection during pregnancy disability | Up to 17 weeks |
CA State Disability Insurance (CA SDI) | Wage replacement during PDL | Same formula as CA PFL |
Bereavement leave (AB 1949) | Unpaid, job-protected time off | 5 days, employers with 5+ employees |
Administering agency | — | EDD (Employment Development Department) |
CFRA Leave: California's Job-Protection Law
CFRA is California's answer to FMLA, and it's the reason "cfra leave" gets searched way more often than "california FMLA." The two laws share a 12-week leave entitlement, but CFRA reaches far more workers.
The difference comes down to one number: employer size. Federal FMLA only applies once a company has 50+ employees. CFRA kicks in at just 5 employees. That single change means CFRA covers small businesses, local retailers, and startups that FMLA never touches.
CFRA also recognizes more family relationships than FMLA does. Beyond a spouse, child, or parent, CFRA extends to siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, and registered domestic partners — categories federal law leaves out entirely.
What CFRA doesn't change is the tenure test. To qualify, you still need to have worked for your employer for at least 12 months and logged at least 1,250 hours in the past year — the same bar FMLA sets. If you're newer than a year on the job, CFRA can't protect you yet, no matter how small your employer is.
CFRA itself is unpaid. It guarantees your job stays open — not your paycheck. That's where CA PFL comes in.
California Paid Family Leave (CA PFL): The Paycheck
CA PFL is a wage-replacement program administered by the EDD (Employment Development Department) and funded through CASDI — the "CA SDI" line item you've probably noticed shrinking your paycheck. It's not an employer cost; it's an employee-funded insurance program, similar to unemployment insurance but for family leave.
Here's what it actually pays:
90% of wages for lower-income earners (roughly up to $65,120 a year)
70% of wages for higher earners above that threshold
Maximum weekly benefit: $1,765
Duration: up to 8 weeks
That two-tier structure — 90% for lower earners, 70% for higher earners — is relatively new. It replaced a flatter 60-70% rate under SB 951, effective in 2025, specifically to make leave more affordable for lower-wage workers who can't absorb a 30-40% pay cut.
What CA PFL covers
Bonding with a new child, whether by birth, adoption, or foster placement
Caring for a family member with a serious health condition
Military family qualifying exigencies
What it doesn't cover
CA PFL never pays for your own medical condition — that's what CA SDI is for (more on that below). It's strictly for bonding and caregiving.
How to file for CA PFL
Set up an SDI Online account at edd.ca.gov.
File your claim no earlier than the first day of your leave — and no later than 41 days after leave begins. File late and your benefits can be reduced or denied outright.
Back up your claim with documentation: proof of birth or placement for bonding, or a doctor's certification for caregiving claims.
Expect payment by EDD debit card or direct deposit once the claim is approved.
One thing worth knowing: CA PFL only replaces wages. On its own, it does nothing to protect your job. Pair it with CFRA (or FMLA, if your employer qualifies) to get both pieces at once.
Pregnancy Disability Leave: Protection Before CFRA Even Applies
Pregnant workers in California get a separate layer most people never hear about until they need it: Pregnancy Disability Leave (PDL). It provides up to 17 weeks of job-protected leave for pregnancy-related disability — recovery from childbirth, doctor-ordered bed rest, severe morning sickness, or any condition your provider certifies as pregnancy-related.
PDL is separate from CFRA's 12 weeks. It doesn't eat into your CFRA allowance, and unlike CFRA, it has no minimum tenure requirement — you're covered from your first day on the job, as long as your employer has 5 or more employees.
Wage replacement during PDL comes through CA SDI (State Disability Insurance), the same payroll-funded program that finances CA PFL. SDI shares its wage-replacement formula with PFL, so you're looking at the same 90%/70% structure, up to the same $1,765 weekly cap — just applied to your own medical recovery instead of bonding or caregiving.
How CFRA, CA PFL, and PDL Work Together
This is where California's leave stack actually pays off, and where most explanations lose people. Here's the sequence for a typical new parent recovering from childbirth:
Medical recovery first. PDL protects your job (up to 17 weeks available, though most recoveries use far less) while CA SDI pays wages using the PFL formula.
Bonding time next. Once you're medically cleared, CFRA's 12-week job protection kicks in for bonding, and CA PFL pays up to 8 of those weeks at 90%/70% of wages.
The gap. CFRA's 12 weeks of protection run longer than CA PFL's 8 weeks of pay — plan for unpaid weeks in between, or cover them with accrued PTO or sick leave.
Fathers, adoptive parents, and caregivers who aren't recovering from childbirth skip the PDL step and go straight to CFRA plus CA PFL: 12 weeks of protected leave, with 8 of those weeks paid at 90%/70% of wages.