TL;DR: To qualify for FMLA, you must meet three requirements: worked for your employer for at least 12 months (not necessarily consecutive), logged at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months before your leave starts, and work at a location where your employer has 50+ employees within 75 miles. Roughly 56% of U.S. workers meet all three, according to Department of Labor survey estimates — meaning close to half don't. Here's exactly how to check each requirement, including what counts toward your hours, how the 75-mile rule works if your employer has multiple locations, and what to do if you're not eligible yet.
FMLA eligibility rules trip up more people than the law itself does. You can have a serious health condition, a new baby, or a sick parent who needs you, and still get a legal "no" from HR because of a technicality in your work history or your employer's headcount. This guide breaks down the three-part eligibility test in full detail: what "12 months employed" actually means, exactly what counts toward your 1,250 hours, how the 50-employees/75-mile test works when your employer runs multiple locations, what happens if you're not yet eligible, and how to check your own status before you ask HR.
The 3-Part FMLA Eligibility Test
FMLA eligibility isn't one rule — it's three separate tests, and you have to pass all three. Fail any one of them and your employer can deny your leave request, even for a textbook-qualifying reason like childbirth or cancer treatment.
1. Employer Coverage: 50+ Employees Within 75 Miles
Your employer must have at least 50 employees within 75 miles of your worksite. This count includes:
Full-time and part-time employees
Employees currently on any kind of leave (including FMLA leave itself)
Employees jointly employed through a staffing agency or temp firm
Employees of related companies, if they qualify as an "integrated employer" (see below)
Two important exceptions: Public agencies (federal, state, and local government employers) and public and private elementary and secondary schools are covered by FMLA regardless of how many people they employ. If you work for a school district or a government office, the 50-employee test doesn't apply to your employer at all — only the tenure and hours tests do.
What counts as "within 75 miles": Distance is measured by surface miles — the shortest route by public road or normal commuting route — not a straight line on a map. A worksite that's 30 miles away as the crow flies but 80 miles by road falls outside the 75-mile radius.
2. Tenure: 12 Months of Employment (Not Necessarily Consecutive)
You need at least 12 months of employment with your current employer. Here's what most people get wrong about this test: those 12 months don't have to run back-to-back.
Gaps in employment count, up to a point. If you left the company and came back, time worked before and after the gap adds up toward your 12 months — as long as the gap itself was shorter than 7 years.
The 7-year break resets the clock — with one big exception. Any break of 7 years or more wipes out prior service, unless the break was caused by fulfilling National Guard or Reserve military service obligations, or is governed by a written agreement (including a collective bargaining agreement) that guarantees reinstatement.
Seasonal and intermittent work counts the same way. A seasonal employee who returns year after year can add up prior seasons toward the 12-month total, provided no single gap between seasons hits 7 years.
Internal moves don't reset anything. Time in a different role, department, or location with the same employer still counts toward your 12 months, including after a promotion or transfer.
Company acquisitions can carry service over. If your employer is acquired and the new company is a legal "successor in interest," your tenure with the original employer typically transfers.
3. Hours: 1,250 Hours in the 12 Months Before Leave
You need at least 1,250 hours worked in the 12 months immediately before your leave starts — not a calendar year, but the trailing 12 months counted backward from your leave date. That works out to roughly 24 hours per week, or about 104 hours per month, sustained over the full year. This is the test people search for under a lot of different names — "FMLA hours," "FMLA hours per year," "hours for FMLA" — but it's always the same number: 1,250.
What counts toward the 1,250 hours:
All time actually worked, including overtime
On-call time when you're required to stay engaged and ready to work (not just reachable)
Time worked in a different role or shift for the same employer
What does NOT count:
Paid time off — vacation, sick leave, holidays, and PTO don't add to your hours total, even though they're paid
Any period you were on FMLA leave itself
Unpaid time off, including furloughs
A rule most employees don't know: the burden can shift to your employer. Under Department of Labor regulations (29 C.F.R. § 825.110), if your employer doesn't keep accurate time records for you — which is common for salaried, exempt employees who don't punch a clock — and later claims you didn't meet the 1,250-hour threshold, the employer bears the burden of proving it. Absent good records, the law presumes you're eligible.
How to check your hours yourself: Pull your pay stubs for the trailing 12 months and add up hours actually worked, excluding any paid leave. If you're within shouting distance of 1,250, count carefully — being even 10 hours short means no FMLA protection, no matter how close you are.
How the 50-Employees/75-Mile Test Works for Multi-Site Employers
This is where a lot of eligibility denials come from, and it's rarely explained well. If your employer has one office, this test is simple. If your employer runs multiple locations, it gets more complicated — and counterintuitive.
The count is local, not company-wide. The law counts employees at your worksite plus employees at any other worksite within 75 surface miles of yours. It does not count your employer's total nationwide or company-wide headcount. A retail chain with 3,000 employees across 40 states can still leave individual stores uncovered if fewer than 50 of the company's employees work within 75 miles of that particular store.
Example: You work at a 12-person branch office. Your company has two other offices — one 40 miles away with 45 employees, and one 500 miles away with 200 employees. You'd count your 12, plus the 45 from the nearby office (both within the 75-mile radius), for a total of 57. You're covered. The 200-employee office 500 miles away doesn't count at all, because it's outside the radius, even though it dwarfs your local office.
Mobile and remote workers get assigned to a "home base." If you don't report to a fixed site — a traveling sales rep, a home-based remote employee, a field technician — your worksite for FMLA purposes is the site from which you receive work assignments or to which you report administratively. For most remote employees, that's the office you're organizationally attached to, not necessarily your home address. This is a genuinely gray area in practice, and if your employer disputes your worksite designation, it's worth getting a second opinion from an employment attorney or your state labor department.
Related companies can be combined through the "integrated employer" test. The Department of Labor looks at four factors to decide whether legally separate companies — franchise entities, subsidiaries, sister companies — should be treated as one employer for the 50-employee count: common management, interrelation of operations, centralized control of labor relations, and degree of common ownership or financial control. If a parent company and its subsidiary share HR, payroll, and management decisions, their employee counts may be combined even though they're separate legal entities.
Staffing agency placements can combine two employers' counts. If you're placed by a staffing agency at a client company, both the agency and the client may be treated as joint employers. That can push you over the 50-employee threshold even if neither company alone would qualify.
Special Situations
Part-Time Employees
Part-time status doesn't disqualify you — hours do the work here, not your job classification. If you average roughly 25+ hours a week across the year, you'll typically clear 1,250 hours; average 20 hours a week and you won't. We cover the part-time math in detail, including a full hours-by-week breakdown, in FMLA for Part-Time Employees: Do You Qualify?.
New Hires
You cannot take FMLA leave during your first year on the job, full stop. Even a serious health condition diagnosed in month two doesn't create an exception — you have to hit the 12-month tenure mark first. If your employer offers short-term disability insurance or a separate medical leave policy, that may be your only option until you cross the threshold.
Remote Workers
As covered above, your worksite for the 75-mile test is typically the office you report to administratively, not your home address by default — though for employees who work entirely from home with no assigned office, the DOL generally treats the home as the worksite. If you're unsure how your employer has classified your worksite, ask HR directly and get the answer in writing before you request leave.
Joint Employers and Staffing Placements
If a staffing agency placed you at a client site, don't assume you're uncovered just because the agency itself is small. Check whether the client company's headcount pushes you over 50 employees within 75 miles — that alone can make you eligible.
What Happens If You're Not Eligible Yet
Not meeting the test today doesn't mean you're out of options.
Short on tenure or hours: There's no way around the calendar — you have to wait until you hit 12 months of employment and 1,250 hours. In the meantime, ask HR about company-provided short-term disability, an unpaid personal leave policy, or a formal leave-of-absence request. None of these carry FMLA's job-protection guarantee, but they can buy you time.
Employer too small, or not enough employees nearby: This is where state law often does more than federal law. A number of states set their employer-size threshold far below FMLA's 50-employee floor — some cover employers with just a handful of workers, or even a single employee. Check your state's family and medical leave laws before assuming you have no protected leave option; you may have real rights under state law even when FMLA doesn't apply to your employer at all.
You have a serious health condition of your own: Even without FMLA, you may be entitled to leave as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which applies to smaller employers (15+ employees) than FMLA does. This route only covers your own condition, though — not caring for a family member.
How to Check Your Own FMLA Eligibility
Find your true start date. Check your offer letter or HR portal, and note whether you've had any gaps in employment with this same employer — and whether any gap exceeded 7 years.
Add up your hours from the trailing 12 months. Use pay stubs, not job titles or salary status, and exclude any paid time off.
Find out your worksite's employee count within 75 miles. Ask HR directly, or check whether your employer is a public agency or school (automatically covered regardless of size).
Run the numbers through all three tests at once. All three have to pass — tenure, hours, and employer size.
Still unsure? Use our FMLA eligibility checker to walk through the test interactively, or the FMLA leave calculator to estimate how much leave and pay you might be looking at once you confirm eligibility. For the full picture of how FMLA works beyond eligibility, see our FMLA overview.
If you pass all three, request your paperwork. Once your employer has notice that you need leave for an FMLA-qualifying reason, they generally have 5 business days to provide you with eligibility notice and, if applicable, the required medical certification forms.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many hours do you need for FMLA?
You need at least 1,250 hours worked in the 12 months immediately before your leave starts. That averages to roughly 24 hours per week sustained across the year. Paid time off doesn't count toward this total — only hours actually worked do.
How many hours per year do you need for FMLA?
FMLA doesn't use a fixed calendar-year quota — it uses a rolling 12-month lookback from your leave start date. Within that trailing 12-month window, you need 1,250 hours actually worked, which averages to about 104 hours per month or 24 hours per week.
What are the hours for FMLA eligibility, exactly?
The threshold is 1,250 hours actually worked in the 12 months before leave begins. Overtime counts. On-call time you're required to stay engaged for counts. Vacation, sick leave, holidays, and any prior FMLA leave do not count, even though some of those hours are paid.
Can part-time employees get FMLA?
Yes. Eligibility is based on hours worked, not full-time or part-time classification. A part-time employee who averages roughly 25+ hours a week and has 12 months of tenure qualifies the same as a full-time employee. See our dedicated guide for part-time FMLA eligibility for a full hours breakdown.
Does FMLA cover small businesses?
No. Employers with fewer than 50 employees within 75 miles are not covered by FMLA, with the exception of public agencies and public/private schools, which are covered regardless of size. Many states have their own family and medical leave laws with far lower employer thresholds, so check your state's rules even if your employer is FMLA-exempt.
Can I take FMLA in my first year of employment?
No. You must have at least 12 months of employment with your current employer, and there's no exception for new hires — even for a serious health condition or a new child. You have to hit the 12-month mark before FMLA protection kicks in.
What if I don't qualify for FMLA?
Check your state's family and medical leave law — many states cover smaller employers or have shorter tenure requirements than FMLA. You may also be entitled to leave as a reasonable accommodation for your own serious health condition under the ADA, or your employer may offer voluntary leave, short-term disability, or a separate leave-of-absence policy.
Do all 1,250 hours have to be with the same employer?
Generally, yes — the hours and tenure tests are both measured against your current employer, with one narrow exception: if your employer was acquired and the new company is a legal "successor in interest," service and hours with the predecessor employer typically carry over.
Does PTO or sick time count toward the 1,250 hours?
No. Only hours actually worked count. Vacation days, sick leave, holidays, and other paid time off do not add to your 1,250-hour total, even though your employer paid you for that time.
How is the 75-mile radius measured?
By surface miles — the distance along public roads or the normal commuting route between worksites — not a straight line on a map. A location that's close geographically but far by road can fall outside the 75-mile radius.
My employer has multiple locations. How do I know if I'm covered?
Ask how many employees work within 75 surface miles of your specific worksite, not the company's total headcount. A large national employer can still leave individual locations uncovered if fewer than 50 of its employees work within that radius, while related companies under common management may need to be combined into a single count.
Do government and school employees have to meet the 50-employee test?
No. Public agencies at the federal, state, and local level, along with public and private elementary and secondary schools, are covered by FMLA regardless of how many people they employ. If you work for a school district or government office, only the tenure and hours tests apply to you.
Key Takeaways
Three requirements, all mandatory: 12 months employed, 1,250 hours worked, and 50+ employees within 75 miles
Public agencies and schools skip the employer-size test — they're covered no matter how small
12 months don't need to be consecutive — gaps under 7 years still count, with a military-service exception for longer breaks
Hours are actual hours worked — PTO, sick leave, and holidays don't count, and exempt employees without time records may get the benefit of the doubt
The 75-mile count is local, not company-wide — a big employer can still leave a specific location uncovered
Not eligible yet? Check state law — many states cover smaller employers and shorter tenure than FMLA does
Count carefully — being a few hours or a few weeks short means no FMLA protection, so verify all three tests before you request leave
