Maryland FAMLI calculator: what your business owes in 2027 and the dates you must hit

What Maryland FAMLI costs an employer in 2027

Maryland's Family and Medical Leave Insurance program takes 0.9 percent of covered wages from 1 January 2027, split evenly between employer and employee at 0.45 percent each, on wages up to the Social Security wage base per employee per year. Maryland Department of Labor Employers with fewer than 15 employees, counted across every state under one federal EIN, pay no employer share at all, but still withhold and remit the employee half. COMAR 09.42.02.06D

The program is administered by the Maryland Department of Labor, FAMLI Division. Contributions run for a full year before anyone can claim anything: benefits begin in January 2028, so 2027 is a collection year. This page is about Maryland FAMLI, administered by the Maryland Department of Labor, FAMLI Division. Colorado runs a separate paid leave program with the same name and different rules; nothing here applies to it.

This calculator exists because the rules are spread across five COMAR chapters and two articles of statute, and because one of the answers employers need most, the date the written notice is due, is not published anywhere as a date. The regulation requires notice “at least 1 pay period prior to the commencement” of withholding COMAR 09.42.02.05D, which means the deadline is derived from each employer's own payroll calendar. A weekly payroll and a monthly payroll owe it on different days. The state tells you the rate; this tells you your date.

Every date, from now to the first claim

Full detail on the 2027 deadlines page, including the weekend rules: a payment date at a weekend moves to the next business day, and a notice date moves earlier instead. COMAR 09.42.02.08E

Three worked examples

Each of these was computed by the calculator on this page, not worked out by hand. Enter your own figures above and you get the same treatment plus a printable report.

The two mistakes that cost the most

Leaving the out-of-state headcount field blank

To be classified as a small employer, your quarterly wage report has to state how many of your employees work outside Maryland. COMAR 09.42.02.08C and D Leave it empty and you are deemed not small, and the rate doubles from 0.45 percent to 0.9 percent. No penalty notice, no letter. A blank box. More on the out-of-state headcount page.

Not getting round to the deduction

An employer that fails to make the proper deduction from an employee's pay “is considered to have elected to pay the employee's portion for each pay period the employer fails to make the deduction”. COMAR 09.42.02.07A It is not a fine and it cannot be recovered from a later pay cycle. For the 40-person employer above that is $1,200.00 a month, every month it runs.

Where to go next

• The 2027 contribution rate, 0.9 percent, the split, the wage cap and who sets the rate.
• Employers with fewer than 15 staff, no employer share, and how the 15 is counted.
• Out-of-state employees, two headcounts doing two different jobs.
• The written notice to employees, your date, derived from your payroll frequency.
• Private plans and the Declaration of Intent, five stages, one deadline, and no saving in 2027.
• Every 2027 deadline, the whole calendar with the weekend rules.
• Employer registration, required at one Maryland employee, no exceptions.
• For payroll bureaus and bookkeepers, the same five facts, times fifty clients.