For one employer, Maryland FAMLI is five facts. For a bureau with fifty Maryland clients it is five facts times fifty, three of which change during the year and one of which (the written notice date) is derived from each client's own payroll calendar rather than from the statute.
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.
Run a client through it in under a minute and hand them the printable report. Free, no sign up, and nothing you enter leaves the page.
For one employer, Maryland FAMLI is five facts: a headcount band, a rate, a wage cap, a notice date and a Declaration of Intent decision. Any competent bookkeeper can work that out in ten minutes.
For a bureau with fifty Maryland clients it is five facts times fifty, most of them different, three of them changing during the year, and one of them (the notice date) derived from each client's own payroll calendar rather than from the statute. That is not a ten minute job fifty times. It is a register you have to build and then keep.
| Field | Why it moves |
|---|---|
| Maryland-localized headcount | Sets whose wages are subject to contributions. |
| Total headcount under the EIN, all states | Sets the rate band. Recalculated quarterly through 2027, then a prior-year four-quarter average from 2028. |
| Rate band, small or standard | 0.45 percent under 15, 0.9 percent at 15 and above. Can change mid-year in 2027. |
| Withhold or absorb | Client decision, per pay period, and the default if nobody decides is expensive. |
| First 2027 pay date and pay frequency | Derives the written notice date. Every client with a different pay calendar has a different deadline. |
| Declaration of Intent status | Closes 15 November 2026. After that the answer is fixed for a year. |
| Registration status and Authorized Officer | Blocks everything. The Login.gov identity step is client-side and you cannot do it for them. |
| Wage cap in force | SSA resets it every October and it changes every client's figures at once. |
The rule is written notice at least one full pay period before withholding commences. COMAR 09.42.02.05D There is no single date. A weekly client and a monthly client with the same first January pay date owe the notice a week apart, and a semimonthly client is different again. Our employee notice page works four of them through.
To be classified small, a client's quarterly wage report has to state how many of its employees work outside Maryland. COMAR 09.42.02.08C and D Leave it blank and the client is deemed not small and pays 0.9 percent. For a ten-person Maryland client with two staff elsewhere that is $3,375.00 a year, for an empty box on a form your team filed. Agree now, in writing, who owns that field.
If the deduction does not get made, the employer is considered to have elected to pay the employee's portion, per pay period, unrecoverable. COMAR 09.42.02.07A A setup that goes in late, or a client who says “hold off until I decide”, turns into the client's money and then into a conversation about whose fault it was.
Size is recalculated quarter by quarter during 2027. A client hiring through the year can cross 15 and double its rate from that quarter forward. Nobody sends a warning. If your register holds the EIN-wide headcount you will see it coming; if it holds only the Maryland number you will not.
| Maryland headcount | 12 |
|---|---|
| EIN headcount, all states | 12 |
| Annual Maryland payroll | $780,000 |
| Pay frequency | Every two weeks |
| Band | Small, under 15 |
|---|---|
| Rate | 0.45% |
| Employer share for 2027 | $0.00 |
| Withheld from staff for 2027 | $3,510.00 |
| Total remitted for 2027 | $3,510.00 |
| Q1 payment due 30 April 2027 | $877.50 |
Computed by famliclock.com from the published 2027 rate of 0.9 percent and the 2026 Social Security taxable maximum of $184,500, on 21 September 2026. Wages are assumed to be spread evenly across the headcount, which produces the largest figure the employer could owe. These are estimates, not a filing.
| Maryland headcount | 40 |
|---|---|
| EIN headcount, all states | 40 |
| Annual Maryland payroll | $3,200,000 |
| Pay frequency | Monthly |
| Band | Standard, 15 or more |
|---|---|
| Rate | 0.90% |
| Employer share for 2027 | $14,400.00 |
| Withheld from staff for 2027 | $14,400.00 |
| Total remitted for 2027 | $28,800.00 |
| Q1 payment due 30 April 2027 | $7,200.00 |
Computed by famliclock.com from the published 2027 rate of 0.9 percent and the 2026 Social Security taxable maximum of $184,500, on 21 September 2026. Wages are assumed to be spread evenly across the headcount, which produces the largest figure the employer could owe. These are estimates, not a filing.
Same program, same quarter, two entirely different answers, and the difference is headcount rather than payroll.
We are 02Launch, an AI engineering firm out of Google and Microsoft. We built this calculator, and we build the thing behind it for firms that have this problem at scale.
A Client FAMLI Register, free, within 48 hours of a call: every Maryland client on one sheet, with headcount tier, rate, wage cap, derived notice date, Declaration of Intent status and first remittance date. Built from whatever you already have, a client list and a payroll export is enough. No charge and no obligation, because the fastest way to show you what a build looks like is to hand you one.
If it is useful, the same work extends: the register recomputes itself each quarter, flags the clients who crossed a band, and reprices everything the day SSA publishes the wage cap in October. That is an engagement. The register is not.
Per client: Maryland headcount, EIN-wide headcount, the resulting rate band, the withhold-or-absorb decision, the first 2027 pay date and frequency that derive the notice date, Declaration of Intent status, and registration status.
No. It is due at least one full pay period before withholding begins, so weekly, biweekly, semimonthly and monthly clients with the same first January pay date each owe it on a different day.
Maryland does not assign it between employer and provider, which is why it gets missed. A blank field means the client is deemed not small and pays 0.9 percent. Agree ownership in writing before the first filing.
Rates and dates last verified against these sources on 21 September 2026. Where this page and the Maryland Department of Labor disagree, the Department is right and this page is wrong; tell us at hello@02launch.com and a dedicated engineer fixes it within 6 hours.
Our team at 02Launch.com finds creative ways to use AI to drastically reduce your workload. We built this calculator because the FAMLI rules are spread across five COMAR chapters and nobody had put them in one place.
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