Any employer with at least one employee in Maryland must register online for FAMLI. There are no exceptions under state law and there is no size threshold. Registration is open now, has no deadline, and blocks everything else you have to do.
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.
Before you register, find out what the program is going to cost you and which dates you are working to. Five questions, under a minute.
The Maryland Department of Labor puts it about as plainly as an agency ever does:
“If you have at least one employee in Maryland, you are required to register online. There are no exceptions under state law.” Maryland Department of Labor, employer registration
One employee. No size threshold, no industry carve-out, no exemption for employers who intend to use a private plan. A small employer that pays no employer share still registers. An employer that has filed a Declaration of Intent still registers, because registration is a prerequisite for filing one.
The one case that falls outside the program entirely is the sole owner who is the only person their entity employs. They are not an employer for FAMLI purposes and have nothing to register. COMAR 09.42.01.01B(21)(b) One employee who is not the owner ends that.
Registration is open and carries no stated deadline. It is therefore the easiest thing on the whole calendar to leave until later, and it is the one thing that blocks everything else: the Declaration of Intent, the quarterly wage report, the contribution payment, all of it runs through the FAMLI account.
Two of the five Declaration of Intent stages are registration and the Login.gov identity check that precedes it. An employer that starts registering in November has already lost the private plan window.
| Group | What is asked for |
|---|---|
| Employer details | Federal EIN, legal name, any doing-business-as name, NAICS code, physical address, mailing address, business email |
| Authorized Officer | Full name, job title, work email, work phone number |
| Resident agent | Name, physical address, email, phone number |
Source: Maryland Department of Labor, employer registration guidance. Employer registration
An Authorized Officer is a person legally permitted to act in an official capacity for the employer. They complete the initial registration, they can see and manage everything in the FAMLI account, and they sign Power of Attorney documents.
Creating the account needs an email and phone number, or an existing Login.gov account. Identity verification needs more: a Social Security number and a driver's licence or state ID card. That step is the one that surprises people, because the officer named on the form is often a finance director or an owner who is not expecting to hand over personal identity documents to a state portal.
Decide who that person is before you start, not during. If the online identity check fails, the fallback is in-person verification at a Post Office, and that turns a same-day step into a multi-day one.
Any employer with at least one employee in Maryland. The Department states there are no exceptions under state law. Employers under 15 staff register too, even though they pay no employer share.
No published deadline; registration is open now. It blocks everything else, including the Declaration of Intent and the quarterly wage report, so leaving it late still costs you.
A person legally permitted to act in an official capacity for the employer. They complete registration and manage the account. Login.gov identity verification needs a Social Security number and a driver's licence or state ID.
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.
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