An employer with fewer than 15 employees pays no employer share of Maryland FAMLI. It still withholds the 0.45 percent employee share and still remits it every quarter. The 15 is counted across every state under one federal EIN, not just Maryland.
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.
Enter your Maryland headcount and your total headcount under one EIN. The calculator applies the right band and shows what each side pays.
An employer whose size is below 15 is only responsible for remitting 50 percent of the total rate of contribution. COMAR 09.42.02.06D In 2027 that means 0.45 percent rather than 0.9 percent.
The half that disappears is the employer half. The employee half does not. You still withhold 0.45 percent from your staff and you still remit it to the Maryland Department of Labor every quarter. What changes is that you are not asked to match it.
Put plainly: a small employer can legally pass its entire FAMLI obligation to its employees, and pay nothing from its own funds. A 15-person employer cannot.
Employer size is the total headcount under the same federal EIN, counting employees inside and outside Maryland. COMAR 09.42.02.06A The Department's own guidance puts it the same way: employers with fewer than 15 total employees, counting both Maryland and out-of-state employees. Maryland Department of Labor
So a firm with 8 people in Baltimore and 30 in Virginia is not a small employer. It has 38 employees and it pays the full 0.9 percent on its Maryland wages. This is the single most common way an employer gets its own FAMLI rate wrong, and it is worth its own page: out-of-state employees and your Maryland FAMLI rate.
Independent contractors are not counted.
Size is not fixed for all time. During 2027 it is worked out quarter by quarter, so an employer that crosses 15 in the middle of the year changes band from that quarter forward and never backwards. From 2028 size is set by the average of the prior year's four quarters and then fixed for the whole year.
Practically, that means a growing employer in 2027 should expect its rate to move mid-year, and should not budget the small-employer figure for twelve months if hiring is planned.
The regulation says size below 15. Fifteen employees is the standard band and the full 0.9 percent. There is no rounding and no grace.
If you are the sole owner and the only person your entity employs, you are not an employer for FAMLI purposes at all. COMAR 09.42.01.01B(21)(b) No registration, no contribution, no notice. The calculator returns exactly that and stops.
This is narrow. One employee who is not the owner puts you in scope. Self-employed people who want coverage can elect into the program separately, which is a different question and handled by the Department, not by this tool.
| Employees working in Maryland | 12 |
|---|---|
| Total employees under one EIN | 12 |
| Annual Maryland payroll | $780,000 |
| Payroll frequency | Every two weeks |
| Band | Small employer, under 15 |
|---|---|
| Rate applied | 0.45%, half the full rate |
| Employer share, full year 2027 | $0.00 |
| Employee share, full year 2027 | $3,510.00 |
| Total remitted for 2027 | $3,510.00 |
| Withheld per pay period, per the whole firm | $135.00 |
| Written notice due, if no first 2027 pay date is given | 1 December 2026 |
| First payment, Q1 wages | $877.50, due 30 April 2027 |
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.
Compare the same payroll at a firm that is over the threshold on headcount alone: a 40-person employer on a $3.2m Maryland payroll pays $14,400.00 of employer money a year. The small employer on a $780,000 payroll pays nothing.
They remit only half the total rate, which is the employee half. The employer share is zero. The employee share is still withheld and still remitted each quarter.
By total headcount under the same federal EIN, counting employees inside and outside Maryland. Contractors are excluded. A firm with 8 in Maryland and 30 elsewhere has 38 employees and is not small.
In 2027 size is recalculated quarter by quarter, so the rate changes from that quarter forward and never backwards. From 2028 it is the prior year's four-quarter average, fixed for the year.
No. A sole owner who is the only person the entity employs is not an employer for FAMLI purposes. One employee who is not the owner puts the business in scope.
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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