Methodology
How we source, update, and verify the rules.
Parental Leave Pro coordinates federal, state, employer, and self-employment rules into a single plan. The product is only as good as the rules behind it. Here is exactly where every rule comes from, how we update it, and what we are explicit about not knowing.
Where the rules come from
Every program rule in our engine traces to a primary source. Typically the state agency that administers the program. We do not paraphrase from third-party blogs.
Federal FMLA
- • U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division (dol.gov/whd/fmla)
- • 29 CFR Part 825. FMLA implementing regulations
State paid family leave programs
- • Connecticut. ctpaidleave.org + the CT Paid Leave Authority benefit rate notices
- • California. edd.ca.gov + the SDI/PFL annual rate releases
- • New York. paidfamilyleave.ny.gov
- • Massachusetts. mass.gov/dfml
- • All other PFML states. Each state agency's official site, used as the primary source for that state's rules
Short-term disability (state-mandated)
- • New York DBL, New Jersey TDI, Rhode Island TDI, Hawaii TDI, California SDI. Each state's administering agency
Employer policy coordination
- • Stacked / supplemental / offset coordination patterns are inferred from your uploaded employer handbook on Complete and Premium tiers
- • When we can't determine the coordination from the policy text, we mark the result as "needs HR confirmation" and generate an HR email asking exactly that question
Self-employed and owner-employee rules
- • Each state's self-employment opt-in framework and the timing windows that matter (e.g. CT's 3-year minimum enrollment)
- • Treated as first-class on Premium tier
How often we update
Rules don't change on a schedule, so we don't pretend to either. Here is what triggers a rule update.
- Annual rate refresh. State PFML weekly benefit caps, bend points, and minimum-wage-tied formulas update each January for most programs. We process those changes within 30 days of the state agency's rate release.
- Program launches and delays. When a state launches or delays its program (e.g. Maryland FAMLI was delayed from July 2026 to January 2028), we update guides, the homepage, and the eligibility engine within 14 days of the announcement, with a launch-aware status in the eligibility result.
- Legislative changes. When a state amends its PFML program mid-year, we update within 14 days of the change taking effect.
- User-reported discrepancies. If a user reports a calculation that disagrees with their state portal, we re-verify against the agency source and patch within 7 days when we're wrong.
On the optional Leave Watch add-on ($24/year), we proactively notify you of any rule change that materially affects your saved plan, your state, your employer policy (if uploaded), or your STD coverage.
How we verify
- Engine unit tests. Every state's bend-point formula, eligibility check, and benefit calculation has a suite of test cases covering common wage profiles plus the boundary conditions (minimum-wage workers, capped earners, partial quarters of work history).
- State-portal cross-check. For major states (CA, NY, CT, NJ, WA, MA), we periodically run synthetic profiles through both our engine and the state's own calculator. Discrepancies are reconciled to the agency's number.
- Real-case review. Every flagged user-reported issue triggers a manual review of the underlying rule and the engine's implementation of it.
- CPA-owned financial logic. Wage-base calculations, take-home estimates, and tax-treatment notes are reviewed by Steven, a CPA. Clinical and medical-context language is reviewed by Christine, a Nurse Practitioner.
Why the coordination pattern matters
Same wage. Same leave. Same state. $10,800 different.
12-week leave. $1,500/wk earner. Connecticut. The pattern in your employer's handbook determines whether the two systems stack or cancel each other out. Most parents never ask which pattern applies.
This is the one conversation with HR that swings $10,000+ of household income on a single leave. Read how to ask the question or see our methodology.
Where the “$5,000 to $10,000 left on the table” number comes from
The range is a modeled estimate of unclaimed paid-leave benefits per household per child. It reflects three real coordination mistakes we see in the data: state PFML not filed at all, short-term disability filed but not stacked with state PFML, and employer policies that were offset instead of stacked because HR didn't clarify the pattern in writing. Below are four sample profiles that fall inside the range.
Independent research lands in the same range
In February 2025, Moms First and McKinsey & Company published an analysis of US Census and state claims data covering New York, New Jersey, and California. They found that only two in five eligible parents used any state paid parental leave in 2022, and valued the unclaimed benefit at $6,000 to $10,000 per parent who used none. Read their report.
The two figures measure different mistakes. Their research measures parents who claimed nothing at all. Our range models households that claimed something but coordinated it wrong, which is the more common situation among people who find us. That the two arrive at overlapping ranges from different directions is the reason we keep publishing ours.
| State | Weekly wage | Mistake | Left on the table |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connecticut | $1,500 | Filed CTPL but did not file STD; missed 6 weeks of medical recovery pay at 60% of wages via employer STD carrier. | ~$5,400 |
| California | $2,000 | Filed SDI and PFL but employer policy was offset instead of stacked because HR's answer was verbal; lost employer top-up on 8 weeks. | ~$8,200 |
| New York | $1,750 | Couple did not sequence leaves; both took time simultaneously, then burned PTO. Sequential leaves would have added ~10 weeks of state benefit coverage. | ~$9,800 |
| Massachusetts | $2,200 | Missed the MA medical leave 20-week cap; filed only for the 12-week bonding period. Left ~6 weeks of the medical-leave pool unclaimed. | ~$7,000 |
Examples are illustrative. Every figure was reproduced with our engine using the applicable 2026 rate cap and formula. Actual per-household unclaimed amounts depend on the specific mistake, wage level, employer policy, and state program.
What we are transparent about not doing
We'd rather tell you the limits up front than have you discover them later.
- We do not file claims for you. Filing happens on the state portal and with your HR. We tell you when to file, what to file, and what to bring.
- We do not pull live payroll data. We use the wage figure you provide. If you input a wrong number, the estimate is wrong.
- We are not lawyers, tax advisors, or HR. The output is an educated planning estimate. Final eligibility and benefit amounts depend on state-agency adjudication, your specific employment record, and your employer's decisions on coordination.
- Some employer policies are too ambiguous to parse. When our extraction of a handbook isn't confident, we surface that, and the HR email asks the exact question that closes the ambiguity.
- We do not cover every state. We cover federal FMLA nationwide, but state-paid-leave coverage is the 13 states + DC that have mandatory programs and the 3 with voluntary private markets (VT, NH, VA). In other states, we tell you that no statutory state benefit exists and walk through the employer + STD + PTO options.
Who built the engine
A husband-and-wife team. A Nurse Practitioner with more than a decade of clinical experience, and a CPA who is a Navy veteran. We built this because we needed it for our own first child and could not find an honest answer anywhere else. Read the founder story →
See what the engine actually produces.
View a complete sample plan, or run a free intake of your own.