Parental Leave Income Impact Calculator
Your leave
Where you work decides almost everything — the same salary can net three times more in Washington than in Texas.
Where you WORK, not live — benefits follow your employment state
Total time away, paid or not
How we calculate this
There is no American parental leave system — there are fourteen state systems and a federal law that protects your job while paying you nothing. This calculator encodes each paying state's actual 2026 benefit formula, verified against the official state agency (EDD, ESD, DFML, and their peers), with the verification date stamped at the top of the page.
State formulas differ wildly. New York pays a flat 67% of your wage up to a cap. Washington, Minnesota, and most newer programs are progressive — they replace 90% of your first dollars and less above a pivot, so lower earners keep a bigger share. California pays 90% or 70% of your whole wage depending on which side of an income threshold you fall. Rhode Island computes from your highest-earning quarter. We model each one as written, capped at each state's verified maximum.
Birthing vs. non-birthing matters in some states. California and New Jersey stack a disability recovery period (typically ~6 provider-certified weeks) on top of bonding leave; Colorado and DC run everything inside one combined cap. The toggle handles this per state, and the extra weeks are labeled as typical values — your provider certifies the real ones.
Employer top-ups coordinate, they don't stack. Nearly every employer policy tops you up TO a percentage of pay, counting the state benefit — so we model it that way. And 2026 is a launch year: Delaware and Minnesota began paying in January, Maine in May, while Maryland's program was delayed to 2028 — the tool says so instead of guessing.
Not modeled: waiting periods (recorded per state in the assumptions, some dock a first week), taxes on benefits (federally taxable for family-leave portions per IRS guidance — you'll get a 1099-G), variable earnings, and job-protection rules, which are a separate question from pay.
Real scenarios
Washington, $85k: the progressive formula at work
Twelve weeks of bonding leave pays $1,183 a week — 72% of pay — for a total of $14,200 against $19,615 of normal pay. The 90% tier on the first $915 is why a mid-range earner keeps nearly three-quarters of income. The same worker in Texas: $0.
New York, $120k: the cap is the story
At 67% of pay, a $120k earner would get $1,546 a week — but the 2026 cap is $1,228.53, so twelve weeks pays exactly $14,742.36, the state's published maximum. Above roughly $95k of salary, every New Yorker takes home the same leave check.
California, $60k, birthing parent: fourteen paid weeks
Six weeks of SDI recovery plus eight weeks of PFL, all at the 90% rate for earners under the ~$65k threshold: $1,038 a week, $14,538 total, just $1,615 short of normal pay. California quietly runs one of the most generous programs in the country for lower earners.
Texas, $80k: the employer policy IS the program
No state benefit exists. With a typical employer policy paying 100% for 6 weeks, twelve weeks of leave brings $9,231 — exactly half of normal pay — and without that policy, zero. In most of America, the parental leave question is really a question about your handbook.