Delaware Paid Leave Calculator

Delaware Paid Leave

How Delaware figures your weekly benefit

Delaware Paid Leave, created by the Healthy Delaware Families Act, has accepted claims since January 1, 2026. The benefit starts from your average weekly wage. Under the Division of Paid Leave's regulation, that is your gross Delaware wages subject to FICA tax for the four completed calendar quarters before you file your claim, divided by 52. If four completed quarters are not available, the Division uses the weekly average of the last three. Only wages earned in Delaware count, but bonuses, tips, commissions and taxable fringe benefits are included.

The Delaware Code sets the weekly benefit at 80% of that average weekly wage, rounded up to the next whole dollar. The benefit can never be less than $100 a week, and if your average weekly wage is under $100 you receive your full wage instead. The maximum is $900 a week in 2026 and 2027. In the default example, $52,000 of wages works out to $1,000.00 a week and a benefit of $800.00. With $50,000 of wages the average is $961.54, 80% of that is $769.23, and the law rounds it up to $770. The Division puts the cutoff simply: people who earn less than $58,500 a year get 80% of their average wages, and people who earn $58,500 or more get $900 a week.

Our calculation with 19 Del. C. 3704 and 3705 and 19 DE Admin. Code 1401, section 5.1. The contribution column covers all three lines of coverage; your employer can take up to half of it from your pay.

The Division's own online contributions calculator shows the weekly benefit to the cent, for example $769.23 on $50,000. This page follows the rounding rule in the statute, so its figure can be up to $1 higher.

How many weeks each type of leave pays

You can take no more than 12 weeks of paid leave of any kind in an application year. Delaware measures that year forward: it starts on the first day you take leave and runs for 12 months. Within that total, parental leave pays up to 12 weeks. Medical leave, family caregiving leave and qualifying exigency leave pay up to 6 weeks in any 24-month period, and the law and the regulation count those three types together toward the 6 weeks.

Source: 19 Del. C. 3702, 3703 and 3705; 19 DE Admin. Code 1401, section 4.1; Division of Paid Leave employer and TPA guide. Family caregiving and qualifying exigency share one 0.08% rate.

Employers with 10 to 24 employees in Delaware only have to provide parental leave, and employers with fewer than 10 are exempt but can opt in. Employers with 10 to 24 employees could also cut parental leave to as little as 6 weeks for claims filed before January 1, 2031, but only if they told the Division by January 1, 2024 and informed their workers in writing.

Partial weeks, intermittent leave and reduced schedules

Benefits are not paid for less than one full workday of leave in a work week, so intermittent leave is taken in whole days. When you take part of a week, your employer records the days you normally work and the days you took, and the benefit is prorated. The Division's example is an employee who normally works Monday to Friday and starts leave on a Wednesday: that week counts as 3 of 5 days. A reduced schedule works the same way. If a health care provider cuts your hours by half, the benefit is paid at 50% and the weeks stretch to twice as long. With the default wages, medical leave on 3 of 5 workdays pays $480.00 a week, and 10 such weeks use the 6 weeks available.

Who is eligible

To claim Delaware Paid Leave you must work primarily in Delaware, meaning 60% of your time or more, have worked for your employer for at least 12 months, and have at least 1,250 hours of service in the last 12 months, about 25 hours a week. Employers with 10 or more employees must take part. Your employer can file a waiver to exclude you if you work part time or fewer than 12 months of the year, and people paid on 1099 forms are not covered. If you work for two participating employers, each claim is handled separately and paid from the wages at that job.

What the program costs you

For 2025 and 2026 the contribution is 0.80% of wages: 0.32% for parental leave, 0.40% for medical leave and 0.08% for family caregiving and qualifying exigency leave. Your employer pays it and may deduct up to half from your pay. Employers that only have to cover parental leave pay the 0.32% rate. Contributions stop once your wages for the year reach the Social Security wage base, $184,500 in 2026. On $52,000 of wages the full contribution is $8.00 a week, and the most your employer can take from your pay is $4.00 a week or $208.00 a year. From 2027 the Department of Labor sets the rates each year based on the program's costs.

How to apply and when you get paid

You file a claim through Delaware LaborFirst after verifying your identity at my.delaware.gov. The claim asks for your employer, the type and dates of leave and, for medical and family caregiving leave, a certification from a health care provider. Your employer must approve or deny a complete application within 5 business days. If the need for leave was not foreseeable, apply within 30 days after your first day of leave. Once a claim is approved, the first payment takes about two weeks while the system runs an anti-fraud review, and payments come weekly after that.

You keep job protection: when you return you are entitled to your old position or an equivalent one. Delaware Paid Leave is the first payer when you also have short-term disability, and your employer can let you top up the benefit with paid time off, but benefits and supplements together cannot exceed your average weekly wage.

Taxes on Delaware Paid Leave

When you file, you can ask for tax to be withheld; the default amounts are 10% for federal tax and 6% for Delaware tax. An $800 weekly benefit with federal withholding leaves $720.00, and with both $672.00. The IRS said in Revenue Ruling 2025-4 that family leave benefits from a state program are included in gross income and that medical leave benefits are taxable to the extent they come from employer contributions, so ask a tax professional how this applies to you. For your regular pay see the Delaware salary calculator and the Delaware salary after taxes guide; if you work in Wilmington, the Wilmington wage tax page covers the city tax. The disability benefits tax guide explains how premiums change the tax on benefits. For other states, compare the New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut and DC leave calculators or the maternity leave pay calculator.