12 Week FMLA Calculator

What 12 workweeks of FMLA leave converts to

The FMLA entitlement is written as 12 workweeks in a 12-month period, and the employee's actual workweek sets the size of each week (U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #28I, 2025). The DOL fact sheet on counting leave use gives the conversion rule: an hourly equivalent must be based on the employee's total normally scheduled hours. An employee regularly scheduled for 50 hours a week is entitled to 600 hours of FMLA leave, because 12 x 50 = 600.

The same conversion in workdays uses the number of scheduled days per week. Twelve workweeks on a Monday to Friday schedule is 12 x 5 = 60 workdays. A 4 day week converts to 12 x 4 = 48 workdays, and a 6 day week converts to 12 x 6 = 72 workdays. The table below collects the common schedules.

Taken as continuous full weeks, the entitlement spans 12 x 7 = 84 calendar days no matter how many days a week the employee works, because one full calendar week passes for each workweek of leave used. The days-per-week figure matters for the workday count and the hourly count, not for the calendar span of a full week off.

The eligibility tests the 12 weeks sit behind

Before the conversion matters, the employee has to be eligible, and the numbers are fixed by the statute. The Department of Labor FMLA overview states the tests (U.S. Department of Labor, 2025). The employer must be covered: private-sector employers need 50 or more employees in 20 or more workweeks in the current or previous calendar year, while public agencies and public and private elementary and secondary schools are covered regardless of headcount.

The employee must then pass three tests:

• At least 12 months with the employer. The months do not have to be consecutive, and in general only employment within the past seven years counts, with exceptions for military service and for periods governed by a collective bargaining agreement or other written agreement.
• At least 1,250 hours of service worked in the 12 months before the leave starts. Paid leave and unpaid leave hours do not count toward the 1,250. Spread across 52 weeks that is about 24 hours a week, since 1,250 / 52 = 24.04.
• A worksite where the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles.

Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993 as Public Law 103-3, and those thresholds have not moved since. An employee who misses any one test is not covered for that leave year, so checking eligibility comes before counting remaining weeks.

Continuous leave: 12 workweeks as calendar days

Continuous leave means whole weeks or whole days off in a row, and the counting is direct. Take an employee on a 5 day, 40 hour schedule who starts full week leave on Monday, November 2, 2026 and uses 4 full weeks before returning on Monday, November 30, 2026. The 4 weeks cover 28 calendar days and 20 scheduled workdays, and the leave used is 4 x 40 = 160 hours.

The remaining entitlement drops by the same shape: 12 workweeks minus 4 used leaves 8 workweeks, which is 8 x 5 = 40 workdays or 8 x 40 = 320 hours. If the same employee later needs another 6 full weeks, that fits inside the remainder, leaving 2 workweeks, 10 workdays or 80 hours for the rest of the leave year.

Days taken one at a time work the same way: each scheduled workday of leave uses one fifth of a 5 day workweek, which is 8 of the 40 hours. Ten single days off spread across a season use 10 x 8 = 80 hours, or 2 full workweeks.

Intermittent leave: counting by the hour

Intermittent leave is time off in separate blocks, sometimes down to minutes, and the DOL counts it as a proportion of the workweek. The fact sheet's own example (U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #28I, 2025): an employee normally scheduled for 30 hours works only 20 in a week because of FMLA leave, so 10 scheduled hours went unused and the employee used 10 / 30 = 1/3 of a workweek. Leave can be taken in the smallest unit the employer allows for other leave, as long as that unit is not greater than one hour.

A worked example with round numbers: an employee scheduled for 40 hours a week leaves 6 hours every Friday to accompany a parent to treatment. Each week uses 6 / 40 = 0.15 of a workweek. Over 12 weeks the total is 12 x 6 = 72 hours, or 72 / 40 = 1.8 workweeks. Of the 480 hour entitlement on a 40 hour week, 408 hours remain, which is 408 / 40 = 10.2 workweeks or 10.2 x 5 = 51 workdays.

Keep a running total in hours and the conversion back to weeks and days stays a division. The calculator does exactly that: it takes hours used, divides by the weekly schedule to get workweeks, and multiplies by days per week to get the workday figure.

The 12-month period that holds the weeks

The entitlement is 12 workweeks per 12-month period, and the employer picks how that period is defined. Fact Sheet #28H lists the four permitted methods (U.S. Department of Labor, 2025): the calendar year, any fixed 12-month period, 12 months measured forward from the first day of FMLA leave, or a rolling 12 months measured backward from each date leave is taken.

The choice changes what is left at the edges. An employee who uses 6 workweeks in November and December under a calendar-year leave year still has 6 workweeks on January 1. Under a rolling backward year, those 6 weeks stay on the books until each is 12 months old, so on June 1 the employee may have less than 6 workweeks available even though a calendar-year counter would show 6.

Employers must apply one method consistently and tell employees which one is in use. The military caregiver entitlement is separate: up to 26 workweeks in a single 12-month period, and that single period starts on the first day taken for that reason rather than on the leave year the employer set.

Medical certification: what an employer can require

Yes, an employer can require paperwork. For leave tied to a serious health condition, the employer may require a certification from a health care provider, and the employee is responsible for providing a complete and sufficient one (U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #28G, 2025). The DOL medical certification fact sheet sets the timing: the employee gets at least 15 calendar days after the request to return the certification, and if it is incomplete the employer must say in writing what is missing and give at least 7 calendar days to cure the problem.

Recertification is allowed generally no more often than every 30 days, and only in connection with an absence. If the employer doubts a complete certification, it can require a second opinion, and a third if the two disagree, both at the employer's expense. The certification does not need a diagnosis, only medical facts that show a serious health condition and the expected duration.

The Department provides optional forms, WH-380-E for the employee's own condition and WH-380-F for a family member's, but no specific form is required and an employer cannot demand medical records. For intermittent leave, the certification must estimate how much time each absence will need and how often absences may occur.

What the calculator does and what it leaves out

The calculator converts the entitlement and tracks use against it. The table below shows where its math stops.

Employers can run FMLA at the same time as paid leave, and group health benefits continue on the same terms during unpaid leave. Payroll systems sometimes track the entitlement in hours and sometimes in weeks, which is why both outputs matter: a payroll note reading 1.8 workweeks and a time-clock note reading 72 hours describe the same intermittent use.