Does FMLA Cover Remote Workers? How the 50-Employee Rule Applies

Yes, if you meet the usual tests, and working from home does not make you the only employee at your worksite. Under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) regulations, a home office is not your worksite; the office you report to is, and the 50-employees-within-75-miles test is counted from there. The regulation text below was read on the eCFR as of October 9, 2026. This is general information, not legal advice; state leave laws may give you more.

1. What FMLA provides

Under 29 CFR 825.200, an eligible employee can take up to 12 workweeks of leave in a 12-month period for reasons including:

• the birth of a child and caring for the newborn;
• placement of a child for adoption or foster care;
• caring for a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition;
• the employee's own serious health condition that makes them unable to do their job;
• certain needs arising from a family member's military duty.

Caring for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness has a separate limit of 26 workweeks in a single 12-month period.

2. Test 1: Is the employer covered?

According to 29 CFR 825.104, a private employer is covered if it has 50 or more employees on each working day during 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year. Public agencies and public and private elementary and secondary schools are covered regardless of size.

3. Test 2: Are you an eligible employee?

29 CFR 825.110 lists three requirements. You must:

1. have worked for the employer for at least 12 months, which do not have to be consecutive (periods before a break of seven years or more can generally be left out);
2. have worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months right before the leave starts; and
3. work at a worksite where the employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles.

The 1,250 hours are counted using the same "hours worked" principles as federal wage law, according to the regulation, and an employer's recordkeeping shortcuts do not limit the count. If the employer does not keep accurate records, it carries the burden of showing you did not reach 1,250 hours.

What does 1,250 hours look like? Spread across 52 weeks, it is an average of about 24 hours a week. A part-time schedule of 25 hours a week for a full year reaches 1,300 hours. A steady 20 hours a week reaches only 1,040.

4. Test 3: Where is a remote worker's worksite?

This is the key rule. 29 CFR 825.111 says an employee's personal residence is not a worksite for employees "who work at home, as under the concept of flexiplace or telecommuting." Instead, their worksite is "the office to which they report and from which assignments are made."

So you do not count employees within 75 miles of your house. You count employees within 75 miles of the office you report to.

The distance is measured in surface miles, over public streets, roads, highways and waterways, by the shortest route from the facility where the employee needing leave is employed.

5. Three examples

These scenarios use assumed facts and assume the first two tests are met.

The second case surprises people. The company might have hundreds of employees overall, but the federal test looks at the count within 75 miles of the reporting office. In that situation, federal FMLA eligibility fails, although a state law or company policy may still offer leave.

The third case follows from the same rule: the regulation ties your worksite to where you report, not to where you live.

6. The count is locked in when you give notice

29 CFR 825.110 also says the 50-employee count is determined when you give notice of the need for leave. Once you are found eligible for that notice, a later drop in headcount does not take it away, and an employer cannot end leave that has already started because the count fell below 50. The regulation's example: an employer with 60 employees in August, expecting 40 by December, must still grant leave that begins in December if the employee gave notice in August.

7. Which 12 months?

Employers can choose how to measure the 12-month period. 29 CFR 825.200 lists four methods: the calendar year, another fixed 12-month year, 12 months measured forward from when leave first starts, or a rolling 12 months measured backward from each use of leave. Ask HR which method applies, because it changes when your 12 weeks reset.

8. Questions to ask before you need leave

1. Is the company covered under the 50-employee, 20-week test?
2. Which office do you report to, and how many employees work within 75 surface miles of it?
3. Will you reach 1,250 hours in the 12 months before the leave starts?
4. Which 12-month method does the company use?
5. Does your state have its own family or medical leave law?

9. Key takeaways

• FMLA provides up to 12 workweeks of leave in a 12-month period for listed family and medical reasons.
• You need 12 months of employment, 1,250 hours in the past 12 months, and 50 employees within 75 miles of your worksite.
• For people who work at home, the worksite is the office they report to, not their house.
• The 75 miles are surface miles by the shortest public route from that office.
• The 50-employee count is fixed when you give notice, so later headcount drops do not undo eligibility.