State leave law compliance in one cited grid: every state, every layer of law, the employer’s plan
Every leave answer tied to the state rule it comes from.
See one case, screen by screen ↓Software that answers a leave question against every law that applies — the state paid family and medical leave program, the state job-protection law, the federal FMLA and the employer’s own plan. State Leave Law Compliance returns one grid for all of a client’s states, every cell citing its statute, regulation or plan clause, and the leave specialist decides what the client is told.
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An HR partner asks whether an employee can take paid leave to care for a grandparent. The answer sits on up to four layers at once: the state’s paid family and medical leave program, the state’s job-protection law, the federal FMLA and the employer’s own leave policy. Each state has its own family-member list, benefit formula, waiting week and job protection — and FMLA caregiving leave covers only a spouse, child or parent, or someone who stood in loco parentis.
So the specialist checks a rule chart kept in a spreadsheet, opens the state agency’s site, reads the client’s policy, and when unsure sends it to legal and waits. Meanwhile benefit maximums and premium rates reset every January and new programs start paying, so the chart is going stale. A wrong answer means a wrong payment, an employee denied protected leave, or a compliance finding.
Estimated split, in working hours, for a question across a client’s 12 states — by hand and with the solution.
Five agents read state law, FMLA and the client's plan into one cited grid; the leave specialist decides.
Monday 8 December 2025. Jolene Park, HR benefits manager at Tamsin Freight Lines, forwards a question about a forklift lead in Washington — and asks about her Minnesota people after New Year. Here is what happens next, screen by screen, in the working solution.
Priya types “Can an employee in Washington take paid leave to care for a grandparent?” The question bar reads it back: care for a family member, grandparent, Washington asked, client Tamsin Freight Lines with 4,770 employees in 12 states, case LV-25-0418 for Marcus Oyelaran. Below it, one grid: Tamsin’s 12 states down the side, four layers of law across the top.
“12 states · 48 cells, every one cited · 6 not yet in force.”
The question interpreter names the reason, relation and states. The statute researcher reads 31 passages from 12 state programs, job-protection laws and agency guidance, then the federal rule. The plan reader reads LV-200 §4.2, §4.4, §5.1 and §6.1 and finds it silent on three states. The effective-date watcher draws Minnesota, Delaware and Maine dashed, and the answer checker reads all 48 cells back against their passages.
“48 of 48 cells supported · 3 plan gaps sent to Theo Brandt.”
The Washington cell says yes: a grandparent is a family member, up to 12 weeks, a 7-day waiting week, to $1,542 a week. Priya opens it and sees the passage of RCW 50A.05.010 itself, the version in force, when it was last checked and that the answer checker supported it. Job protection is yes too, under RCW 50A.35.010.
“Family member” means a child, grandchild, grandparent, parent, sibling, or spouse of an employee… — RCW 50A.05.010
FMLA caregiving leave covers a spouse, son or daughter, or parent; a grandparent only when they stood in loco parentis to the employee. Marcus’s leave is not FMLA leave, so it does not use up any of his 12 FMLA weeks. The plain answer for Washington says so, with each citation beside the sentence it supports.
The answer for Washington: pay the 7-day waiting week with 5 of his 10 Tamsin caregiver days; the state then pays about $1,000 a week on his $1,240 — the state decides the amount.
Minnesota and Delaware start paying on 1 January 2026, Maine on 1 May — enacted, not yet in force, so their cells are dashed with the date. Priya moves the “Show the law as of” date to 1 January. Minnesota and Delaware turn solid, and the Tamsin plan cells beside them turn from Silent to Gap: the law pays, and LV-200 §6.1 does not name either program.
“As of 1 Jan 2026: 2 plan cells show a gap — the law pays and LV-200 is silent.”
From the Minnesota plan cell Priya clicks Draft update. The plan reader opens LV-200 with five notes in the margin — §4.4 is narrower than it reads, because grandparent care is not FMLA leave and cannot run concurrently — and redlines §4.2, §4.4, §6.1 and §6.3. Who it touches: 249 employees in Minnesota, 77 in Delaware, 58 in Maine — 384, with a deadline of 31 December.
“4 changes · 4 supported by a passage.” The plan reader never sends a plan change — a compliance analyst signs.
Theo reads the four changes: caregiver days follow a wider state definition of family; concurrent with FMLA only where the leave qualifies; Delaware, Minnesota and Maine added to the state programs with their dates; the employee premium share in Minnesota and Delaware from January payroll. He signs off as himself, and the sign-off is written to the record with the passages. Only then can it go to Jolene Park.
Priya saves the Washington answer to case LV-25-0418 with its 7 citations and the 12-state grid attached. The case lays Marcus’s leave out lane by lane: 5 caregiver days for the waiting week, continuous state family leave from 22 December, intermittent days through 27 February as surgery follow-ups need, his job restored on return, FMLA not used with 12 weeks remaining.
A letter to Marcus is drafted from the saved answer for Tamsin HR to send — nothing goes to an employee from the agents.
Each of the 7 citations on the case opens the statute or plan clause with the passage highlighted, its version, its effective date and when it was last checked. The source also shows which answers cite it — so when a passage changes, the team knows what to re-check.
The rule-change calendar runs from today to 2028: five changes on 1 January 2026 — two new programs, Washington’s premium rising to 1.13%, Colorado’s falling to 0.88%, and yearly weekly maximums resetting — then Maine on 1 May and Maryland FAMLI on 3 January 2028. Each change shows how many of Corvane’s 14 clients and how many employees it touches, and the plan clause to update.
The same question, seen by the five people who carry it — the specialist, the compliance analyst, the client’s HR lead, the claim examiner and the broker.
Five agents read state law, FMLA and the client's plan into one cited grid; the leave specialist decides.
Turns a leave question in plain words into the reason for leave (own illness, care, bonding, military, safety), the relation, the states, the client and the dates.
Reads each state’s statute, rules and agency guidance, and the federal FMLA rules, and writes one cell per state and layer: a verdict, one line and the citation.
Reads the client’s plan and leave policy, marks each plan cell Yes, Partly, Silent or Gap with the clause, and drafts the redline when the plan is silent or narrower than the law.
Each night reads legislatures and agencies and the federal register, tracks enacted laws, rulemaking and yearly caps and rates, and draws a cell dashed with its effective date until the law is in force.
Reads every cell back against its passage, removes and logs any cell that is not supported, and sends conflicts and plan gaps to the compliance analyst.
Decides; compliance analyst signs plan changes. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Every answer comes with the rule. When no passage answers the question, the assistant says so and asks for the state and the reason for leave rather than guess.
Which Tamsin states change on 1 January?
Two: Minnesota (249 employees) and Delaware (77) start paying on 1 January 2026; Maine (58) follows on 1 May. Tamsin’s plan names none of them. The grid moves to 1 January so you can see it.
Does Marcus’s leave use up his FMLA weeks?
No. FMLA covers care for a spouse, child or parent; a grandparent only if they stood in loco parentis. His Washington leave is still paid and job-protected, so all 12 FMLA weeks remain.
Draft the plan update for Minnesota, Delaware and Maine
Drafting now: §6.1 names the three programs with their dates, §4.4 runs with FMLA only where the leave qualifies, §6.3 starts the January deductions. Theo Brandt signs it off before it reaches Tamsin.
Which states cover chosen family?
Six of the programs in the comparison reach beyond relatives: Washington, Oregon, Colorado, New Jersey, Connecticut and — from 1 January — Minnesota. The row is highlighted in the state-by-state comparison.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
How answers are made, who signs and what is watched are settings the leave team owns.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Every cell cited | On | A cell without a passage is removed and logged |
| Show laws not yet in force | On | Dashed cells with their effective date |
| Look-ahead window | 24 months | How far ahead enacted laws are shown |
| Plain verdicts | On | Yes · Partly · No · No state law |
| New rulings | Theo Brandt | Compliance analyst signs before the team can reuse it |
| Plan updates | Theo Brandt | Compliance analyst, then the client’s HR lead |
| Second sign-off | Head of absence | Client with more than 1,000 employees in the state |
| Before an effective date | 60 and 30 days | Alert the account team; broker consultants get an opt-in digest every Monday |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample data · “estimated” = our estimate (the 2–3 days waiting on legal, and the split of hours) · “typical” = published figures (US DOL Women’s Bureau: 13 states plus DC run paid family and medical leave programs) · FMLA family members per US DOL WHD Fact Sheet 28 and 29 CFR 825.122 · Maine PFML benefits from 1 May 2026 per the Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave program · weekly maximums and premium rates on this page are sample figures in the working solution, not a statement of current state rates; check each with the state agency. People, companies and cases named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
Software that answers a leave question against every law that applies — the state paid family and medical leave program, the state job-protection law, the federal FMLA and the employer’s own plan. State Leave Law Compliance returns one grid for all of a client’s states, every cell citing its statute, regulation or plan clause, and the leave specialist decides what the client is told.
The effective-date watcher tracks enacted laws, rulemaking and yearly caps and rates, and draws a cell dashed with its effective date until the law is in force — Minnesota and Delaware from 1 January 2026, Maine from 1 May 2026, Maryland from 3 January 2028 in the working solution. Move the “as of” date and the grid shows the law as it will be, so the plan can be updated first. A bill is never shown as law until it is signed.
Yes. FMLA caregiving leave covers a spouse, child or parent — a grandparent only in loco parentis — while many state programs cover grandparents, siblings and in some states chosen family. The grid shows each layer separately, so a grandparent’s care can show as paid and job-protected by the state yet not FMLA leave, leaving the employee’s FMLA weeks untouched.
The plan reader compares every clause of the client’s plan with the grid, marks each plan cell Yes, Partly, Silent or Gap, and drafts a cited redline. It never sends a plan change: the compliance analyst signs it off, then it goes to the client’s HR lead.
From the state statutes and agency publications in the rule library, quoted with the year they apply to and never recalculated. The state decides each benefit amount; any estimate on screen is labelled. Yearly caps and rates are refreshed on 1 January.
Yes. The leave specialist decides and saves the answer to the case; new rulings and plan updates need the compliance analyst’s sign-off, with a second sign-off for a client with more than 1,000 employees in a state. Agents never send anything to a client or an employee, and every question, passage and save is on the record.
Yes. Examiners can ask and read saved answers — a question such as “Does New York PFL offset short-term disability?” is answered once with its citations and reused by the team. They do not see client plans outside their own accounts.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your clients’ plans and census, your procedures and past rulings, and the states you cover — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own leave questions first.
Any census layout quote-ready the day the RFP arrives, every change on the record.
1-min demoEvidence of Insurability AutomationSimple EOI approvals stop waiting behind complex medical cases.
1-min demoGroup Premium ReconciliationOnly the real billing differences left for a person to resolve.
1-min demoWe’ll run State Leave Law Compliance on your own leave questions and one of your clients’ plans.