The 50-Employee Rule: Demystifying the FMLA Size Threshold

Why the FMLA Leave Employer Size Threshold Determines Your Right to Job-Protected Leave

Understanding the FMLA leave employer size threshold is the first step in knowing whether you're protected by one of the most important workplace laws in the United States.

Here's the quick answer:

The core rule for private employers:A private company must employ 50 or more employees for at least 20 workweeks — in either the current or the previous calendar year — to be required to follow the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

If your employer meets that threshold, eligible employees can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for qualifying family and medical reasons.

Since the FMLA was enacted in 1993, it has been used more than 100 million times by workers balancing serious health events, new children, or family caregiving needs. But none of those protections apply if your employer isn't covered — or if you don't know how to check.

That's where it gets complicated. The rules around who counts, when coverage kicks in, and how long it lasts trip up both employers and employees every day. If you're a Michigan worker facing a serious health condition or family crisis, getting this wrong could cost you your job — or your case.

Understanding the FMLA Leave Employer Size Threshold

When we talk about the FMLA leave employer size threshold, we are looking at the legal line that separates businesses required to offer job-protected leave from those that are exempt. Under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act overview, small businesses under a certain size are not burdened with FMLA administration, while larger organizations must comply.

For employees, knowing where your company stands on this threshold is vital. If you find yourself needing to take time off to care for a newborn, recover from a major surgery, or assist a parent undergoing cancer treatments, you need to know if your job is legally secure. To understand what is at stake, it helps to understand what types of leave are covered under the FMLA, ranging from personal medical leave to military family care.

However, the threshold is not as simple as checking a live headcount on the day you request leave. The law looks at a historical window of employment data to determine whether a private-sector employer is bound by the FMLA.

The 50-Employee Rule for Private Employers

For private-sector companies, the magic number is 50. Under federal regulations outlined in 29 CFR § 825.104 - Covered employer, any private-sector business that employs 50 or more people is considered a "covered employer."

Once an employer crosses this line and meets the timing requirements, they must provide FMLA protections to all eligible workers. This means they cannot fire, demote, or retaliate against an employee who takes qualifying leave. If an employer meets this threshold but refuses to grant leave, or penalizes an employee for taking it, they are in direct violation of federal law.

How the 20-Workweek Requirement Establishes Coverage

The absolute headcount of 50 employees must be maintained for a specific duration to trigger FMLA coverage. This is known as the 20-workweek rule.

Specifically, a private employer is covered if they employ 50 or more employees during each working day of 20 or more calendar workweeks in either the current calendar year or the preceding calendar year.

Key details of this 20-workweek requirement include:

• Non-Consecutive Weeks: The 20 workweeks do not have to be consecutive. A seasonal business in Michigan that employs 55 people for 10 weeks in the summer and another 10 weeks during the winter holidays will meet the threshold.
• Current vs. Previous Year: The tracking looks at both the current year (2026) and the previous year (2025). If your employer had 52 employees for 22 weeks in 2025, they remain a covered employer throughout all of 2026, even if their staff size drops to 35 in January 2026.
• Payroll Records as Evidence: Courts and regulatory agencies rely on payroll records to verify coverage. If there is a dispute over whether an employer meets the threshold, a thorough review of weekly payroll sheets is the primary method used to establish the facts.

How to Count Employees Under FMLA Rules

Determining whether an employer meets the FMLA leave employer size threshold requires precise math. You cannot simply count the desks in the office on a Tuesday morning. Instead, the Department of Labor (DOL) mandates the "payroll method" to determine FMLA coverage.

Under the payroll method, which is legally defined in 29 CFR 825.105 - Counting employees, the primary test is whether an active employment relationship exists between the employee and the employer. If an employee's name appears on the payroll log for a given week, they count toward the 50-employee threshold for that week, regardless of whether they received compensation or actually worked every day.

If your employer has miscalculated their staff size to avoid providing leave, you have legal options. Knowing what are my rights if my employer violates FMLA in Michigan can help you hold them accountable under both federal and state standards.

Who Counts Toward the FMLA Leave Employer Size Threshold?

To calculate the headcount accurately, employers must include almost every individual on their payroll. When reviewing payroll records, the following categories of workers must be counted:

• Full-Time Employees: Any traditional, full-time worker on the payroll.
• Part-Time Employees: Part-time workers count exactly the same as full-time workers for coverage determination. If you have 30 full-time workers and 20 part-time workers who each work 10 hours a week, you have 50 employees for FMLA coverage purposes.
• Employees on Leave: Workers who are on paid or unpaid leave (including FMLA leave, disciplinary suspension, or sick leave) must be counted, provided the employer has a reasonable expectation that they will return to active employment.
• Temporary or Seasonal Workers: Temporary workers count toward the threshold as long as they are on the payroll during the workweek.
• Commissioned or Salaried Workers: Any employee with an active employment relationship, even if they did not work or earn a commission during a specific week.

Who does NOT count?

• Independent contractors (who are not legally "employees" under the economic reality test).
• Employees who have been laid off or whose employment has been permanently terminated.
• Workers employed outside the United States, its territories, or possessions.

Joint, Integrated, and Successor Employers

Businesses often try to bypass the 50-employee threshold by splitting their operations into separate legal entities or utilizing staffing agencies. However, federal law has strict safeguards to prevent this:

• Joint Employment: This frequently occurs when a business uses a temporary staffing agency. Under FMLA rules, the staffing agency (primary employer) and the client company (secondary employer) may be considered joint employers. Both companies must count the shared temporary employees when determining if they meet the 50-employee threshold.
• Integrated Employer Test: If two or more separate legal entities are highly interconnected, they may be treated as a single "integrated employer" for FMLA purposes. Courts look at four factors to determine this:
  1. Common management.
  2. Interrelation between operations.
  3. Centralized control of labor relations (e.g., shared HR departments).
  4. Degree of common ownership or financial control.If the entities are integrated, their combined employee count is used to determine FMLA coverage.
• Successor in Interest: If a company is bought out or merges with another, the new entity may be deemed a "successor in interest." If the original company was covered by the FMLA, the successor company must continue to provide FMLA coverage and honor existing leave requests, even if the transition temporarily alters staffing levels.

Employee Eligibility vs. Employer Coverage: The 75-Mile Radius Rule

One of the most common points of confusion is the difference between employer coverage and employee eligibility.

Just because your employer is large enough to be covered by the FMLA does not automatically mean you, as an individual employee, are eligible to take FMLA leave. To take job-protected leave, you must meet the individual eligibility criteria detailed in Fact Sheet #28: The Family and Medical Leave Act:

1. You must work for a covered employer.
2. You must have worked for that employer for at least 12 months (which do not need to be consecutive).
3. You must have completed at least 1,250 hours of service during the 12-month period immediately preceding the start of your leave.
4. You must work at a location where the employer employs at least 50 employees within a 75-mile radius.

How the FMLA Leave Employer Size Threshold Applies Within a 75-Mile Radius

The 75-mile radius rule is designed to protect employers from having to provide job-protected leave to workers at small, isolated branch offices where finding a temporary replacement would cause extreme operational hardship.

For example, consider a retail chain with 500 total employees across Michigan and Illinois. The company is absolutely a "covered employer" because its total headcount is well above 50. However:

• If you work at a major hub in Detroit with 60 employees, you meet the eligibility requirement.
• If you work at a small boutique branch in Mount Pleasant with only 5 employees, and there are no other company locations within 75 miles, you are not eligible for FMLA leave, even though your employer is covered.

How is the 75-mile distance measured?The 75 miles are measured by surface miles (actual driving distance on public roads), not "as the crow flies," unless there is no public road access.

What about remote workers?In our modern remote-work landscape, this rule has unique applications. For FMLA purposes, a remote worker's personal home office is not considered their worksite. Instead, their worksite is the office to which they report, or from which their work is assigned. If that home office or reporting hub has 50 or more employees within 75 miles of its physical location, the remote employee is covered.

Special Rules for Schools, Public Agencies, and Flight Crews

The federal government recognizes that certain industries and sectors require different standards. Public institutions and transport workers operate under unique FMLA parameters:

• Public Agencies: All public agencies, including municipal governments in Michigan and state offices in Illinois, are covered by the FMLA regardless of their size. However, an individual public employee must still work at a location with 50 employees within 75 miles to be eligible to take leave.
• Schools: Public and private elementary and secondary schools are covered employers under the FMLA, regardless of their total employee headcount. Like public agencies, individual school employees must still meet the 75-mile radius and hours-of-service requirements.
• Airline Flight Crews: Flight attendants and pilots have highly irregular schedules that make reaching 1,250 hours of traditional work difficult. The law provides an exception: they are eligible if they have worked or been paid for at least 60% of their applicable monthly guarantee and have at least 504 hours of service in the preceding 12 months.

Frequently Asked Questions about FMLA Coverage

What happens if an employer drops below 50 employees?

Once an employer meets the FMLA leave employer size threshold by employing 50 or more people for 20 workweeks, they remain a covered employer for the remainder of the current calendar year and the entire next calendar year.

The Restaurant Example:Let's say a popular restaurant in Detroit employs 52 people during its busy season from May through October 2025 (well over 20 weeks). In January 2026, the restaurant downsizes and drops its staff down to 35 employees.

If a line cook requests leave in July 2026 to undergo surgery, the restaurant must grant the FMLA leave. Even though they only have 35 employees at the time of the request, they are still bound by their 2025 coverage history. They will remain covered until they have gone an entire calendar year without meeting the 50-employee/20-week threshold.

Are part-time or temporary workers counted for FMLA coverage?

Yes. As long as there is an active employment relationship and their name appears on the weekly payroll, part-time and temporary employees count exactly the same as full-time employees when determining if the employer is covered under the 50-employee rule.

Additionally, if your business utilizes a staffing agency, those temporary workers are counted toward your FMLA threshold if a joint employment relationship is established.

Do public schools have to meet the 50-employee threshold?

No. Local educational agencies (which include both public and private elementary and secondary schools) are covered employers under the FMLA, regardless of how many people they employ.

However, individual school employees must still meet the personal eligibility requirements, including working at a school location that has at least 50 employees within a 75-mile radius, having 12 months of tenure, and meeting the hours of service requirement.

Conclusion: Protecting Your Rights Under the FMLA

Navigating the complexities of the FMLA leave employer size threshold, the 20-workweek rule, and the 75-mile radius calculation can feel overwhelming when you are already dealing with a medical crisis or preparing for a new child. Employers often make honest math mistakes—or intentional accounting maneuvers—that leave workers without the job-protected time off they legally deserve.

If your employer has denied your FMLA request, threatened your job security, or retaliated against you for taking leave, you do not have to fight them alone.

We are Marko Law, a premier employment law firm serving clients across Michigan and Chicago, Illinois, with offices in Detroit and Mount Pleasant. We specialize in holding employers accountable under federal and state employment laws, including the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). You can learn more about how the law operates locally by reading about The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and how it applies in Michigan.

Our team has secured over $500 million in client recoveries, and we operate on a contingency basis—meaning you pay absolutely no fees unless we win your case.

Don't let an employer's miscalculation cost you your peace of mind. Contact us today at Marko Law for a free consultation to discuss your situation and protect your rights.