Workers

NH Paid Family and Medical Leave (NH PFML) is a first-in-the-nation voluntary plan where NH employers and eligible NH workers can choose to purchase paid family and medical leave insurance. NH PFML provides workers with 60% wage replacement (up to the Social Security wage cap) for up to six weeks per year for absences related to life events such as:

• A worker’s own serious health condition when disability coverage does not apply, including childbirth
• For a worker to bond with a child during the first year of birth, including placement for adoption or fostering
• For a worker to care for a family member with a serious health condition
• Any qualifying urgent demand or need arising out of the fact that the worker’s spouse, child or parent is a covered military member on covered active duty
• For a worker to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness if the eligible worker is the service member’s spouse, child, parent or next of kin

NH PFML is available to NH workers through MetLife, the state’s PFML insurance partner, and can be provided to workers either through their employer's NH PFML group plan or by purchasing their own individual NH PFML plan if their employer does not provide NH PFML or an equivalent plan.

To be eligible for NH PFML insurance, you must work for an employer with a location in New Hampshire and be designated as working for a New Hampshire employer, which means that your employer reports your wages to the state of New Hampshire for unemployment purposes.

NH PFML covers the following family members: 

• Your child (including biological, adoptive, foster, or stepchild, legal ward, or child of a person standing in loco parentis who is under 18 years of age or 18 years of age or older and incapable of self-care because of a mental or physical disability)
• Your child's spouse or domestic partner
• Your spouse or domestic partner
• Your parent (including biological, adoptive, foster, or stepparent, or legal guardian of the worker or the worker’s spouse or domestic partner)
• Your grandparent (including biological, adoptive, foster, or step grandparent)

In general, NH PFML considers a health condition to be serious when paid leave is taken for these reasons: 

• Inpatient care
• Incapacity for more than three days with continuing treatment by a health care provider
• Incapacity relating to pregnancy or prenatal care
• Permanent or long-term incapacity
• Certain conditions requiring multiple treatment, and
• Chronic health conditions that may prevent a person from working during a flair up, for example, a person with epilepsy may not be able to work due to an epileptic episode