BTHE BARATELLI INSTITUTE · Mentoring at Scale
FOR PARENTS STEPPING AWAY FROM WORK TO BE WITH A CHILD IN TREATMENT

Months off work. Here's what's paid, what's protected, and what's the gap.

FMLA protects the job. It does not pay the mortgage. State paid family-medical leave does — in ten states. Your employer may stack paid caregiver leave on top. Short-term disability won't apply (it's for the patient, not the caregiver). This tool maps the actual weeks of paid vs unpaid leave and the replacement-income percentage your family will see.

Paid weeks
Across all sources
Replacement %
Of pre-leave pay
Income gap
Over the leave
Week-by-week
Action plan
YOUR LEAVE
1
Situation
2
FMLA & state PFML
3
Employer policy
4
Other benefits
5
Gap & plan
STAGE 1 OF 5

Your situation

Defaults reflect a parent of a school-age child entering a 16-week treatment course, employed by a 200-person company with health benefits.

Determines state paid family-medical leave (PFML) eligibility. As of 2026, ten states + DC have PFML.
How long you plan to be off work, end-to-end. Most pediatric treatment courses run 8-24 weeks.
Your annualized W-2 base. Used for replacement-rate math and state-PFML benefit caps.
$
If applicable. The non-leaving partner's income is the family's working baseline. Set to 0 if single-income or unemployed.
$
Federal + state + FICA blended on household. Mid-income families: 22-28%. High earners: 30-35%.
%
Read before you start. Three things most families learn the hard way. (1) FMLA is unpaid — it is job protection, not income replacement. (2) Short-term disability typically does NOT cover caregiver leave; it requires the employee to be the medically disabled party. (3) Many employers have unadvertised paid caregiver-leave policies of 2-12 weeks that don't appear in the handbook — you have to ask HR explicitly. The replacement-income math below depends entirely on what's in your state and your specific employer policy.
STAGE 2 OF 5

FMLA eligibility and state paid leave

The federal job-protection layer (unpaid) and the state-paid layer (only in ten states + DC).

Federal FMLA (job protection — unpaid)
FMLA covers employers with 50+ employees within a 75-mile radius. Under 50? Federal FMLA does not apply.
FMLA requires 12 months of service AND 1,250 hours in the last 12 months. Recent hires don't qualify.
Must be at least 1,250. Full-time at 40 hr/wk is ~2,080. Part-time may not qualify even with 12 months tenure.
FMLA covers leave to care for child with serious health condition (under 18, or any age if incapable of self-care due to disability).
State paid family-medical leave
In PFML states this is normally automatic via payroll deduction. Self-employed in some states must opt in.
Most states cap weekly PFML benefit at ~$1,000-$1,700/wk regardless of pay. High earners hit the cap fast.
STAGE 3 OF 5

Employer paid-leave policy (above FMLA)

Many employers — especially Fortune 1000, healthcare systems, and tech — quietly offer paid caregiver leave that doesn't appear in the public handbook. Ask HR specifically.

Many F500: 4-12 wk at 100% pay. Healthcare systems often: 4-8 wk. Mid-size private: 0-4 wk. Ask HR specifically about caregiver leave — it's often separate from PTO, parental leave, and bereavement.
Typically 100% but some employers run a 60-80% replacement on extended leave.
%
PTO is paid at 100% but converts a future benefit into a current cash bridge. Many employers require PTO burn-down before unpaid FMLA — check the policy.
Some employers' sick-leave policies explicitly cover caring for a sick family member. Check the policy language.
Some states (CA, NY, MA, NJ, OR, WA, CT, CO, others) require employer sick-leave usable for family care. Others don't.
FMLA requires employer to maintain health benefits at the same employee-contribution level during the 12 leave weeks. You still pay your share. After FMLA expires: employer can require full COBRA-equivalent.
STAGE 4 OF 5

Short-term disability, EAP, supplemental, and other

The supporting layer most families don't realize they have — or don't realize they don't have.

Important: Short-term disability insurance (STD) generally only pays when the insured employee is medically unable to work. Standard STD policies do NOT pay for caregiver leave to be with a sick child. The exception: a small number of group policies in some states have a "family-care rider" — verify with your HR or carrier explicitly. Long-term disability (LTD) almost never applies to caregiver leave.
Typical: 60-67% of base pay. Subject to taxable income rules if premiums are employer-paid.
%
If you have a policy on the child, hospital-indemnity payouts ($100-$500/day inpatient) can offset costs. Voluntary "child rider" critical-illness sometimes pays $5K-$25K lump sum on qualifying diagnosis.
$
Most large employers provide free counseling/therapy (typically 3-8 sessions). Not income but real value — caregiver burnout is a documented risk on extended pediatric stays.
Many F500 and healthcare systems have employee hardship funds (one-time grants of $1K-$10K for medical emergencies, often tax-free if structured under IRC §139 disaster-relief rules).
$
Medical hardship qualifies. Withdrawals are taxable income (+10% penalty if under 59½). Loans (if plan allows) usually cheaper — repay yourself with interest.
$
STAGE 5 OF 5

Gap analysis & week-by-week plan

Total paid weeks, replacement-income percentage, the gap, and the actions to take by week.

WANT THE METHODOLOGY BEHIND THIS TOOL?
Read more in the Family Office Reference.
The tool gives you the answer. The guide gives you the argument — the case law, the worked examples, the negotiation playbook, the cross-check tables, the exception cases.
The methodology behind this calculator is in Estate Planning Decoded · leave of the reference guide.
Read more in the Family Office Reference → Browse all 22 guides
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