FMLA leave calculator: your 12 weeks, on a rolling year.

Four ways to measure the year, and who chooses

The 12 weeks is not a calendar-year allowance by default. 29 CFR 825.200(b) lets the employer pick one of four methods for the 12-month period: the calendar year; any fixed 12-month leave year such as a fiscal year or an anniversary year; the 12 months measured forward from the date the employee's first FMLA leave begins; or a rolling 12-month period measured backward from the date the employee uses any FMLA leave. The choice must be applied consistently and uniformly to all employees, and an employer that wants to change it must give 60 days' notice and let employees keep the full benefit of 12 weeks under whichever method is better for them. If an employer picks none, the method most beneficial to the employee applies. Check your handbook or ask HR which method your employer uses. This page computes the rolling method in full and shows the calendar-year result beside it for comparison.

How the rolling method works, day by day

On each date you ask for leave, look back over the preceding 12 months, add up the FMLA leave you used there, and subtract it from 12 weeks. What remains is your balance. Leave is not wiped on an anniversary; it comes back a little at a time. The regulation's own example: an employee used four weeks starting February 1, 2008, four weeks starting June 1, 2008 and four weeks starting December 1, 2008. Nothing was available until February 1, 2009, when the employee began to recoup one day of leave for each day, and further days from June 1, 2009 and December 1, 2009. If that employee asked for six weeks starting February 1, 2009, only the first four would be FMLA protected. The calculator reproduces exactly this: enter those three periods, a February 1, 2009 start and 6 weeks, and it reports four protected weeks.

The tool spreads each period's weeks evenly across its calendar days. For a continuous leave that is exact. For an intermittent or reduced-schedule pattern it is an approximation, and your payroll records settle the true figure.

Converting partial weeks and hours

Under 29 CFR 825.205(b) the actual workweek is the basis of the entitlement. An employee who would normally work 40 hours and takes off 8 uses one-fifth of a week. A full-time employee who works four-hour days on a reduced schedule uses one-half week. A part-timer scheduled for 30 hours who works only 20 uses one-third of a week for each week of the schedule. The regulation adds that an employee does not accrue FMLA leave at any hourly rate, because the total hours depend on the hours the employee would have worked. By simple arithmetic that makes 12 weeks 480 hours for someone on a 40-hour week but 360 hours for someone on 30. If a schedule varies so much that the hours cannot be determined, the employer uses the weekly average over the 12 months before the leave began.

A holiday inside a full week of leave has no effect, and the week still counts as a week of FMLA leave. If the leave is taken in increments shorter than a week, the holiday does not count against the employee's entitlement.

Worked example

Hypothetical: Dev works 40 hours a week. He took 8 weeks of continuous leave from March 2 to April 26, 2026. On October 19, 2026 the preceding 12 months contain those 8 weeks, so his rolling balance is 12 − 8 = 4 weeks, or 160 hours. March 2, 2026 is the first used day, so the first day of leave comes back on March 2, 2027 and the full 12 weeks is back on April 26, 2027. If Dev needs 6 weeks starting October 19, only 4 are protected. Under a calendar-year method the same 8 weeks also leave 4, but the clock would reset on January 1, 2027 instead of rolling back through the spring. This is how the same facts can give different answers by method.

Common mistakes

• Resetting to 12 weeks on an anniversary under the rolling method. The weeks come back day by day.
• Counting from the calendar year when the employer uses a rolling year, or the other way round.
• Counting a week of leave as five working days of hours rather than as a fraction of the employee's own workweek.
• Forgetting that all qualifying reasons share the same 12 weeks, such as a new child and the employee's own serious health condition.
• Applying this to military caregiver leave, which has its own 26-week entitlement in a single 12-month period measured forward from the first such leave.

What this does not cover

It does not check eligibility (use the eligibility calculator for that), decide whether a reason qualifies, or apply state leave laws, which can run on a different year. The forward-from-first-leave and fixed leave-year methods are described above but not calculated. Entries stay in your browser.

Sources

• eCFR: 29 CFR 825.200, Amount of leave — four methods; rolling method and the Feb 1, 2008 to Feb 1, 2009 example; 26-week military caregiver rule; holidays
• eCFR: 29 CFR 825.205, Increments of FMLA leave for intermittent or reduced schedule leave — fractions of a workweek; variable schedules; overtime
• eCFR: 29 CFR 825.110, Eligible employee — eligibility is a separate test

Every figure and rule above was retrieved from these pages in October 2026. Agencies revise forms, codes and percentages, so confirm anything that affects a claim, a filing or a deadline against the current official page.

Frequently asked questions

How does the rolling 12-month method work for FMLA?

Each time you ask for FMLA leave, your remaining entitlement is the part of the 12 weeks you have not used in the immediately preceding 12 months. Used days return gradually, one day of leave per day, starting one year after you took them.

Which method does my employer use?

The employer chooses one of four: calendar year, a fixed 12-month leave year, 12 months forward from your first FMLA leave, or a rolling 12 months backward. It must apply the choice to all employees, and if it never selected one, the method most beneficial to the employee applies. Your handbook or HR should say.

How many hours is 12 weeks of FMLA?

It depends on your schedule. FMLA leave is counted in workweeks, so 12 weeks is 480 hours for a 40-hour week and 360 hours for a 30-hour week. You do not accrue it at a fixed hourly rate.

How is intermittent leave counted?

Only leave actually taken counts, as a fraction of your normal workweek. Taking 8 hours off a 40-hour week uses one-fifth of a week. A part-timer scheduled for 30 hours who works only 20 uses one-third of a week.

Does a holiday in the week of leave count?

If you take a full week, the holiday has no effect and the week counts as a week of FMLA leave. If you use leave in increments shorter than a week, the holiday does not count against you.

Do different reasons each get 12 weeks?

No. The 12 workweeks is a total for one or more of the qualifying reasons listed in the regulation, which include birth or placement of a child, caring for a family member with a serious health condition, and the employee's own serious health condition. Military caregiver leave is separate at 26 weeks.

Can my employer change the method?

Yes, but it must give at least 60 days' notice to all employees, and the transition must let employees keep the full benefit of 12 weeks under whichever method is better for them. It cannot switch methods to avoid the law's leave requirements.

What if my schedule changes week to week?

If the employer cannot determine with any certainty how many hours you would otherwise have worked, it uses a weekly average of the hours scheduled over the 12 months before the leave began, including hours for which you took leave of any type.