West Baltimore Street approaching North Charles Street in downtown Baltimore. Photo: Andrew Bossi, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.
Maryland’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance program will start collecting contributions in January, and the official rate for 2027 is now posted for employers who will be withholding from Baltimore paychecks.
The Maryland Department of Labor’s official contributions page says the initial State Plan rate is 0.9 percent of wages up to the Social Security wage cap, split equally between employers and employees at 0.45 percent each. That rate applies to wages paid from Jan. 1, 2027, through Dec. 31, 2027. Employers may withhold up to half of the contribution from employee pay, or they may choose to pay some or all of the employee share themselves.
Small employers with fewer than 15 employees in total, counting workers in Maryland and out of state, are only responsible for remitting 50 percent of the contribution rate — what the official page calls the small employer discount — and may withhold that amount from pay. FAMLI will judge size in 2027 quarter by quarter from wage reports. Starting in 2028, it will use a four-quarter average. Independent contractors do not count toward the headcount, the page says, and even an employer with one Maryland employee must comply.
Payroll deductions begin in January. Contributions and wage reports are due electronically at paidleave.maryland.gov on a quarterly schedule, and the first payment, for wages paid Jan. 1 through March 31, 2027, is due April 30, 2027. The official page says the total contribution rate cannot exceed 1.2 percent of wages, and that future rates will be announced each November beginning in 2027.
