[co-author: Leah Shepherd]

Colorado lawmakers recently changed the state’s paid family and medical leave (FAMLI) program to reduce the premiums and add an extra twelve weeks for employees who are parents of a child receiving inpatient treatment in neonatal intensive care. The new rules will take effect on January 1, 2026.

Quick Hits

• Colorado lawmakers amended the FAMLI program to provide an additional twelve weeks of paid leave for employees to care for a child in neonatal intensive care.
• The premium payments for FAMLI will decrease to 0.88 percent of a worker’s wages in 2026.
• These changes will take effect on January 1, 2026.

Under Colorado’s FAMLI program, employers started paying premiums in 2023, and employees were eligible for FAMLI leave in 2024. Employees can take up to twelve weeks of paid FAMLI leave per year, with an additional four weeks for employees with a serious health condition related to pregnancy complications or childbirth complications.

On May 30, 2025, Colorado enacted Senate Bill 25-144, which takes effect on January 1, 2026. This law amended the FAMLI program by:

• expanding FAMLI to allow eligible employees to take up to twelve weeks of paid FAMLI leave to care for a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) patient; and
• reducing the FAMLI premium from 0.9 percent of an employee’s wages to 0.88 percent for 2026. For 2027 and each year thereafter, the state’s FAMLI director will set the premium rate annually.

Neonatal care coverage is in addition to...

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