Gera Tools

District of Columbia Disability & Paid Family Leave Benefit Calculator

Estimate your District of Columbia state disability or paid family leave weekly benefit amount.

Estimate your DC Paid Family Leave weekly benefit. Uses the real 90%/50% wage-replacement tiers tied to the DC minimum wage, the statutory weekly maximum, and the 12-week duration limit for medical and family leave. It runs free in your browser on Gera Tools, with nothing uploaded.

Last updated Source: Gera Tools

How is the DC Paid Family Leave benefit calculated?

DC PFL replaces 90% of your average weekly wage on the portion up to 40 times the DC minimum wage, then 50% on any wage above that. The weekly benefit is capped at a statutory maximum that updates each year.

DC Paid Family Leave at a glance

The District of Columbia provides wage replacement through the Universal Paid Leave program, commonly called DC Paid Family Leave (DC PFL), rather than a standalone state disability fund. DC PFL pays benefits whether you take medical leave for your own serious health condition, family leave to care for a loved one, parental leave to bond with a new child, or prenatal leave. This calculator estimates your weekly benefit based on your earnings.

How it works

DC PFL uses a two-tier replacement formula tied to the DC minimum wage. The portion of your average weekly wage up to 40 times the minimum wage is replaced at 90%, and any wage above that threshold is replaced at 50%. The total is then capped at the statutory weekly maximum.

Using the 2025 figures (DC minimum wage of $17.50 per hour, maximum of $1,153):

Lower-tier threshold = 40 × $17.50 = $700.00 per week
Weekly maximum (2025) =              $1,153 per week

If AWW ≤ $700:  benefit = AWW × 0.90
If AWW > $700:  benefit = ($700 × 0.90) + (AWW − $700) × 0.50

Your average weekly wage (AWW) is your total covered wages divided by the number of weeks you worked.

Example and notes

A worker earning $48,000 over 52 weeks has an AWW of about $923.08. Because that exceeds the $700 threshold, the benefit is 90% of $700 ($630) plus 50% of the $223.08 above the threshold ($111.54), for roughly $742 per week. A higher earner is limited by the 2025 cap of $1,153 per week. Benefits run for up to 12 weeks in a 52-week period. This is an estimate only — the DC Office of Paid Family Leave makes the final determination, and the minimum-wage-linked figures update over time.

DC Paid Family Leave: what makes it different

How DC PFL compares to state disability programs elsewhere

Many states run a separate short-term disability (SDI) program — typically funded through employee payroll deductions and paying benefits for a worker’s own illness or injury. DC took a different approach: rather than a standalone SDI fund, the District created the Universal Paid Leave program, commonly called DC PFL, which covers multiple leave types under one umbrella. Employers, not employees, pay the DC PFL payroll tax (a percentage of covered wages), which means most workers do not see a visible payroll deduction — but benefits are still available when needed.

Leave types and their duration limits

DC PFL covers several distinct leave categories, each with its own week limit within a rolling 52-week period:

  • Medical leave — for your own serious health condition: up to 12 weeks.
  • Family leave — to care for a family member with a serious health condition: up to 12 weeks.
  • Parental leave — to bond with a new child (birth, adoption, foster placement): up to 12 weeks.
  • Prenatal leave — for pregnancy-related medical appointments and conditions before the birth: up to 2 additional weeks (added in 2022).

The 12-week limit is shared across leave types within the same 52-week window, so using 6 weeks of parental leave means only 6 more weeks of medical or family leave remain in that period. Prenatal leave is additive — it does not count against the 12-week total.

The base period and average weekly wage

Your DC PFL benefit is based on wages earned in the base period — the 52 calendar weeks immediately before the week your leave begins, during which you worked for a covered employer in DC. The average weekly wage (AWW) divides your total covered wages in that period by the number of weeks actually worked. If you worked part of the base period for an employer outside DC, only DC-covered wages count toward the benefit.

Why the benefit formula is linked to the minimum wage

DC anchors the two-tier replacement formula to a multiple of the DC minimum wage rather than a fixed dollar threshold. This design means the formula automatically adjusts upward when the minimum wage rises each July 1, maintaining a meaningful replacement rate for lower-wage workers without legislative action. The 90% replacement rate for wages in the lower tier is unusually generous by national standards — most state programs replace 60% to 67% — and was designed to ensure lower-income DC workers could actually afford to take leave.