Family and Medical Leave in New Mexico

Employers in every state, including New Mexico, are subject to the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which allows eligible employees to take unpaid leave, with the right to reinstatement, to attend to certain health and family matters.

In addition, many states have their own laws that require employers to provide time off for family and medical reasons. New Mexico provides leave rights to victims of domestic violence, and requires most employers to provide up to eight days of paid sick leave to their employees per year.

Federal FMLA Rights

Who Is Covered?

In New Mexico, employers must comply with the FMLA if they have at least 50 employees for at least 20 weeks in the current or previous year.

Employees may take FMLA leave if:

• they have worked for the company for at least a year
• they worked at least 1,250 hours during the previous year, and
• they work at a location with at least 50 employees within a 75-mile radius.

Reasons for Leave

FMLA leave is available if an employee needs time off to:

• recuperate from a serious health condition
• care for a family member with a serious health condition
• bond with a new child
• handle qualifying exigencies arising out of a family member's military service, or
• care for a family member who suffered a serious injury during active duty in the military. (You can find out more about these last two types of leave for family members of those serving in the military in Nolo's article Military Family Leave for Employees.)

How Much Leave Is Available?

Employees in New Mexico may take up to 12 weeks of leave in a 12-month period for a serious health condition, bonding with a new child, or qualifying exigencies. This leave renews every 12 months, as long as the employee continues to meet the eligibility requirements set out above.

Employees may take up to 26 weeks of leave in a single 12-month period to care for a family member who was injured on active military duty. However, this leave is a per-injury, per-service member entitlement. Unless the same family member is injured again, or another family member suffers an injury while on active duty, an employee may not take an additional leave for this purpose.

Leave and Reinstatement Rights

Employees are entitled to continue their health insurance while on leave, at the same cost they must pay while working. Although FMLA leave is unpaid, employees may be allowed (or required) to use their accrued paid leave during FMLA leave.

When an employee's FMLA leave ends, the employee is entitled to be reinstated to the same or an equivalent position, with a few exceptions.

New Mexico Domestic Violence Leave

New Mexico law requires all employers to provide intermittent paid or unpaid leave time for employees to obtain or try to obtain a protective order or other judicial relief from domestic abuse, to meet with law enforcement officials, to consult with an attorney or district attorney's victim advocate, or to attend court proceedings relating to the employee's domestic abuse or the domestic abuse of the employee's family member. Employers must provide up to 14 days of leave for this purpose in any calendar year, which employees may use in increments of up to eight hours in one day.

New Mexico Healthy Workplaces Act

In April 2021, New Mexico enacted the Healthy Workplaces Act (HWA), would requires private employers in New Mexico with at least one employee to provide paid sick leave to employees. The law became effective on July 1, 2022.

Under the HWA, employees accrue sick leave at a rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked. Employees may use up to 64 hours of earned sick leave per 12-month period. As an alternative to the accrual process, employers may choose to grant employees the full 64 hours of earned sick leave on January 1 of each year.

Employees may use earned sick leave in the following circumstances:

• to care for or treat the employee's or a family member's mental or physical illness, injury, or condition, or to obtain preventative medical care for the employee or the employee's family member,
• meetings at the employee's child's school or place of care related to the child's health or disability, or
• to seek social, medical, psychological, or legal services for, or due to relocation of, the employee or a family member who is a victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking.

The HWA defines family member broadly to include, among others, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, domestic partners, family members of an employee's spouse or domestic partner, and people whose close association with the employee or the employee's spouse or domestic partner is the equivalent of a family relationship.

If You Need Help

If you think you might need FMLA leave or leave under New Mexico's state laws, you should inform your manager and/or HR department right away. Get a copy of the company's FMLA policy and find out what forms you'll need to complete. The FMLA imposes notice and paperwork requirements on both employees and employers, so it's important to act quickly.

You can find out more about the FMLA in Nolo's article Taking Family and Medical Leave and Nolo's book, The Essential Guide to Family and Medical Leave, by Lisa Guerin and Deborah C. England.