Q&A with The Workplace Advisors – May 2025

As more organizations expand across multiple states and adopt remote work models, questions around compliance with federal leave laws have become increasingly complex. This month, The Workplace Advisors tackle a common question from employers with distributed teams: What are your FMLA obligations if you have over 50 employees total, but not in one location? Read on to learn how FMLA eligibility is determined—and why tracking where employees report is just as important as where they live.

Question: We have 55 employees across multiple states, with some working remotely. However, we do not have 50 employees in one location. What are our FMLA obligations?

Answer: Under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), any employer with 50 or more employees must notify their employees of their potential right to FMLA. This is done by posting the required notice and including an FMLA policy in your handbook. You would also need to process each employee going out on leave for FMLA, notifying them if they are eligible or not, within 5 days of learning of their need for leave.

One of the criteria to be eligible for FMLA is that the employee must work in a location with 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius. While reviewing their eligibility, you must calculate the number of employees within that radius of their workplace.

In the past couple of years, guidance has been issued that remote employees count toward the office they report to and receive their assignments from. For example, if an employee works 75 or more miles away from anyone else but reports to the company headquarters with 49 or more people, they would be eligible for FMLA (if they meet the other service and reason for leave criteria).

Your best course of action is to process everyone for FMLA in a timely manner once you have reached 50 total employees and account for their work location properly.