SDI and Paid Family Leave on Your Paycheck
What the SDI, CASDI, NYPFL, or FLI line on your pay stub is, which 13 states withhold it in 2026, the employee rates, and what it costs per check.
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There is a line on your pay stub labeled CASDI, or NYPFL, or FLI, or just “Paid Leave,” and nobody ever explained it. Despite sitting right next to the federal tax and Social Security lines, it is neither one. It is an insurance premium for a program your state runs.
Thirteen states withhold something like it in 2026, and the rates, caps, and even the number of lines on your stub change depending on where you work. So the answer to “what is this and what is it costing me” depends entirely on your state.
What That SDI or Paid Leave Line Actually Is
It is a state-run wage-replacement insurance premium. Your employer withholds it from your gross wages and sends it to a state fund, or to a private plan the state has approved. None of it goes to the IRS.
The label depends on your state. If you are trying to match a string off your stub, look for any of these:
| Label | State | Program |
|---|---|---|
| CASDI / SDI | California | State Disability Insurance |
| VPDI | California | Voluntary Plan disability (private, EDD-approved) |
| DBL | New York | Disability Benefits Law |
| NYPFL | New York | Paid Family Leave |
| TDI | New Jersey, Rhode Island, Hawaii | Temporary Disability Insurance |
| FLI | New Jersey | Family Leave Insurance |
| TCI | Rhode Island | Temporary Caregiver Insurance |
| CTPL | Connecticut | CT Paid Leave |
| FAMLI | Colorado (and Maryland from 2027) | Family and Medical Leave Insurance |
| PFML / Paid Leave | WA, MA, ME, MN, OR, DE | Paid Family and Medical Leave |
Two different things get funded here, and the difference matters when you go to file a claim.
Disability insurance covers your own non-work-related illness, injury, or pregnancy. Paid family leave covers time off to bond with a new child or care for a seriously ill family member. Some states charge one deduction for both, and some charge two.
One more distinction, because these three get mixed up constantly. A work-related injury is workers’ compensation, a separate system funded entirely by your employer with nothing withheld from you. And Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is a federal long-term program paid for out of the 6.2% Social Security line, not this one. State disability insurance is short-term, state-run, and unrelated to both.
Which States Take It Out of Your Check in 2026
The number that covers most people first: 37 states withhold nothing for this. If you do not work in one of the jurisdictions below, you will never see this line, no matter what your coworker in California tells you.
The states that do withhold fall into four structures.
One deduction, both programs
California and Rhode Island fund disability and family leave out of a single line. California’s SDI pays for both Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave. Rhode Island is explicit that “TCI is not a separate state program; TCI is part of the TDI program,” so one TDI deduction covers both.
| State | 2026 employee rate | Wage cap | Max annual contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| California (SDI) | 1.3% (2025: 1.2%) | None | No maximum |
| Rhode Island (TDI) | 1.1% (2025: 1.3%) | $100,000 (2025: $89,200) | $1,100.00 |
Two separate deductions on the same stub
New Jersey and New York run disability and family leave as distinct programs, so you get two lines. Workers in those states see the pair and assume they are being double-charged for one thing, when they are really paying two separate premiums for two separate programs.
| State | Program | 2026 employee rate | Wage cap | Max annual contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | TDI | 0.19% | $171,100 | $325.09 |
| New Jersey | FLI | 0.23% | $171,100 | $393.53 |
| New York | DBL | 0.5% of wages, capped at $0.60/week | about $120/week of wages | $31.20 |
| New York | PFL | 0.432% | wages to 52 × NYSAWW | $411.91 |
New Jersey’s combined TDI plus FLI maximum for 2026 is $718.62. New Jersey’s FLI is 100% worker-funded, which is worth knowing before you assume your employer is splitting it.
Paid family and medical leave with one shared premium
These eight states run a single PFML program covering both medical and family leave, and split the premium between employer and employee. The number on your stub is the employee share, not the program total, which is where most rate tables get it wrong.
| State | Total 2026 premium | Employee share | Wage cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington | 1.13% (2025: 0.92%) | up to 71.43% of it, about 0.81% | $184,500 |
| Massachusetts | 0.88% (25+ employees) | 0.46% (0.28% medical + 0.18% family) | $184,500 |
| Connecticut | 0.5% | 0.5%, 100% employee-funded | $184,500 |
| Colorado | 0.88% | 0.44% (half) | $184,500 |
| Oregon | 1.0% | 0.60% (60% of the premium) | $184,500 |
| Delaware | 0.8% | 0.4% maximum (half) | $184,500 |
| Maine | 1.0% (15+ employees) | 0.5% | $184,500 |
| Minnesota | 0.88% (0.66% small employer) | up to 0.44% | $185,000 (Social Security base rounded up) |
Annual maximums for this group work out to roughly rate times the $184,500 Social Security wage base: about $1,489 in Washington, about $1,107 in Oregon, about $923 in Connecticut and Maine, about $849 in Massachusetts, about $812 in Colorado. Two states publish firm employee maximums instead: $738 in Delaware and $814 in Minnesota, which caps at $185,000 because it rounds the Social Security base up to the nearest thousand. Minnesota is new: both contributions and benefits started January 1, 2026.
Employer may absorb the whole cost
Hawaii is its own case. The employer may pay 100% of the TDI premium, and many do. When an employer does withhold, it can take only the lesser of half the plan cost, 0.5% of weekly wages, or $7.50 a week for 2026, against a maximum weekly wage base of $1,500.21. A Hawaii worker’s line can legitimately read $0.
Not on your stub, yet or ever
Maryland shows up on a lot of 2025-era lists as a 2026 deduction state. It is not. FAMLI contributions were pushed to January 1, 2027, at 0.90% split evenly (0.45% employee), with benefits arriving by January 2028. Nothing comes out of a Maryland check in 2026.
Washington D.C. funds its paid family leave program entirely through an employer tax. D.C. workers have no employee deduction at all.
Why California’s Deduction Never Stops
California SDI has no wage cap. Senate Bill 951 removed the taxable wage limit and the maximum withholding effective January 1, 2024. There is no ceiling and no annual maximum contribution.
Compare that to Social Security, which stops. The 6.2% Social Security tax applies only up to the wage base, $184,500 for 2026. Cross that, and the line goes to zero for the rest of the year. Our FICA tax explainer walks through how that cap works.
So picture a California worker earning $200,000. Sometime in the fall, their Social Security line drops off the stub entirely. Their SDI line keeps charging 1.3% in November, in December, on the last check of the year. At $200,000 of wages that is $2,600 in SDI, with no cap in sight.
There is a second-order consequence that stale advice still gets wrong. California’s Excess SDI credit is gone. With no wage cap, over-withholding is not possible, so there is nothing to reclaim. The Franchise Tax Board has marked the excess-SDI line on the personal income tax return “reserved for future use.” If you see 2023-era advice telling California multi-job workers to claim excess SDI, it no longer applies.
New Jersey and Rhode Island are different, because their caps are per employer. Work two jobs in New Jersey and each employer withholds against the $171,100 base independently, with no idea about the other. Your combined contributions can clear the annual maximums, and you claim the excess back on Form NJ-2450 with your state return. Rhode Island has the same mechanic against its $100,000 base.
Rates also reset every January, and three moved for 2026. California went up (1.2% to 1.3%). Washington went up (0.92% to 1.13% total). Rhode Island went down, 1.3% to 1.1%, while raising its wage base from $89,200 to $100,000, which dropped the maximum contribution from $1,159.60 to $1,100.00. Any “what is my SDI rate” answer has a shelf life of about twelve months.
What This Deduction Costs You Per Paycheck
Percentages are hard to feel until you put a wage behind them. Take a worker at $22 an hour, 40 hours a week, so $880 gross weekly and $45,760 a year.
| State | 2026 employee rate | Per week | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| California (SDI) | 1.3% | $11.44 | $594.88 |
| Rhode Island (TDI/TCI) | 1.1% | $9.68 | $503.36 |
| Washington (PFML) | about 0.81% | about $7.11 | about $369.65 |
| Oregon (Paid Leave) | 0.60% | $5.28 | $274.56 |
| Connecticut (CTPL) | 0.50% | $4.40 | $228.80 |
| Maine (PFML) | 0.50% | $4.40 | $228.80 |
| Hawaii (TDI, if withheld) | 0.50% | $4.40 | $228.80 |
| Massachusetts (PFML) | 0.46% | $4.05 | $210.50 |
| New York (DBL + PFL) | $0.60/wk + 0.432% | $4.40 | about $228.88 |
| Colorado (FAMLI) | 0.44% | $3.87 | $201.34 |
| Minnesota (Paid Leave) | 0.44% | $3.87 | $201.34 |
| New Jersey (TDI + FLI) | 0.42% combined | $3.70 | $192.19 |
| Delaware (Paid Leave) | 0.40% | $3.52 | $183.04 |
For scale, that same $880 check pays $54.56 to Social Security (6.2%) and $12.76 to Medicare (1.45%) every week. So outside California and Rhode Island, the state leave premium is a rounding error next to FICA. In California it runs about a fifth of the Social Security bite, and in Rhode Island close to that.
One structural detail: these are flat percentages on gross wages. No brackets, no standard deduction, no phase-outs. Your fortieth hour and your fifty-fifth hour are hit at exactly the same rate, and so is a second job’s paycheck. If you are working two jobs, each employer withholds independently against its own cap.
Washington workers get tripped up by this one. Washington has no state income tax, but it still withholds a PFML premium. “No income tax” does not mean “nothing withheld beyond FICA.”
What You Get For It, and How the Benefits Are Taxed
You are buying short-term wage replacement. California pays up to $1,765 a week for 2026 (against a state average weekly wage of $1,789), with Paid Family Leave running up to 8 weeks. New York PFL pays 12 weeks at 67% of your average weekly wage, capped at $1,228.53 a week for 2026. New Jersey’s maximum weekly benefit is $1,119 for 2026, with eligibility at 20 base weeks at $310 a week or $15,500 in total earnings. Rhode Island’s TCI portion runs up to 8 weeks of caregiver payments for 2026, up from 7 weeks in 2025.
Every state sets its own eligibility rules, benefit weeks, and wage-replacement percentage, so check your own agency before you plan around a number.
Tax treatment is the messy part, and the IRS only settled it recently.
- Your contributions come out after tax. They are included in your gross income (IRS Revenue Ruling 2025-4). They may be deductible as state and local taxes if you itemize. This is the opposite of a pre-tax deduction like a traditional 401(k) or an HSA, which reduces taxable wages up front.
- Family leave benefits are taxable on your federal return and reported on Form 1099-G.
- Disability benefits are generally not taxable, with exceptions, notably when disability payments substitute for unemployment benefits.
- Medical leave benefits under the newer PFML programs get split. The portion attributable to your own after-tax contributions is not taxable; the portion attributable to employer contributions is.
- California PFL benefits are federally taxable but exempt from California state income tax.
IRS Notice 2026-06 extended part of the transition relief through 2026, specifically for state-paid medical leave benefits attributable to employer contributions. Family leave reporting was not part of that extension. Reporting practice is still settling across states, so expect some inconsistency in what lands in your mailbox.
What to Check on Your Own Pay Stub
Five quick checks, in order:
- Match the label to a program your state actually runs. A “PFL” line on a Texas stub is a private policy, not a state program.
- Verify the rate against your state agency. Rates reset every January, and 2026 moved in both directions.
- If you are in New York or New Jersey, expect two lines. Two deductions is correct, not a double charge.
- If you worked two jobs in New Jersey or Rhode Island, check the annual maximum. Per-employer caps mean you may have over-contributed, and New Jersey Form NJ-2450 claims it back. California readers: skip this step, there is no excess to reclaim.
- If you are in Hawaii and the line is $0, that is probably fine. Your employer may be covering the whole premium.
Once you know your rate, the arithmetic never changes, which makes it easy to build into your own paycheck math. ClockWage44 computes federal income tax, state income tax, Social Security, and Medicare on every shift you log, and it carries a per-job list of recurring deductions where each entry is a fixed dollar amount or a percentage. Add your state’s rate once as a recurring percentage deduction and every future estimate carries it forward: 1.3% for a California job, a fixed $0.60 plus 0.432% for a New York one, 0.19% and 0.23% for New Jersey. Each job keeps its own list, which mirrors how the state actually charges you when you work more than one.
To sanity-check the rest of the stub, the take-home pay calculator covers federal, state, and FICA withholding, and how to read a pay stub walks through every other line. If your check still came in light, why your paycheck is lower than expected covers the usual suspects.
References
- CA EDD: Rates and Withholding: 2026 SDI rate of 1.3%, no taxable wage limit, maximum weekly benefit of $1,765.
- New York Paid Family Leave: 2026 Rates: 0.432% employee rate, $411.91 annual maximum, 12 weeks at 67%.
- NJ DOL: Temporary Disability and Family Leave Insurance Rates: 2026 TDI 0.19% and FLI 0.23% on a $171,100 wage base.
- RI DLT: 2026 Tax Rates for UI and TDI: TDI 1.1% on a $100,000 wage base, $1,100.00 maximum.
- WA ESD: Paid Family and Medical Leave Premium Rate for 2026: 1.13% total premium with an employee share up to 71.43%.
- CT Paid Leave: Contributions: 0.5% employee-funded, capped at the Social Security wage base.
- Minnesota Paid Leave: Premium Rate and Contributions: 0.88% for 2026 with up to 0.44% deducted from employees.
- IRS Revenue Ruling 2025-4: federal tax treatment of state paid family and medical leave contributions and benefits.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the SDI deduction on my paycheck?
It is your contribution to a state-run disability or paid family leave insurance fund, withheld by your employer and sent to the state. It is not a federal tax and it is not Social Security. Depending on your state it may appear as CASDI, SDI, VPDI, DBL, NYPFL, FLI, TDI, CTPL, FAMLI, or Paid Leave.
Which states take state disability or paid family leave out of your paycheck?
For 2026: California, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Washington, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Colorado, Oregon, Delaware, Maine, and Minnesota. Maryland's deductions do not start until January 1, 2027, and Washington D.C.'s program is employer-funded, so D.C. workers see nothing withheld.
How much is California SDI in 2026?
1.3% of your wages, up from 1.2% in 2025. On $880 of weekly gross that is $11.44 a week, about $595 a year. California removed the taxable wage limit in 2024, so unlike Social Security the deduction never stops partway through the year.
Does the SDI deduction stop once I hit a wage limit?
In most states, yes. New Jersey caps contributions at $171,100 of wages and Rhode Island at $100,000, while Connecticut, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Delaware, and Maine cap at the federal Social Security wage base of $184,500 for 2026 and Minnesota caps at $185,000. California is the exception, with no cap at all.
Can I opt out of the SDI or paid family leave deduction?
Almost never. In California an individual employee cannot opt out. The only exits are an EDD-approved employer Voluntary Plan (which shows up as VPDI on your stub) or a narrow religious-sect exemption. Other states work the same way, because participation is mandatory for covered employees.
Is SDI the same as Social Security disability?
No. State disability insurance is a short-term program run by your state that replaces part of your wages for weeks or months. Social Security Disability Insurance is a federal program for long-term disability, funded through the 6.2% Social Security line on your stub. Neither one covers on-the-job injuries, which fall under workers' compensation and are paid for entirely by your employer.
Are paid family leave benefits taxable?
Family leave benefits are taxable on your federal return and reported to you on Form 1099-G. Disability benefits usually are not taxable. California PFL benefits are federally taxable but exempt from California state income tax. Your contributions come out after tax, so they may count toward your state and local tax deduction if you itemize.