AB 1041 and the CFRA Designated Person Expansion — Who Qualifies for California Family Leave

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Last updated: June 2026 — Reflects AB 1041 as effective January 1, 2023, and all CFRA and Paid Family Leave regulations in effect as of January 1, 2026.

California's Family Rights Act has always been broader than the federal Family and Medical Leave Act in terms of employer coverage and qualifying conditions. Before January 1, 2023, however, both statutes shared a common limitation: leave to care for a family member was restricted to a defined list of relationships.

Employees could take leave to care for a spouse, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, or parent-in-law — but not a close friend, a domestic partner's parent, a roommate in failing health, or any person outside the statutory list.

AB 1041, effective January 1, 2023, dismantled that limitation by amending Government Code § 12945.2 — the core CFRA statute — to add a new category: the designated person. Under AB 1041, an employee may designate one person per 12-month period whose care qualifies for CFRA-protected leave, regardless of whether that person is related to the employee by blood, marriage, or adoption.

The same bill simultaneously amended California's Paid Family Leave program to extend wage-replacement benefits to employees caring for a designated person, meaning that for qualifying employees, both the job-protection framework and the partial wage-replacement benefit now cover the same expanded range of care relationships.

The federal FMLA was not amended. The designated-person category exists only under California law. This creates one of the most significant gaps between state and federal leave entitlements in current California employment law — and one that employers administering leave under the federal framework routinely misapply.

How the Designated Person Works

The mechanics of the designation are straightforward but carry important procedural implications.

An employee who needs leave to care for someone who does not fall within CFRA's traditional family-member categories designates that person when requesting leave. The designation is the employee's choice — the employer cannot direct the employee to designate a specific person or refuse to recognize a valid designation.

The employee may designate any individual — a close friend, a neighbor, a domestic partner's parent, a former spouse, a mentor, or any other person for whom the employee is providing care.

The designation is limited to one person per 12-month period. If the employee has already used their designation for one person during the CFRA year, a second designation is not available under the same CFRA entitlement period.

Employees who anticipate needing to care for multiple individuals in a given year should plan designations accordingly, and California employment counsel can advise on strategies for managing this limitation when the need is foreseeable.

The employer may require the employee to provide the name of the designated person when requesting leave. This is the only information the employer may seek about the designation itself.

The employer may not require the employee to justify the choice of a designated person, explain the relationship, or produce evidence that the relationship meets any particular standard of closeness or dependency. The statute imposes no qualifying threshold for the designation, other than the employee's own decision to make it.

The CFRA/FMLA Gap Created by AB 1041

Before AB 1041, CFRA and FMLA ran concurrently in most scenarios where both applied — an employee taking leave to care for a parent used CFRA and FMLA simultaneously, with both clocks running at the same time. AB 1041 created a category of CFRA leave that has no federal counterpart.

When an employee takes leave to care for a designated person who is not a qualifying family member under the FMLA, the CFRA clock runs — but the FMLA clock does not. The practical consequence is that the employee may have used 12 weeks of CFRA leave for a designated-person situation and still have the full federal FMLA entitlement available for a qualifying family member or the employee's own serious health condition in the same 12-month period.

Employers who automatically run CFRA and FMLA concurrently for all leave requests — a common and often correct default — will make a significant error if they apply concurrent running to designated-person leave. The designated person's leave draws only from the CFRA bank. The FMLA bank is unaffected.

This matters most when the employee later develops a serious health condition or needs to care for a qualifying FMLA family member during the same 12-month period. An employer who incorrectly depleted the FMLA entitlement during designated-person leave has violated the FMLA's anti-interference provisions under 29 U.S.C. § 2615 — providing a federal cause of action alongside any CFRA claim.

How AB 1041 Interacts With Paid Family Leave

AB 1041's companion amendment to California's Paid Family Leave program extended wage-replacement benefits through the California Employment Development Department to employees caring for a designated person. This alignment is critical because it closes a gap that previously left employees in a difficult position — CFRA-protected leave for a non-statutory family member, but no wage-replacement benefit during that leave.

California's Paid Family Leave provides partial wage replacement — currently approximately 60 to 70 percent of weekly wages up to a statutory cap — for up to eight weeks of caregiving leave. The designated-person expansion means that this benefit is now available to employees caring for the same expanded category of individuals who qualify under CFRA.

The filing process for Paid Family Leave benefits is handled by the California Employment Development Department, separately from the employer's leave administration.

Employees should file the EDD claim simultaneously with submitting the CFRA leave request to the employer — the two processes run in parallel, and a delay in filing the EDD claim can result in loss of benefit weeks.

Employer Violations Involving Designated-Person Leave

Because designated-person leave is new and unfamiliar, employer violations tend to cluster around a predictable set of misapplications.

Refusing to recognize the designation. The employer tells the employee the designated person does not qualify because the relationship is not a traditional family relationship. This is a textbook CFRA interference violation under Government Code § 12945.2. The employer has no authority to evaluate the nature of the relationship — only to request the designee's name.

Requiring a relationship justification. The employer demands that the employee explain how they know the designated person, describe the nature of the relationship, or demonstrate that the designated person is in some meaningful sense dependent on the employee. None of these inquiries are permitted. The designation is the employee's alone to make.

Incorrectly running FMLA concurrently. As discussed above, the employer depletes the employee's FMLA bank during designated-person leave. This is both a CFRA interference violation and a federal FMLA interference violation — the employer has incorrectly charged federal leave entitlement that was never triggered.

Retaliating after designated-person leave. The employee uses designated-person leave, returns from leave, and is then subject to adverse employment action — reduced hours, a negative performance review, exclusion from projects, or termination.

This gives rise to a retaliation claim under Government Code § 12940(h) and the CFRA anti-retaliation provisions, with the temporal proximity between the leave and the adverse action providing direct circumstantial evidence of motive. The same California workplace retaliation doctrines that apply to other protected activity apply in full here.

Miscounting the designation limit. The employer tells the employee they cannot use a second CFRA designation in the same 12-month period for a different person.

This is accurate — the limitation is one designation per year — but employers sometimes misapply the rule to deny leave for the originally designated person's recurring care needs during the same CFRA year, which is incorrect. The one-designation limit governs who may be designated, not how many times the employee may take leave to care for that person.

What Employees Should Know Before Designating

Choose carefully. The one-designation-per-year rule means the choice has consequences. An employee who designates a friend in January and then needs to care for a different person in September cannot make a second designation for that calendar year. Where the need is foreseeable, designating the person most likely to require ongoing care during the year makes strategic sense.

Document the designation. When requesting leave, put the designation in writing — in the leave request itself or in a follow-up email confirming the designation. This creates a clear record of when the designation was made and who was designated, which matters if the employer later disputes the leave's legitimacy.

File the EDD Paid Family Leave claim promptly. The California EDD processes Paid Family Leave claims separately from the employer's leave administration. The claim must be filed with the EDD — not just with the employer — to receive wage-replacement benefits during the leave period. File as soon as the leave begins.

Understand the CFRA medical certification process. Even for designated-person leave, the employer may require medical certification of the designated person's serious health condition within 15 calendar days of the request. The certification confirms the serious-health-condition threshold is met — it does not inquire into the nature of the relationship.

Filing a CFRA Violation Claim

CFRA violations — including interference with designated-person leave — are filed with the California Civil Rights Department within three years of the most recent violation. After the CRD issues a right-to-sue notice, the employee has one year to file a civil lawsuit in Superior Court.

Federal FMLA interference claims arising from the same facts can be filed directly in federal court within two years, or three years for willful violations, without prior administrative exhaustion.

Many California medical leave cases combine CFRA and FMLA theories in a single state court action, which preserves both sets of remedies without bifurcating the litigation.

For the full damages framework available in California medical leave cases — including back pay, front pay, emotional distress, punitive damages, and mandatory attorney's fees — see our guide on California medical leave violations.

For the related accommodation analysis that applies when leave is exhausted, and the employee still cannot return to work, see our guide on FEHA accommodation after CFRA exhaustion — a separate and independent obligation that employers frequently overlook.

Frequently Asked Questions — AB 1041 and the Designated Person

Who counts as a designated person under CFRA? Any individual the employee designates. There is no requirement that the designated person be a family member, a domestic partner, or someone with any particular legal or financial relationship to the employee. The employee's own choice determines who qualifies — the employer cannot challenge or override that choice.

Can my employer ask why I chose a particular person as my designated person? No. The employer may request the name of the designated person when you submit your leave request. That is the full extent of the inquiry permitted. The employer may not ask about the nature of the relationship, require proof of the relationship's closeness, or demand any documentation justifying the designation itself.

Does the designated-person leave count against my FMLA entitlement? No. Because the designated-person category has no federal equivalent, designated-person leave draws only from your CFRA bank — not your FMLA bank. An employer who incorrectly charges FMLA leave during designated-person leave has committed an FMLA interference violation in addition to any CFRA violation.

Can I take intermittent leave under AB 1041 to care for my designated person? Yes. Intermittent leave is available for designated-person caregiving on the same terms as for any other CFRA qualifying reason — provided the designated person's condition qualifies as a serious health condition and the intermittent schedule is medically necessary. The employer may not require you to take leave in a continuous block when intermittent is appropriate.

What happens if I used my one designation and then need to care for someone else? You have one designation per 12-month CFRA period. A second designation for a different person is not available under CFRA until the new CFRA year begins. Leave to care for the second person may still qualify under CFRA's traditional family-member categories if that person falls within the existing list — spouse, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, parent-in-law — in which case no designation is required.

Does AB 1041 apply to all California employers? It applies to all employers covered by CFRA — employers with five or more employees in California. For employers with fewer than five employees, neither CFRA nor AB 1041's designated-person expansion applies. PDL — which covers pregnancy-related disability regardless of the designated-person expansion — also applies at the five-employee threshold under Government Code § 12945.

Does the AB 1041 Paid Family Leave expansion require a separate application? Yes. Paid Family Leave wage-replacement benefits are administered by the California Employment Development Department — not by the employer. To receive PFL benefits during designated-person caregiving leave, you must file a separate claim with the EDD. The employer's leave approval does not automatically trigger EDD payment — the two processes are independent.

If your employer denied CFRA leave for a designated person, incorrectly applied your federal FMLA entitlement, or retaliated against you for taking designated-person leave, connect with a vetted California employment attorney through our State Bar-certified referral service. Use our Fired in California — Do I Have a Case checker for a preliminary assessment.

DISCLOSURE: 1000Attorneys.com is a California State Bar–certified Lawyer Referral and Information Service (LRIS #0128), accredited by the American Bar Association. This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by reading this content. Employment law facts are highly case-specific — consult a licensed California attorney for advice on your particular situation.