Is reproductive-loss leave required in California?

This is the newest of California's leave entitlements and the least likely to be in a small employer's handbook, partly because the events it covers are ones people tend not to announce. That combination — a real entitlement, rarely written down, rarely asked about — is where quiet violations live.

The covered events are defined rather than left to interpretation: a failed adoption, a failed surrogacy, a miscarriage, a stillbirth, or an unsuccessful assisted-reproduction procedure. The leave is up to five days per event, need not be taken consecutively, and must be completed within three months of the event.

Where more than one loss occurs in a twelve-month period, the employer is not required to grant more than twenty days total in that period. That ceiling is the only limit on repeat events, and it is generous by design.

Two constraints matter more than the day count. The leave may be unpaid, but the employee may use accrued paid time they already hold. And the employer must keep the request confidential — which, on a subject this private, is the part an employee will remember longest.