How paid family leave protected a Colorado worker’s income during a sudden caregiving emergency
Gabe found his Colorado dream in Durango.
A young engineer who grew up on the Front Range, Gabe fell in love with the Four Corners region, where he has “endless, endless access to all the nature that I could ever want.”
He fell even harder for Durango itself — a place where he runs into neighbors around town, sees familiar faces at the Durango Farmers Market, and volunteers with the Good Food Collective. It’s a community that, in his words, has “this sort of human-nature touch that I’ve missed for a long time.”
But when a skiing accident left his mother needing extensive support to regain movement, everything changed. Suddenly, the life he was building in Durango felt uncertain. In the early hours and days after the accident, Gabe was simply trying to make sense of it all — how to adjust, how he’d manage day-to-day costs, and whether his mom would be okay.
He faced a choice no one should have to make: keep his job, or be at his mother’s side.
Thanks to Colorado’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program, he didn’t have to choose.
Gabe was surprised by how easy it was to apply — and even more surprised to learn he could take his leave in smaller blocks of time that matched his mother’s caregiving needs. Intermittent FAMLI leave allowed him to be there when work required it, and in Denver when his mom needed him most.
“To not have to worry about losing that paycheck was just one less thing I had to think about in the most difficult time of my life,” Gabe says. “I knew I could still pay rent and everything without having to dig into an emergency fund. And that I could be there 100% to support my mom.”
The Colorado Connection
Gabe’s story isn’t unique — and that’s the point. Since benefits became available in 2024, more than 47,000 Colorado workers have used FAMLI to care for a loved one.
Across the U.S., family caregiving is becoming more common and more complex. The number of caregivers has grown 45% in just 10 years. Today’s caregivers are younger, more diverse, and more likely to be balancing multiple jobs or caring for both children and aging parents.
The challenge is even greater outside major cities. Rural Americans are significantly less likely to have employer-provided paid leave, even though they often travel farther for healthcare and face higher costs just to access it.
That’s why Colorado built FAMLI differently.
Nearly every worker in our state — from Durango to Denver, from the plains to the mountains — now has the security of knowing they can be there when their family needs them without losing their financial footing. Gabe’s story shows what that looks like in real life: a Coloradan able to keep his job, keep his home, and keep his focus where it mattered most — on his mom’s recovery.
As Division Director Tracy Marshall sees it, FAMLI is helping Colorado caregivers combine the time to care with the stability to stay in the communities they call home.
“By replacing lost wages, we’re preventing families from falling into debt during some of life’s hardest moments,” said FAMLI Division Director Tracy Marshall. “That’s good for individual households, and it’s good for our entire economy.”
Find Out More: To see if you qualify for paid leave to care for a loved one, check out our Medical Leave to Care for a Family Member page. To start your claim and find step-by-step directions and an application checklist, check out the My FAMLI+ page.