A new guide offers small businesses in Colorado information about the Family Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program.

The Division of Family and Medical Leave Insurance within the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment created the Small Business Guide to FAMLI to provide information about how small businesses — including startups and family firms — can access paid leave.

“We know that small businesses are opening every day in Colorado, and they have a lot of questions about meeting their FAMLI obligations. So we wanted to create a special guide just for them,” said Tracy Marshall, director of the FAMLI Division.

The guide offers information to help figure out:

How business structure affects FAMLI requirements

How to determine if someone is an independent contractor, employee or co-owner.

How to report premiums to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

Where self-employed Coloradans can go to find out how to qualify for paid family leave

The guide is designed especially for business owners and self-employed individuals outside urban and suburban areas who run such family-owned businesses as farms or ranches. Research shows rural residents are less likely than urban and suburban peers to have access to employer-sponsored paid family leave.

While the guide is geared for owners and operators, the FAMLI Division website offers resources for individuals and families about the benefits that will become available to them next year. Unlike the federal law that applies to companies with at least 50 employees, the Colorado program applies to any business — including those with just one employee.

For more information, visit

https://famli.colorado.gov/sites/famli/filesThe_Small_Business_Guide_to_FAMLI.pdf.