How much does California SDI pay in 2026?
Short answer: California State Disability Insurance pays 90% of your average weekly wage if you earn about $65,000 a year or less. Above that, it pays the greater of 70% of your wages or $1,127.07 per week. The maximum anyone can receive is $1,765 per week.
If you've spent the last hour landing on pages that contradict each other, you're not doing anything wrong. This system is genuinely confusing, and a lot of what's published about it is out of date. Let me walk you through it properly.
First, why the numbers you've seen don't match
You've probably read that SDI pays 60%. Or 70%. Both were true at some point, which is exactly why searching this is so maddening.
Senate Bill 951 raised the rates starting in 2025, and the 2026 figures went up again. Lower earners got the biggest increase — moving from 70% to 90% of wages makes a real difference when you're covering rent on one income for a few months.
So if you found a number that felt too low, it probably was. Here's the current schedule:
Your annual salary Weekly benefit Over 18 weeks
If you earn $40,000 — about $692 a week, roughly $12,462 over 18 weeks
If you earn $52,000 — about $900 a week, roughly $16,200 over 18 weeks
If you earn $65,000 — about $1,125 a week, roughly $20,250 over 18 weeks
If you earn $70,000 — about $1,127 a week, roughly $20,287 over 18 weeks
If you earn $85,000 — about $1,144 a week, roughly $20,596 over 18 weeks
If you earn $100,000 — about $1,346 a week, roughly $24,231 over 18 weeks
If you earn $131,000 or more — $1,765 a week, the maximum, roughly $31,770 over 18 weeks
You might notice something odd between $65,000 and $85,000 — the benefit barely moves. That's not a typo, and you haven't misread it. There's a floor of $1,127.07 a week that catches higher earners whose 70% calculation would otherwise land below it, so the curve flattens through that range before climbing again. It's a quirk of how the tiers were written, and it trips up a lot of people who assume they've made an arithmetic error.
The part that surprises almost everyone
Here's what I really want you to know before you build a budget around any number, because this is where people get blindsided.
The EDD doesn't use your current salary.
They look at something called a base period — a 12-month window that ended roughly five to eighteen months before your claim starts. Inside that window, they find your highest-earning quarter and calculate from that.
I know. It's a strange way to do it, and nobody explains it up front.
What that means in practice:
Got a raise six months ago? Your benefit may still be based on your old salary.
Dropped to part-time during pregnancy? The EDD may still be working from your full-time earnings — which actually works in your favor.
Moved to California in the last year or so? You may not have enough California wages on record yet, no matter what you earn now.
Took time off, were between jobs, or went back to school during that window? It can lower your benefit or affect whether you qualify at all.
There's no way to work this out from your paystub, which is frustrating when you just want a straight answer. The only reliable source is your actual wage record — log in to myEDD at edd.ca.gov and look. Worth doing early, so there are no surprises later.
How long the payments last
SDI covers your pregnancy disability period, not your whole leave. The standard periods:
About 4 weeks before your due date
6 weeks after a vaginal delivery
8 weeks after a C-section
Once that ends, Paid Family Leave picks up for 8 weeks of bonding, paid at the same rate. So most birth parents end up with 18 weeks of paid leave — 10 weeks of SDI plus 8 of PFL — or 20 weeks after a C-section.
One thing worth knowing early rather than late: unused prenatal SDI doesn't roll over. If you work right up to your due date, those four weeks aren't saved for afterward. They're just gone. Worth factoring in while you still have the choice.
If you need longer than the standard period
I want to tell you about this part from experience rather than from a rulebook, because it's where things got hard for me.
Eight months ago I had my first baby, and I needed a disability extension. I expected paperwork. What I got was weeks of back-and-forth — the state couldn't locate documents my doctor had filed, my HR team had gone quiet, and I was lying awake genuinely worried about losing my job while the extension sat unresolved. All of this while recovering, not sleeping, and dealing with postpartum anxiety and depression.
If you're anywhere near that place right now: I'm sorry. It shouldn't be this hard, and the fact that it's hard is not a reflection on you.
Two things I wish someone had told me:
Your doctor may need to file in more than one place. Mine had to submit certification to the EDD and, separately, to my employer's disability carrier. Nobody mentioned the second one. I assumed filing with the state was the whole job, and that gap cost me weeks I didn't have the energy to spare.
Silence from HR often isn't what it looks like. Mine went quiet for days and I assumed I was being ignored. It turned out my documents were landing in their junk folder and they'd never seen a single one. I only found out because I tried Slack instead of email. If you're waiting and hearing nothing, try a different channel before you assume the worst — a small thing that can save you a week of dread.
Medical extensions are certified case by case by your doctor, based on what you actually need. There's no fixed number of weeks, and anyone who promises you a specific amount is guessing.
Quick answers to things people ask me
Is SDI taxable? Not by California, and not federally for pregnancy disability benefits. PFL bonding benefits are federally taxable, and you'll get a 1099-G for those.
Do I need to have worked somewhere a full year? No — not for the money. SDI and PFL have no tenure requirement at all. The 12-month and 1,250-hour tests belong to CFRA and FMLA, which are about job protection. That's a separate question from whether you get paid, and the two get conflated constantly.
Does my employer pay for this? No. SDI comes out of a payroll deduction from your own paychecks — the line on your paystub labeled CASDI. You've already been funding this. Some employers top it up, but the state benefit isn't coming from them.
What if I'm self-employed? Then none of this applies unless you enrolled in EDD Elective Coverage ahead of time. It isn't something you can opt into once you're already pregnant, which is a hard thing to find out late.
Knowing the number is the easy part
Working out what you'll be paid takes about thirty seconds. Working out which forms to file, when your claim can open, what to send HR, and what to do when something goes sideways — that's the part that eats your weeks, usually at the exact moment you have the least to give.
Try the free calculator to see your estimate and your key dates.
And if you'd rather not piece it together on your own, the CA Leave Planner builds your personalized timeline, tells you exactly what to file and when, and gives you an assistant trained on California leave rules that you can ask anything — at 2am, as many times as you need, without ever feeling like you're being a bother.
This page provides general educational information about California leave programs, not legal advice. Figures reflect 2026 EDD rates and are updated each January.