Earned sick leave accrual mandate
New Jersey requires every employer to provide earned sick leave to employees working in the state. Employees accrue one hour of earned sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 40 hours per benefit year. Employers may alternatively provide the full 40 hours at the beginning of each benefit year rather than using the accrual method.
Source: N.J.S.A. 34:11D-2
Family Leave Insurance benefit duration and amount
New Jersey's Family Leave Insurance (FLI) program provides wage-replacement benefits to covered workers who take leave to bond with a new child, care for a family member with a serious health condition, or handle matters related to domestic or sexual violence. Workers may receive up to 12 consecutive weeks of benefits in a 12-month period, or up to 56 individual days (eight weeks) if taking intermittent leave. The weekly benefit rate is 85% of the worker's average weekly wage, subject to an annual maximum. FLI provides cash benefits only and does not guarantee job protection, though workers' jobs may be protected separately under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act or the New Jersey Family Leave Act.
Source: NJ Division of Temporary Disability and Family Leave Insurance
NJFLA job-protected leave — employer coverage and employee eligibility
The New Jersey Family Leave Act (NJFLA), N.J.S.A. 34:11B-1 et seq., provides eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in any 24-month period for qualifying family-related reasons. Unlike the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the NJFLA does not cover an employee's own serious health condition — that remains the province of New Jersey's Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) program and the federal FMLA.
Covered reasons
An eligible employee may take NJFLA leave to:
- Bond with a new child within one year of the child's birth, adoption, or foster-care placement.
- Care for a family member who has a serious health condition. "Family member" is defined broadly to include spouse, domestic partner, civil union partner, child, parent, parent-in-law, step-parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, any blood relative, or anyone with whom the employee has a close association equivalent to a family relationship.
- Respond to a public-health emergency, including caring for a child whose school or place of care is closed by order of a public official due to an epidemic of a communicable disease, or when a public health authority requires isolation or quarantine (added by 2020 amendments in response to COVID-19).
The statute explicitly states that family leave may be paid, unpaid, or a combination; if an employer provides paid family leave for fewer than 12 weeks, the additional weeks needed to reach 12 may be unpaid (N.J.S.A. 34:11B-4(d)).
Current employer coverage and employee eligibility (through July 16, 2026)
Through July 16, 2026, the NJFLA applies to employers with 30 or more employees for each working day during each of 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or immediately preceding calendar year. The employee count is worldwide, not limited to New Jersey-based employees. Public employers (state and local government agencies) are covered regardless of size.
Employees are eligible if they have been employed for at least 12 months and have worked at least 1,000 hours in the 12 months immediately preceding the leave.
Expanded coverage and eligibility (effective July 17, 2026)
On January 17, 2026, amendments to the NJFLA were signed into law (A3451/S2950). These amendments take effect July 17, 2026 (six months after enactment) and substantially lower both the employer-coverage threshold and the employee-eligibility requirements.
Beginning July 17, 2026:
- Employer coverage extends to private employers with 15 or more employees worldwide (down from 30). Public employers remain covered at any size.
- Employee eligibility drops to 3 months of employment and 250 hours worked in the immediately preceding 12-month period (down from 12 months and 1,000 hours).
The New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, which enforces the NJFLA, announced that the amendments will provide job-protected family leave to more New Jersey workers, including part-time employees, recent hires, and seasonal workers who did not previously qualify. The Division has stated it will issue updated guidance and resources reflecting the legislative amendments after the July 17, 2026 effective date.
Reinstatement and job protection
Employees returning from NJFLA leave are entitled to be restored to the position they held when the leave commenced, or to an equivalent position with the same seniority, status, employment benefits, pay, and other terms and conditions of employment (N.J.S.A. 34:11B-7). The statute requires that employees be treated as if they had never taken leave for purposes of any layoff or recall system, including those governed by a collective bargaining agreement.
Reinstatement is not required if the employer experiences a reduction in force or layoff and can demonstrate that the employee would have lost the position regardless of the leave, pursuant to the good-faith operation of a bona fide layoff and recall system.
The NJFLA prohibits employers from withholding any right or benefit of employment, or discharging or discriminating against an employee, because the employee exercised rights under the Act (N.J.S.A. 34:11B-9). An employee may bring suit or file a complaint with the Division on Civil Rights within two years of the violation. Remedies include back pay, reinstatement, damages for pain and suffering and emotional distress, punitive damages, and attorney's fees (N.J.S.A. 34:11B-11, 34:11B-12).
Interaction with TDI and FLI
NJFLA leave provides job protection only; it does not provide wage replacement. Employees may qualify for wage replacement through New Jersey's Family Leave Insurance (FLI) program or TDI. N.J.S.A. 34:11B-13 provides that family leave granted under the NJFLA "is in addition to, and shall not abridge nor conflict with, any rights pursuant to" the Temporary Disability Benefits Law.
The 2026 amendments also added language requiring employers to reinstate employees receiving TDI or FLI benefits to the same or equivalent position upon return. The interplay between this new reinstatement requirement and the NJFLA's existing 12-week-per-24-month entitlement — particularly whether receipt of TDI or FLI creates independent job protection beyond NJFLA eligibility — remains unsettled and awaits regulatory guidance from the Division on Civil Rights.
Source: N.J.S.A. 34:11B-1 et seq. (New Jersey Family Leave Act) Source: New Jersey Division on Civil Rights — New Jersey Family Leave Act