Listen to this articleThe basics:
- Bill lowers Family Leave Act threshold from 30 to 15 employees
- Workers would qualify for job-protected leave after three months on the job
- Business groups warn of added costs, legal risks for small employers
- Labor advocates praise expanded access to family, medical leave
Legislation expanding New Jersey’s Family Leave Act has drawn the ire of the state’s business community. And it now heads to the governor’s desk.
The measure passed Jan. 12 amid a flurry of lame duck activity in Trenton on the final day of the 221st New Jersey Legislature.
Under the current Family Leave Act, employers with 30 or more employees must offer workers the right to be reinstated after taking family leave to care for a new child or for a loved one with a serious health condition. Eligible employees may take up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave during a 24-month period. This legislation would reduce that threshold from 30 to 15 employees.
Additionally, it would make workers eligible for job-protected leave after just three months of employment. It would also reduce the required minimum base hours to 250 hours.
Reality of the workforce
“Study after study shows that expanding family leave is good for the workforce, good for babies and families, and good for our state as a whole,” said Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-19th District, a prime bill sponsor. “By reducing the amount of time someone has to be on the job before becoming eligible for family leave, this legislation recognizes the realities of today’s workforce and makes sure more parents can care for and bond with their newborn without fearing they’ll lose their job.
“No one should be penalized for needing time to care, and this bill helps make sure the vast majority of workers never will.”
But business leaders say that this legislation delivers a significant blow to small businesses already struggling in today’s challenging economic environment.
“At a time when these employers need support, this legislation instead imposes new regulatory and financial burdens,” said New Jersey Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Bracken in a Jan. 5 statement, after the Senate passed the measure with amendments. “New Jersey’s economic health depends on a strong foundation of nearly one million small and mid-sized businesses. This bill weakens that foundation, making growth and recovery even more difficult.
“The Senate amended the original legislation by raising the family leave compliance threshold from five employees to 15. We strongly disagree. We believe there should be no change at all, and that the threshold should remain at the current level of businesses with 30 employees.”
Tone deaf
Chris Emigholz, chief government affairs officer for the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, said that this bill is another classic example of Trenton being tone deaf to the concerns of the state’s smallest employers.
“When one employee in a 15-person business takes paid family leave, it means 7% of a small business‘ workforce is gone for 12 weeks,” said Emigholz. “Unlike a larger firm that can more easily shift responsibilities among many workers, a small firm may need to hire and train a replacement worker to keep the business running.
“Under this expanded bill, many of our smallest employers will be required to not only protect a worker’s job, no matter what their performance level, but ensure that they come back to the exact same position they left before going on leave,” said Emigholz.
He also noted that if that same position is not held, under the bill an employee would then have the right to sue.
“Those litigation cost would come at a time when small businesses are already challenged by increased wage cost, supply costs, and energy costs,” Emigholz explained. “In short, it isn’t right. It is outlier policies like this that will continue the decline of our floundering business reputation and our high unemployment.”
Unfriendly to business
Bracken echoed that sentiment.
“This legislation underscores why New Jersey ranked 49th in business friendliness in CNBC’s most recent Top States for Business survey,” said Bracken. “Unfortunately, measures like this put us at risk of falling to dead last. The bill is unnecessary, poorly timed, and harmful to our ability to move the state’s economy forward.”
Meanwhile, New Jersey Citizen Action and the New Jersey Time to Care Coalition celebrated the passage of the legislation.
“We applaud legislators, especially sponsors Assemblywoman [Annette] Quijano, Speaker Coughlin, and Sen. [Paul] Moriarty, for expanding access to job-protected leave for more workers,” said Yarrow Willman-Cole, work justice program director at New Jersey Citizen Action. “Job protections are essential to ensuring workers can use paid leave. This benefit allows working families to care for recovering, seriously ill, or dying loved ones, and to bond with new babies or adopted and fostered children without risking their economic security.”
