Does the New Jersey Family Leave Act apply to my small business now?

Luman Group · Published November 6, 2026

What changed on July 17, 2026?

The New Jersey Family Leave Act, or NJFLA, is the state law that lets an employee take time off to bond with a new child or care for a sick family member, and come back to their job. The leave itself is unpaid. The protection is the job.

For years it only reached larger employers. A law signed on January 17, 2026 (P.L.2025, c.279) changed that, and it took effect on July 17, 2026. According to the New Jersey Department of Labor, three things moved:

• Employer size. Down from 30 employees to 15 employees worldwide. Government agencies are covered at any size.
• Time on the job. An employee now qualifies after 3 months with you, down from 12 months.
• Hours worked. 250 hours in the last 12 months, down from 1,000 hours.

What did not change is the amount of leave. A qualifying employee can still take up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave in a 24-month period, and return to the same job or an equivalent one.

The reasons for leave are also the same. They include the birth of a child, adoption or foster placement, caring for a family member with a serious health condition, and certain public health emergency situations, like an official order closing a child's school. The NJFLA does not cover an employee's own illness. That is where state disability benefits come in, which we cover below.

Does the NJ Family Leave Act apply to my small business?

Count your people the way the law does. The NJFLA covers an employer with 15 or more employees for each working day in 20 or more calendar workweeks, in this calendar year or the one before.

Three points trip owners up:

• Count everyone, everywhere. The state counts your whole workforce, not just people in New Jersey. Eight employees in Long Branch and seven working remotely in Pennsylvania makes 15.
• Part-time staff matter. The law counts employees, and it does not limit the count to full-time staff. A restaurant or care business with a lot of part-timers can cross 15 sooner than the owner thinks.
• Last year counts too. If you had 15 or more for 20 weeks last year and shrank this year, you can still be covered.

Once you are covered, the employee test is easy to meet. Someone who has worked for you for three months and put in 250 hours qualifies. That is just under 20 hours a week over three months. A new part-time hire can be eligible before their first review.

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) has not changed. It still needs 50 or more employees within 75 miles, and an employee needs 12 months and 1,250 hours. Many New Jersey small businesses are now covered by the state law and not the federal one, so a policy copied from a federal template will be wrong.

What if I have fewer than 15 employees?

This is the part most owners have not heard yet. The same 2026 law added job protection to New Jersey's two state benefit programs:

• Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI), which pays a worker who cannot work because of their own illness or injury.
• Family Leave Insurance (FLI), which pays a worker who is bonding with a new child, caring for a seriously ill family member, or dealing with certain matters related to domestic or sexual violence.

Since July 17, 2026, a worker who receives TDI or FLI benefits, from the state or a private plan, is entitled to get their job back when the leave ends. The Department of Labor says plainly that there is no minimum employer size and no work history requirement for this protection. Eligibility depends only on whether the worker qualifies for the benefits, which is based on their recent earnings.

So a three-person shop is not off the hook. If your employee is approved for FLI to care for a parent after surgery, you must let them return to the same job, or one with the same pay, benefits and seniority.

The law also bars retaliation, including refusing to bring someone back. Fines run from $1,000 to $2,000 for a first violation and up to $5,000 for each one after that, and a court can order reinstatement, lost wages and attorney's fees.

Is family leave paid in New Jersey, and who pays for it?

The NJFLA itself is unpaid leave. Pay comes from the state programs, not from you.

For 2026, according to the Department of Labor:

• Benefit amount. FLI pays 85% of the worker's average weekly wage, up to a maximum of $1,119 a week.
• How long. Up to 12 weeks of continuous FLI in a 12-month period, or up to 56 days taken intermittently, meaning in separate days or blocks.
• Who funds FLI. Workers do, through a payroll deduction of 0.23% on the first $171,100 of wages. Employers do not contribute to FLI. Your job is to withhold it correctly.
• Who qualifies for the money. A worker needs 20 weeks earning at least $310 a week, or $15,500 in total, in the base year.

The worker applies to the state, not to you. They can start an application up to 60 days ahead. The state also asks them to give you notice: 30 days for one continuous FLI leave, and 15 days for each planned absence when the leave is intermittent, unless there is an emergency.

One question owners ask about paid sick leave: can an employee stack it on top of FLI? The law says an employee who has both earned sick leave and TDI or FLI can choose which to use and in what order, but cannot receive more than one kind of paid leave at the same time. Our guide to New Jersey earned sick leave covers how sick leave works on its own.

What should a New Jersey owner do this month?

None of this needs a lawyer to get started. It needs an afternoon and a calendar.

1. Count your headcount. Look back over this year and last year. Include part-time and out-of-state staff. If you hit 15 or more for 20 weeks, you are covered by the NJFLA.
2. Read your handbook's leave section. If it says 12 months and 1,000 hours, or copies the federal FMLA, it is out of date. If you have no leave policy, write one.
3. Tell your managers. The risk usually starts with a supervisor who says "we can't hold your job" or replaces someone mid-leave. They need to know the rules changed.
4. Plan cover before you need it. Twelve weeks is a long time on a small team. Decide now how you would cover a key role, so the answer is never "we gave your shift away."
5. Keep the job open, and keep records. Write down the dates, what the employee asked for, and how you responded. If you later need to make a decision about that person, read how to fire an employee without getting sued first, because timing near a leave is exactly what a retaliation claim looks at.

Formal rules from the state may still change the details, so check the Department of Labor pages linked below before you finalize a policy. This guide is general HR information, not legal advice. Luman Group is not a law firm. For your own situation, talk to an employment attorney.

How Luman Group can help with New Jersey leave

Luman Group is led by Meghan Davey, SPHR, an HR executive with more than 20 years in HR leadership. For New Jersey employers, she applies the state rules on top of federal law, and leave is one of the places they differ most.

• Someone to call when a leave request lands. HR on Call is $500 a month, with a same or next business day answer and your policy reviewed before it goes out.
• Learn it yourself. Workshop Class 2, Compliance, Leave Laws and Arbitration, runs live online on November 18, 2026 and again on January 27, 2027, for $197, with Q&A on your real situations.

If a leave request is on your desk now, call or text Luman Group at (929) 459-7160, or send the form on the contact page. The first call is free.