In one of his last acts in office, now-former Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation on January 17, 2026, that amends the New Jersey Family Leave Act (NJFLA) to expand its coverage to smaller employers. As a reminder, the NJFLA provides eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave every 24 months to, among other things, care for a seriously ill family member or to care for or bond with a child within one year of the child’s birth, adoption, or foster placement. The new amendments (i) make the NJFLA applicable to employers with at least 15 employees (down from the prior threshold of 30 employees); and (ii) render employees eligible for leave if they have worked for the employer for at least three months (down from 12 months) and at least 250 hours (down from 1,000 hours) in the preceding 12 months. With respect to calculating the number of employees to trigger the law’s applicability, the NJFLA has previously been interpreted as counting all of the employer’s employees worldwide.
Moreover, this legislation goes beyond just amending the NJFLA in that it creates a new right of job restoration–“to the position held by the employee when the leave commenced or to an equivalent position of like seniority, status, employment benefits, pay, and other terms and conditions of employment”–for employees who receive Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) benefits or Family Leave Insurance (FLI) benefits while unable to work. By way of background, most private employers in New Jersey, regardless of size, are required to have TDI and FLI benefits (either through the state’s plan or a private insurance company) for their employees. TDI benefits provide partial wage replacement payments for a maximum of 26 weeks to New Jersey employees who have to stop working due to a physical or mental health condition or other disability unrelated to their work, while FLI partial wage replacement benefits are available for up to 12 weeks to New Jersey employees who must stop working to care for a family member with a physical or mental health condition, to bond with a new child, or to address matters related to domestic or sexual violence. Prior to the recent statutory amendment, the TDI and FLI laws did not provide for job protection, although they did prohibit retaliation against employees for requesting or receiving those benefits.
Finally, the enactment allows employees to use statutorily mandated earned sick leave and TDI or FLI benefits (depending on which type of benefit is triggered) in the order of their choosing, although they cannot double dip by using more than one kind of paid leave simultaneously.
These changes take effect six months following enactment (i.e., on July 17, 2026).
For questions about these latest changes to NJFLA and the TDI/FLI laws, please contact the author, a member of the firm’s Labor & Employment Practice Group, or your lawyer at McCarter.