New Jersey Expands Family Leave And Job Protections To Small Employers

On January 7, 2026, as one of his final acts as governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy signed into law legislation expanding the New Jersey Family Leave Act (NJFLA) to cover small employers, reducing the minimum employment duration required for leave eligibility, and establishing new job-protection provisions for employees taking medical leave while receiving state Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) benefits. NJFLA benefits provide 12 weeks of leave every 24 months to eligible employees who require time off to care for a family member with a “serious health condition” or to bond with a child within one year of the child's birth or placement for adoption or foster care. A “serious health condition” means an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that requires inpatient care in a hospital, hospice, or residential medical care facility, or continuing medical treatment or supervision by a health care provider.

Under the new legislation, an employee will be eligible for NJFLA leave if the employee: 

(1) Works for an employer with 15 or more employees

(2) Has been employed for at least three months

(3) Has worked at least 250 hours in the preceding three months

This expansion is a significant departure from current eligibility requirements, under which an employee must (1) work for an employer with 30 or more employees; (2) have been employed for at least 12 months; and (3) have worked at least 1,000 hours in the 12 months immediately preceding the requested start of leave.

Unlike the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the NJFLA does not provide job-protected leave for an employee's own serious medical condition. However, under the new law, even employees who receive state TDI benefits for their own medical condition receive new protection in that they must be reinstated to the same position they held before taking leave, or to an equivalent position with the same seniority, status, pay, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment.

The new law will also permit an employee to choose the order in which different kinds of leave are taken if the employee qualifies for both earned sick leave under New Jersey's Earned Sick Leave Law and TDI benefits. However, the employee may not receive more than one type of paid leave at a time.

The amendment would eliminate the current exemption for small employers (15 or more employees) by requiring them to provide up to 12 weeks of annual job-protected family leave. It would also require both large and small employers to provide job-protected medical leave, thereby establishing a new leave entitlement under state law.

Failure to comply with these changes will result in civil fines between $1,000 and $2,000 for a first offense; up to $5,000 for repeat offenses; compensation for back pay, benefits, and attorneys' fees; an injunction to restrain the continued violation of any of the provisions of this section; reinstatement of the employee to the same position or to a position equivalent to that which the employee held prior to unlawful discharge or retaliatory action, or other failure to reinstate the employee in violation of this section.

The new law takes effect on July 17, 2026.

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