During the last days of his administration, former Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation amending multiple New Jersey leave laws and extending job-protected leave to thousands more workers. The amendments will take effect July 17, 2026. They will increase the number of employers subject to the New Jersey Family Leave Act (NJFLA), shorten the time employees must work before becoming eligible to take NJFLA leave, and raise new questions surrounding job-restoration rights for employees collecting state temporary disability insurance (TDI) benefits or family leave insurance (FLI) benefits.
Expanded NJFLA Applicability
Generally, the NJFLA gives eligible employees 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected leave in a 24-month period to: (1) care for a family member with a serious health condition; or (2) bond with a child within one year of the child’s birth or placement for adoption or foster care. Unlike the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, the NJFLA provides no job-protected leave for an employee’s own health condition.
Currently, the NJFLA applies only to employers with 30 or more employees. To be eligible for leave, an employee must have been employed for 12 months and worked for 1,000 hours in the 12 months leading to the leave’s start date.
Beginning July 17, 2026, however:
- The NJFLA will apply to employers with 15 or more employees; and
- To become eligible, an employee will need to be employed for only three months and have worked for only 250 hours in the 12 months before taking leave.
This significant expansion of the law will entitle newer hires and more part-time employees to job-protected leave.
Job-Restoration Language Tied to TDI and FLI Benefits
The new legislation also amends the law governing TDI and FLI benefits. The amendments’ language has caused significant uncertainty about whether employees who receive either benefit will have a new legal right to job restoration.
TDI and FLI differ from the NJFLA in significant ways. First, NJFLA leave is unpaid, while TDI and FLI are state-run programs that provide partial wage replacement for employees out of work for certain health-related or family-related reasons. Second, most New Jersey employers, regardless of size, are covered under the TDI and FLI laws. Third, the NJFLA provides for job restoration upon an employee’s return from leave, while neither TDI nor FLI historically offered job-protected leave. Fourth, unlike the NJFLA, an employee may collect TDI benefits for an absence due to the employee’s own health condition.
The amendments, therefore, could be read to grant a new right to job-protected leave to any employee receiving TDI or FLI benefits—even if that employee is not on NJFLA leave. Employers should be wary that New Jersey law could be interpreted to introduce a right to job restoration for employees absent due to their own medical condition and receiving TDI benefits. The amendments seem to link a job-restoration entitlement to whatever leave the employer provides—whether that leave is traditional NJFLA leave—so long as the employee is receiving TDI or FLI benefits during that leave.
Employee Choice of Paid-Leave Entitlements
The amendments also state that employees entitled to paid sick leave under the New Jersey Earned Sick Leave Act and either temporary disability benefits or family temporary disability leave benefits may choose which benefits to use and when. Employees may use only one type of paid leave at a time.