The New Jersey Senate has passed legislation that would expand job reinstatement protections under the state’s Paid Family Leave Act to include businesses with 15 or more employees. The bill, A-3451, was approved by a vote of 24-12 without debate and is strongly opposed by the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA).
Currently, only businesses with 30 or more employees are required to guarantee workers returning from 12 weeks of paid family leave their previous positions. The proposed change would lower this threshold to businesses with at least 15 employees. Before becoming law, the bill must return to the Assembly for concurrence on amendments made in the Senate.
Christopher Emigholz, Chief Government Affairs Officer for NJBIA, expressed concerns about the impact of the measure on small businesses in a letter sent to senators. He noted that only 15 states in the country offer any form of paid family leave and just 11 guarantee job protection after leave.
“In other words, New Jersey would be placing its smallest employers into a narrow national category—an outlier beyond most states we directly compete with for jobs and investment,” Emigholz wrote.
Emigholz pointed out that if one employee at a business with 15 workers takes paid family leave, it represents about 7% of that company’s workforce being absent for three months. Unlike larger companies that can reassign duties among staff, small businesses may need to hire temporary replacements to maintain operations.
He added that requiring these smaller firms to reinstate returning employees in their exact positions could be burdensome: “We hope this example demonstrates how cumbersome and counterproductive this proposal would be for the very small businesses we repeatedly say we want to protect and see grow in New Jersey—especially when most competing states do not impose similar mandates,” Emigholz wrote.
The bill awaits final consideration by the Assembly before it can become law.
