NJ lawmakers push paid family leave onto small businesses, igniting backlash

🔴 New Jersey lawmakers approve a bill to expand paid family leave.

🔴 Business groups warn the mandate could strain small companies.

🔴 Gov. Murphy must make a decision before leaving office next week.

TRENTON — A controversial bill heading to Gov. Phil Murphy's desk will expand paid family leave to even smaller businesses.

Under the New Jersey Family Leave Act, businesses with 30 or more employees must offer 12 weeks of job-protected leave. This paid leave can be used to care for a sick or disabled family member, and new parents can use it to bond with their child.

On Monday, both chambers of the State Legislature passed a bill to lower that threshold to businesses with 15 workers. The vote was mostly along party lines.

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The bill also halves the work requirements to qualify for paid family leave. If signed into law, employees would only have to be employed for six months and work 500 hours to qualify for leave.

“The number of people helped by this bill reaches far beyond just the individual workers. For every employee that benefits from A3451, even more New Jerseyans – parents, children, siblings – would benefit as well," said Assemblywoman Quijano, D-Union, who sponsored the bill.

Small business groups warn of financial and staffing strain

However, state business advocates say the bill places an unfair burden on small businesses.

It's another example of Trenton being tone deaf to the concerns of the business community, said Christopher Emigholz, chief government affairs officer for the New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

READ MORE: Controversial $128M NJ spending bill passes with little oversight

“When one employee in a 15-person business takes paid family leave, it means 7% of a small business’ workforce is gone for 12 weeks. Unlike a larger firm that can more easily shift responsibilities among many workers, a small firm may need to hire and train a replacement worker to keep the business running," Emigholz said.

After taking leave, the employee would then be legally entitled to return to the same position. It would then be up to the small business to figure out what to do with the other employee they had just hired and trained for three months.

Murphy could sign the bill during lame duck spree

It would not be a surprise if Murphy signed the bill into law before he leaves office next week. He's been on a signing spree in lame duck — on Monday, Murphy signed 77 bills into law.

A cornerstone of Murphy's first term was a massive expansion of the paid family leave program. In 2019, the expansion doubled the amount of leave an employee could take, increased the weekly benefit, and included protections against employer retaliation for taking leave.

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