New Jersey Family Leave Act Expands Leave and Job Protection Rules

Starting July 17, 2026, thousands of New Jersey businesses owe job-protected leave to employees for the first time. Then-Governor Phil Murphy signed Bill A3451/S2950 on January 17, 2026.

The bill drops the New Jersey Family Leave Act (NJFLA) employer threshold from 30 employees to 15, permanently. Earlier drafts of the bill proposed dropping it further to 10 employees in 2027 and 5 in 2028, but that language was struck out before final passage, so 15 is where it stays. The law also gives job protection to workers receiving Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) or Family Leave Insurance (FLI) benefits, and shortens the tenure and hours requirements that used to keep many workers out.

If you run payroll or HR for a New Jersey business with 15 or more employees, this changes what you owe your team right now.

What the July 17, 2026 NJFLA amendment actually changed

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) and the Division on Civil Rights (DCR) announced the first phase of these changes, effective July 17, 2026:

• New job protection for TDI and FLI recipients: If an employee receives TDI or FLI benefits and their leave isn’t already covered under NJFLA or the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), they now have the right to reinstatement, with no minimum employer size or work history requirement.
  • Eligibility depends only on recent earnings.
  • Protection lasts as long as the benefit does: up to 26 weeks for TDI and up to 12 weeks for FLI, which NJDOL clarified on July 20, 2026.
  • The law also preserves the employee’s standing under any layoff or recall system, including one governed by a collective bargaining agreement, as if they’d never taken the leave.
• A lower NJFLA employer threshold set permanently at 15 employees: Coverage kicks in at 15 employees worldwide starting July 17, 2026. The law has always covered government agencies of any size. Early versions of the bill would have dropped the threshold to 10 employees in 2027 and 5 in 2028, but the final bill text struck that language out before Murphy signed it, so 15 is a permanent floor, not a countdown.
• Shorter tenure and hours requirements: Employees now qualify after 3 months of employment (down from 12) and 250 hours worked in the past 12 months (down from 1,000).

NJDOL estimates these changes extend job-protected leave to more than 400,000 additional workers, mostly small business employees, newer hires, part-time workers, and people receiving benefits tied to domestic or sexual violence.

Nothing about FMLA changed; it still requires 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius, 12 months of tenure, and 1,250 hours worked. TDI and FLI payments work the same way they did before. Benefit eligibility still runs on the same earnings test: 20 weeks earning at least $310 weekly, or $15,500 combined in the base year.

If you want to see exactly how TDI and FLI withholding shows up on a specific paycheck, Fingercheck’s New Jersey Payroll Tax Calculator breaks it down line by line.

How to tell if your New Jersey business is newly covered under NJFLA

If you have 15 or more employees worldwide, you’re covered as of July 17, 2026. Eligible employees can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 24-month period to bond with a new child or care for a family member with a serious health condition, with the right to return to the same job or an equivalent one. Fifteen is a permanent floor, not a first step. Early drafts of the bill would have dropped it to 10 employees in 2027 and 5 in 2028, but the final version, as signed, struck that language out. If you’re at 5 to 14 employees, you’re not covered under NJFLA and there’s no future date on the calendar forcing that to change.

If you’re already well above 30 employees, none of this is new to you, but the lowered tenure and hours requirements still widen who on your team qualifies. Someone hired three months ago who’s worked 250 hours qualifies today, when they wouldn’t have in June.

The employer-size count and the employee-eligibility test aren’t the same thing, and mixing them up is easy to do. Your threshold is based on total employees worldwide, regardless of where they’re located, so a 20-employee company with 5 people in New Jersey and 15 elsewhere is still a covered employer. An individual employee only qualifies for NJFLA leave if they work in New Jersey, or if they routinely work there because their base of operations is in the state or their employer directs and controls their job from within the state. If you manage a multi-state team, evaluate both testing criteria independently, as the employer-size count and individual employee eligibility operate on separate standards.

TDI/FLI job protection is broader still, and it applies no matter your headcount. If any employee in your state is drawing TDI or FLI benefits for leave that NJFLA or FMLA doesn’t already cover, they have reinstatement rights right now, for as long as they’re collecting the benefit: up to 26 weeks for TDI, up to 12 weeks for FLI. An employee eligible for both could theoretically hold a job-protected position for up to 38 weeks in a single year, before they’d even qualify for FMLA or NJFLA. This is the rule most likely to catch small employers off guard, since size and tenure don’t factor in, and it can mean holding a role open for six months or longer.

NJFLA employer coverage and eligibility requirements, before and after July 17, 2026

The 15-employee threshold is permanent. Earlier drafts of the bill proposed stepping it down further to 10 employees in 2027 and 5 in 2028, but that language was removed before the bill was signed into law, so it never took effect.

Sources: NJ Department of Labor job protection guidance; bill A3451, Second Reprint

NJFLA vs. TDI vs. FLI vs. FMLA: how New Jersey’s four leave programs compare

New Jersey employers juggle four overlapping leave programs: the Family Leave Act (NJFLA), Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI), Family Leave Insurance (FLI), and the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Mixing them up is one of the most common compliance mistakes. Here’s how they compare now.

New Jersey and federal leave programs compared (2026)

An employee can qualify for more than one program at once. Someone recovering from childbirth might draw TDI benefits for the medical recovery period, then FLI benefits for bonding time, all while covered by NJFLA’s job protection if their employer meets the 15-employee threshold. Combined, TDI and FLI job protection alone can add up to 38 weeks in a single year. These leave programs run concurrently and do not replace one another.

Compliance checklist: what newly covered New Jersey employers need to do

If this amendment brings you under NJFLA for the first time, or widens who on your team qualifies, start here.

• Update your employee handbook: Your leave policy needs to reflect the 15-employee threshold, the 3-month and 250-hour requirements, and TDI/FLI job protection, none of which existed in a pre-July handbook. For a refresher on what a compliant handbook should cover, this guide to employee handbook policies is a good place to start.
• Post the required notices: New Jersey requires employers to post information about NJFLA, FLI, TDI, and FMLA in a visible workplace location, and to give written notice to employees at hiring, when they ask, and when they request leave.
• Track leave without disrupting payroll: Log unpaid, job-protected leave accurately so you don’t accidentally pay unearned hours or lose track of when someone’s entitled to reinstatement. If that leave means holding a shift or a role open, you need to staff around it without leaving a gap.
• Watch your notice timelines: Employees taking continuous bonding leave owe you 30 days’ notice, or 15 days for intermittent bonding leave. Caregiving leave requires reasonable notice, or 15 days for intermittent periods. Build these into however you track leave requests so nothing slips.
• Sort out the order of benefits if an employee also uses earned sick leave: An employee who qualifies for both New Jersey Earned Sick Leave and TDI or FLI benefits chooses which one they draw on first, but they can’t use earned sick leave and TDI/FLI at the same time. Make sure your payroll setup distinguishes between these leave types. Paying both concurrently is a compliance problem, not a bonus for the employee.
• Focus on TDI/FLI, not a future NJFLA threshold that isn’t coming: Fifteen employees is where NJFLA coverage stops. If you’re below that, your real exposure is the TDI/FLI job protection rule, which has no size floor at all.

Why this matters beyond July 2026

The Division on Civil Rights enforces NJFLA actively. In the year after it issued fresh guidance clarifying the law, DCR recovered more than $275,000 in back pay, penalties, and attorney’s fees from employers who got it wrong, and the law allows up to $10,000 in punitive damages per violation on top of that. Most of those cases involved employers who already knew the rules and still denied leave or failed to reinstate someone. A business that just crossed the 15-employee line hasn’t had years to build that muscle, and the exposure is the same either way.

If your business has 15 or more employees, NJFLA applies to you. If your business has fewer than 15 employees, NJFLA does not apply, but TDI/FLI job protection still does: if any employee is receiving TDI or FLI benefits, they have reinstatement rights no matter how many people you employ. That means a business with only a few employees can still end up holding a role open for six months because of a single employee on disability leave.

Most small employers never had HR staff, because they never had to manage employee reinstatement after leave. Employers with 15 or more employees now have that responsibility permanently, and it doesn’t come naturally without HR experience. It’s easy to assume a role can be filled once it’s been open a while, or to turn down a leave request that actually qualifies under the new rules. Either mistake is exactly what DCR has been fining employers for.

How Fingercheck helps NJ employers stay on top of compliance

Meeting New Jersey’s NJFLA handbook and notice requirements, and tracking TDI/FLI job protection, doesn’t require hiring an entire HR department. Fingercheck’s HR Compliance add-on, powered by Mineral, gives you compliant handbook language and a dedicated HR expert to call when a leave request doesn’t fit neatly into NJFLA, TDI, or FLI. Once the handbook’s updated, you can distribute it electronically and capture signed acknowledgment from every employee, so “we told them” isn’t a guess if DCR ever asks.

On the tracking side, Fingercheck’s time tracking lets you set up custom absence codes for NJFLA, TDI, and FLI separately, so you’re not paying unearned hours or losing track of who’s on protected leave and under which program four months from now, when it’s not top of mind.

Fingercheck and any related entities do not offer tax, accounting, or legal advice. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered tax, legal, or accounting advice. Consult your tax, legal, and accounting advisors before undertaking any related activities or transactions.

Rickie Mixon Rickie is the SEO and AI Manager at Fingercheck, where she tracks the evolving world of Payroll, HR tech and LLMs. A seasoned B2B SaaS strategist and a lifelong nerd, she's driven by an endless curiosity to understand how things work. Off the clock, she's usually sharing fun facts or walking her dogs.

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