The New Jersey Senate has approved a bill that would expand job reinstatement rights under the state’s Paid Family Leave Act to include businesses with 15 or more employees. The legislation, known as A-3451, passed with a 24-12 vote and now returns to the Assembly for consideration of amendments made in the Senate.
Currently, New Jersey law requires businesses with at least 30 employees to guarantee workers their jobs after taking up to 12 weeks of paid family leave. The proposed change would lower that threshold, affecting smaller businesses by requiring those with as few as 15 employees to offer the same job protection.
The New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) has voiced strong opposition to the measure. In a letter sent Friday to state senators, Christopher Emigholz, NJBIA Chief Government Affairs Officer, highlighted that only 15 states in the U.S. provide any form of paid family leave and just 11 of those guarantee job protection for returning employees.
“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 also pointed out the impact on small businesses: when one employee at a business with 15 workers takes paid family leave, it represents about seven percent of the workforce being absent for three months. He noted that larger companies can more easily redistribute work among staff during such absences, but smaller firms may have to hire and train temporary replacements.
If enacted into law, the new mandate would require employers to reinstate returning workers to their exact previous positions—even if temporary hires have proven highly effective during their absence.
“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.
