Beginning July 17, 2026, new legislation will significantly expand eligibility under the New Jersey Family Leave Act (NJFLA) and add important job-restoration and leave-coordination provisions relating to employees who use New Jersey Family Leave Insurance (FLI) or Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) benefits. The law lowers the employer-coverage threshold, substantially reduces the tenure and hours-worked requirements for NJFLA eligibility, creates express reinstatement rights for employees who receive FLI or TDI benefits, and addresses the sequencing of those benefits with New Jersey Earned Sick Leave. Employers should review their policies and leave-administration practices before the effective date.
What Is the New Jersey Family Leave Act?
The NJFLA provides eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave during a 24-month period for the following purposes:
- Caring for a family member with a serious health condition;
- Bonding with a newborn child or a child newly placed for adoption or foster care; and
- Certain family-care needs arising during a public health emergency.
The NJFLA generally does not provide leave for an employee’s own serious health condition, although other leave, disability, and accommodation laws may apply.
Expanded Coverage and Much Earlier Employee Eligibility
Under current law, the NJFLA generally applies to private employers that employ 30 or more employees for each working day during at least 20 calendar workweeks in the current or immediately preceding calendar year. Public employers are covered regardless of size. To qualify for NJFLA leave, an employee must have worked for the employer for at least 12 months and must have worked at least 1,000 base hours during the immediately preceding 12-month period.
Beginning July 17, 2026, the private-employer coverage threshold will drop from 30 employees to 15, measured over the same workweek period. An employee will become eligible after three months of employment and 250 base hours worked during the immediately preceding 12-month period.
These changes will bring many smaller employers within the NJFLA and may make many newer, part-time, and seasonal employees eligible for job-protected leave much sooner than under current law.
Employers should remember that, for purposes of determining coverage under the NJFLA, the employee count includes workers employed both inside and outside New Jersey. As a result, an employer with only a small number of employees working in New Jersey may still be covered based on the size of its overall workforce.
New Job-Restoration Rights for FLI and TDI Recipients
Historically, FLI and TDI have primarily operated as wage-replacement programs, and receipt of benefits did not necessarily provide an independent right to job restoration. Job protection typically depended on whether the absence was covered by the NJFLA, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, or another applicable law.
Effective July 17, 2026, a covered individual who takes FLI or TDI benefits is entitled, upon expiration of the leave, to be restored by the employer to the position held when the leave commenced or to an equivalent position with like seniority, status, employment benefits, pay, and other terms and conditions of employment. The employee also retains all rights under any applicable layoff and recall system, including a system established under a collective bargaining agreement, as if the employee had not taken leave. The statute further provides that this restoration provision does not increase, reduce, or otherwise modify any separate right to restoration provided under the NJFLA following a period of family temporary disability leave.
The new restoration right is therefore not limited to absences that qualify as NJFLA leave. Most notably, the provision reaches an employee who receives TDI benefits for the employee’s own medical condition, even though the NJFLA generally does not cover an employee’s own health condition. Employers should not evaluate reinstatement solely by asking whether an employee qualified for, or exhausted, NJFLA leave.
Sequencing Earned Sick Leave and FLI or TDI Benefits
An employee who is eligible for New Jersey Earned Sick Leave and either TDI or FLI benefits may choose which type of paid leave to use first and the order in which the benefits are taken. The employee, however, may not receive more than one of those forms of paid leave simultaneously during the same period.
The amendment does not expressly address how this prohibition applies to a general paid-time-off program that also satisfies an employer’s obligations under the New Jersey Earned Sick Leave Law. Nor does it expressly address the coordination of TDI or FLI benefits with vacation or other employer-provided paid leave that is separate from statutory Earned Sick Leave. Employers should review their paid-leave policies and payroll practices and monitor additional guidance concerning the coordination of these benefits.
What Employers Should Do Before July 17, 2026
Key steps include:
- Determine whether the organization meets the new 15-employee coverage threshold, using the applicable employee-counting rules and considering employees who work both inside and outside New Jersey.
- Update employee handbooks and leave policies to reflect the new employer threshold and the reduced eligibility requirements of three months of employment and 250 base hours during the immediately preceding 12-month period.
- Audit procedures for identifying, tracking, and coordinating NJFLA leave, FLI, TDI, New Jersey Earned Sick Leave, federal FMLA leave, disability accommodations, and employer-provided paid time off.
- Revise reinstatement and return-to-work procedures to account for new restoration rights tied to receipt of FLI or TDI benefits, including employees who receive TDI for their own medical conditions, before terminating, replacing, or materially changing an employee’s position.
- Review payroll and paid-leave practices to prevent employees from receiving statutory New Jersey Earned Sick Leave and TDI or FLI benefits simultaneously during the same period, and identify any supplementation practices that may require further analysis or guidance.
- Train managers and human resources personnel on the expanded NJFLA eligibility rules, the new FLI and TDI reinstatement protections, and the need to promptly escalate leave-related employment decisions for review.
- Monitor guidance from the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development and the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, particularly regarding the implementation of the revised NJFLA requirements and the coordination of TDI or FLI benefits with employer-provided paid leave, and consult employment counsel regarding necessary policy and process updates.