Reminder: New Jersey’s Family Leave Insurance law takes effect July 1
Beginning July 1, 2009, New Jersey’s Family Leave Insurance law will provide employees in the state with up to six weeks of paid family leave benefits to care for a newborn or newly adopted child, or to care for a family member with a serious health condition. Signed into law on May 2, 2008, by Governor Jon S. Corzine (D), the law covers all New Jersey employers, including private employers and government entities, who are subject to the state’s unemployment compensation law (R.S. 43:21-1 et seq), regardless of how many employees they employ.
The law extends the state’s existing Temporary Disability Insurance Program (TDI) to provide insurance benefits to New Jersey employees in order to:
- Bond with a child during the first 12 months after the child’s birth, if the covered employee or the domestic partner or civil union partner of the covered employee, is a biological parent of the child, or the first 12 months after the placement of the child for adoption with the covered employee.
- care for a family member with a serious health condition supported by a certification provided by a health care provider. Claims may be filed for six consecutive weeks, for intermittent weeks or for 42 intermittent days during a 12 month period beginning with the first date of the claim.
“Family member” means a child, spouse, domestic partner, civil union partner or parent of a covered individual. “Child” means a biological, adopted, or foster child, stepchild or legal ward of a covered individual, child of a domestic partner of the covered individual, or child of a civil union partner of the covered individual, who is less than 19 years of age or is 19 years of age or older but incapable of self-care because of mental or physical impairment. Employees must exhaust maternity and disability leave time prior to being eligible for paid family leave and use at least two weeks of sick leave and vacation time before using paid family leave.
New Jersey employees are eligible for the Family Leave Insurance if they meet the following conditions: (1) they have worked 20 calendar weeks in covered New Jersey employment (not necessarily for their current employer); or (2) they have earned $7,200 or more in such employment during the 52 weeks (base year) immediately prior to the week in which the family leave claim began.
Leave under the Family Leave Insurance law runs concurrently with federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and/or New Jersey's Family Leave Act (NJFMLA) and does not affect the leave rights under either law. In addition, the Family Leave Insurance law is also available to employees of smaller employers who may not be entitled to FMLA or NJFLA leave. However, while employers do not have to restore employees to their job after they return from paid leave under New Jersey’s Family Leave Insurance law, if an employer is already subject to the FMLA or the NJFMLA, an employee may have to be restored.
Employees, however, who intend to take a leave and claim Family Leave Insurance benefits to participate in providing care for a family member who has a serious health condition must give the employer reasonable and practicable notice unless the time of the leave is unexpected or the time of the leave changes for unforeseeable reasons. An employee who intends to take the leave on an intermittent basis must provide the employer with a minimum of 15 days notice. An employee who intends to take a leave and claim Family Leave Insurance benefits to bond with a newborn or newly adopted child must give the employer thirty days notice prior to the beginning of the leave. Intermittent leave to bond with a newborn or newly adopted child must be taken in periods of seven days or more and the intermittent schedule must be agreed to by the employee and the employer.
Benefits. Eligible employees will receive no more than two-thirds of their weekly salary, up to a maximum weekly benefit of $524 per week.
Funding. Benefits are payable to eligible employees from either the New Jersey State Plan or an approved employer-provided private plan. Therefore, employers have the option of using a state-operated plan or a private plan through self insurance or an insurance policy, so long as employees are not charged more, the benefits are not lower and eligibility is not more restrictive than under the state plan.
For employers who use the New Jersey State plan, 100 percent of the paid leave benefits are to be funded through deductions that began January 1, 2009. There is no employer contributions. For 2009, employer are required to withhold 0.09% of an employees’ wages and .012% for each subsequent year. The wage base to which the tax applies in 2009 is $28,900, and so the maximum annual employee contribution will be $26. The wage base will most likely change for 2010.
If an employer elects to provide Family Leave Insurance benefits under a private plan, the employer must: (1) obtain approval from the state’s Division of Temporary Disability Insurance no less than 90 days prior to the date the private plan is to take effect; and (2) obtain consent from the majority of employees by written election if contributions will be deducted from employees’ wages. If employees consent to contribute to the private plan, the contributions cannot exceed those paid by workers covered under the state plan. Therefore, if a private plan is to start on the day New Jersey’s Family Leave Insurance law take effect, employers must have submitted their plan details to the state by September 30, 2008.
Notice. Employers covered under the Family Leave Insurance provisions of the New Jersey Temporary Disability Benefits Law are required by law to post notification detailing program information and employee rights to New Jersey Family Leave Insurance benefits. Employers must have done so by April 1, 2009. In addition, employers must also distribute a copy upon hire, when the employee first requests a copy or when the employee notifies the employer of an intended paid family leave.
Reprinted with permission. © CCH
<p>Reminder New Jersey’s Family Leave Insurance law takes effect July 1 Beginning July 1, 2009, New Jersey’s Family Leave Insurance law will provide employees in the state with up to six weeks of paid family leave benefits to care for</p>
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