Upcoming Changes to New Jersey Family Leave Act

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) enables eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave during a 12-month period for qualifying family and medical reasons. While the FMLA provides a federal baseline for covered employers and eligible employees, some states have adopted their own state-mandated family and medical leave programs.  These state programs may differ from federal FMLA requirements.  For example, unlike the federal FMLA, the New Jersey Family Leave Act (NJFLA) generally does not provide leave protections for an employee’s own serious health condition. 

New for 2026 in New Jersey, private employers can expect, and should prepare for, a few changes to the NJFLA that are scheduled to take effect on July 17, 2026. 

The first amendment pertaining to the NJFLA that former Governor Phil Murphy signed into law was a decrease in the threshold of employees necessary for private employers to be subject to the Act. While employees working for NJ state or local government agencies will continue to have coverage under NJFLA regardless of an agency’s size, private employers with 15 or more employees will now be subject to NJFLA requirements. This is a significant decrease from the current 30-employee threshold, which remains in effect until July 17^th of this year.

Employers should also prepare for a decrease in the requirements for hours worked in order to qualify for NJFLA. Previously, an employee had to have been employed for 12 months and have worked at least 1,000 hours during the preceding 12 months. Under the new amendments, employees can take NJFLA time so long as they have been employed for 3 months and worked at least 250 hours during the preceding 12 months.

With the amendments scheduled to take effect July 17, 2026, employers should take appropriate action to prepare their policies, procedures, and leave-administration systems. We advise you to work with the HR departments at your disposal to confirm your employees’ coverage under the new threshold, update handbooks and company policies, and revise your payroll systems as necessary to capture any pertinent data under the new rules. Supervisor and HR training will also be crucial as these changes take effect.

If you were previously not covered under NJFLA requirements, but find that you are now, you will need to build out new processes and policies for leave-administration. Doing so now will allow you to work out any issues that could arise and get a jump on maintaining compliance. Please feel free to contact us here at De Novo HRC & Business Advisory if you have questions or need assistance.