New Jersey Family Leave Insurance
In March of 2008, New Jersey became the second state to implement paid family leave. The Family Leave Insurance (FLI) law, like its California counterpart, allows six weeks to care for a new child or a seriously ill relative, including domestic partners or civil union partners. It provides up to two-thirds of salary, with a cap of $524 a week, paid for through payroll deduction, which would amount to about $33 a year for the average worker (although the contribution rate was lowered by half in the beginning of 2011). As with the California law, job protection is not provided.
Cry Wolf Quotes
The nanny state continues, churning out one bad piece of legislation after another!....Yes, we should have compassion for people, compassion for our workforce. When my father had a heart attack in November, which went well into December, I had to take time off - but I worked around it ....Not all workplaces can do that. Those that can should look for ways to accommodate employees, if possible. This is a slippery slope we're on in New Jersey. The nanny state legislators want to give away everything, but forcing this kind of legislation on employers is the beginning of the end. It will drive employers right out of New Jersey, increasing the already alarming exodus of manufacturing and other jobs and residents in general.
This is a terrible signal to send. It just interferes with the workplace. This should be left to employers and their workers….[How can employers ensure that workers are properly taking time off?] How do you police any of that? What is an employer going to do, set up a whole office to audit this stuff?
Small businesses can and do fail because of this. There is a cost, both in dollars and in disruption. The cost in dollars is the cost of a temporary worker for which the company pays a premium, the training of a replacement worker and the overtime paid to remaining workers who help fill in for that absent employee.
We are about to place a mandate on our struggling employers that does not exist in 48 other states. This is not a welcoming message to companies looking to expand here or explore New Jersey as a place of investment.
