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
I would say that this is still bad legislation for business. It's the same legislative nightmare and the same issues that we argued at 12 weeks are there for six. It's still hard to get temporary workers part time, and it's still going to create a hardship for business.
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.
Why now? This is the wrong time to pass this bill that will send more businesses out of New Jersey. Maybe at the right time, in the right economy, this would be the right bill.
