Yesterday, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law Assembly Bill 1827, the New Jersey Paid Sick Leave Act, providing all workers across the state with paid sick leave. This made the Garden State the tenth in the nation to adopt a state-wide measure.
The Act will allow employees to earn up to 40 hours of paid sick leave a year for the following reasons:
- To care for his or her own mental or physical illness
- To care for a family member’s mental or physical illness
- An absence resulting from the employee’s or a family member’s being a victim of domestic or sexual violence
- Closure of an employee’s workplace or a child’s school or care facility by a public official
- To attend a school-related conference, meeting, function, or other event required by a school
One of the best things about this Act is its preemption of the numerous city and county-level paid sick leave ordinances, and its prohibition of future ordinances being adopted. In ERIC’s testimony–submitted when the bill was first introduced in committee in the Senate–we applauded preemption and its goal of uniformity. ERIC’s testimony also advocated for changes to the frontloading and carryover provisions.
The bill is expected to take effect 180 days after its signing, so roughly in late October. Between then and now, the state should begin rulemaking procedures which ERIC will play an active role in.
Article by Bryan Hum, Retirement and Compensation Policy Senior Associate