ERIC is fighting back against a recently introduced New Jersey proposal that would require employers to provide up to 80 hours of supplemental COVID-19 paid sick leave benefits to their employees and back-date payment for these benefits to the beginning of 2021.
ERIC is working with state lawmakers to defeat SB 3827 and urged the New Jersey Senate Labor Committee to oppose the proposal ahead of the bill’s initial hearing today. In written testimony, ERIC focused on the redundant and overlapping benefits that the proposal would create, the lack of financial support for employers expected to comply, and the challenges that retroactive applicability would create for businesses of all sizes in the state.
Importantly, employees in New Jersey already have access to substantial state-mandated earned sick leave benefits provided by employers, which were also expanded in 2020 to explicitly allow use for circumstances arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, the supplemental paid sick leave benefits required by SB 3827 would be in addition to any other paid sick leave benefits already available to employees across New Jersey. This includes any COVID-19 emergency paid sick leave benefits that employers already voluntarily offer if that leave does not match up to those proposed by SB 3827.
SB 3827 does follow many of the standards and definitions established under the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) in an attempt to allow small employers to access federal tax credits provided by the FFCRA. However, the proposal does not provide similar financial assistance for businesses with more than 500 employees, amounting to an unfunded mandate for already vulnerable employers. Instead of lending aid to employers during unprecedented economic turmoil, SB 3827 would place these enormous financial costs directly on employers.
