1 in 4 NJ workers lack paid family leave protections, new Rutgers study finds

🍼 Requirements for paid leave protections don't help the most vulnerable

🍼 Some job fields are less likely to have protections

🍼 Advocates want a big change to paid family leave

TRENTON — More than a quarter of New Jersey workers would be forced to face losing their jobs if they needed to take paid leave to care for a newborn or sick family member, according to new research from Rutgers.

That's 1.7 million New Jersey workers who lack paid family leave protections, said Dr. Rebecca Logue-Conroy, a research analyst for the Rutgers Center for Women and Work.

Workers get up to 12 weeks of paid leave every two years. However, if unprotected workers take paid leave, their employer could terminate them before they return to work.

Ediza Lahoz Valentino, a pediatric social worker, said lacking paid leave protections as a new mother took a vital safety net away from her family.

"It was an overwhelming sense of anxiety and stress that sometimes, sadly to say, overshadowed what should have been a precious moment with my new baby," said Valentino.

Why aren't workers protected?

All employees at companies with 30 or more employees have paid leave protections, according to state law.

To qualify for paid family leave protections at smaller firms, workers in New Jersey must meet two main requirements.

More than half of NJ workers who lack protections — around 1.15 million employees — don't have them because they've worked at the same employer for less than a year or logged less than 1,000 at the same job.

A bill moving through the state legislature would reduce the employee threshold from 30 down to five. The NJ Time to Care Coalition also calls for the employment requirement to be reduced from a year to 90 days.

Which NJ workers don't have paid leave protections?

The gaps in New Jersey's paid family leave protections don't impact employees equally, according to the study released by the Rutgers Center for Women and Work earlier this year.

Those least likely to have protections include younger workers, low-income workers, and women; while women made up 49% of the study's sample, they represented 58% of unprotected workers.

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Some jobs such as those in healthcare support and education are also more likely to lack paid leave protections. More than 50% of workers in food preparation and service remain unprotected.

Paying for a benefit NJ workers can't use in practice

In New Jersey, paid family leave benefits are automatically deducted from workers' paychecks.

Yarrow Willman-Cole, director of NJ Citizen Action’s Work Justice Program, said lacking paid leave protections means taking time off to care for a loved one is a risk some workers can't afford to take even though they are paying for the program.

"White, higher earning, higher educated workers are more likely to have job protected employer provided paid leave benefits and are using the state paid family leave program more. While lower earners are paying for a benefit they are less likely to be able to access," said Willman-Cole.

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