Paid Leave For All

New Jersey passed paid family leave in 2008 and expanded in 2019 to provide better benefit replacement amounts (from 66% to 85%!) and a longer duration of time.

However, NJ workers still do not have a right to return to their jobs as part of our Temporary Disability Insurance and Family Leave Insurance programs. Despite the advances in New Jersey on paid leave, there are still workers who cannot take paid leave, a lack of job protection, and there is STILL no permanent paid leave in the US.

What we have is an expansive, inclusive paid leave benefit program that workers could lose their jobs for accessing. See more below about the need to include job protection in paid leave to truly ensure accessible and equitable paid family leave for all.

No one should have to choose between their paycheck or their health. Paid leave provides countless benefits for workers, their families, and our overall economic and public health, yet barriers still exist.

We will advocate for equitable access to paid leave by:

• Making fixes and enhancement to our state programs,

• continue to implement our current expansion of paid family leave by spreading the word about workers’ and new parents' rights to take leave through the NJ Paid Leave Outreach Collaborative

• Build the movement’s voice through personal storytelling and our public forum, NJ Voices for Paid Leave!

Everyone deserves adequate time to recover and care for others without the fear of losing their job — we can and we MUST do better!

Join the Movement!

We have accomplished so much here in New Jersey, but there is still much work to be done to ensure we have paid leave for all!

Sign up for email action campaign updates here, and see more details about our fight below!

Our Federal Fight

The U.S. is one of the only countries in the world without a national Paid Family & Medical Leave program. We need permanent paid family leave that is inclusive, adequate, accessible AND affordable -- for all workers across the country! And we are at a historical moment where Congress is poised to pass the first ever national program

Equitable Paid Leave that will truly help us Build Back Better has some key policy designs outlined in this document.

We also have an opportunity to reimagine childcare in this country and create a system that is equitable, affordable, and culturally relevant. See the key policy designs for federal childcare investments outlined in this document. We gathered to demand Congress make robust investments in the Care Economy.

Federal legislation to move these issues forward has previously been packaged in the FAMILY Act will guarantee wages to working people needing time to welcome a new child or to care for a loved one or their own illness. 

And the Healthy Families Act will guarantee all workers access to a basic number of paid sick day to see a doctor, tend to a sick child, or to recover from a communicable disease.

And to accomplish all that we need workers to share their stories, join the national effort, and call on NJ leaders in Congress to fight for paid leave for our country!