Every holiday season, New Jersey’s business community comes together to celebrate their employees and appreciate their customers after another year, while we advocate for their livelihoods.
It’s also the season of hope that our policymakers might bring some much-needed improvement to the business climate for these job creators and drivers of our economy.
Sadly, what we’re currently seeing in Trenton are more Scrooge-like policies and Grinch-like approaches for business that are closer to coal in a stocking than a gift of reduced burdens under the tree.
Consider the following:
The Climate Superfund Act Bill seeks to retroactively assess tens of billions of dollars on New Jersey companies that have long provided a legal product necessary for our survival and prosperity. Beyond likely being unconstitutional, it will lead to higher gas and energy costs for everyone in the midst of an affordability crisis.
The Tariff Transparency Bill, in apparent attempt to make a political point, will require retailers to display the portion of a product’s cost that is derived from tariffs – a complicated and burdensome undertaking if there ever was one. Any business that doesn’t will be fined $500 for every product they sell without showing the correct cost attributable to tariffs.
The Expanded Paid Family Leave Bill will force New Jersey’s smallest employers to comply with the job reinstatement provisions of the New Jersey Family Leave Act. Every employee is eligible for paid family leave, but currently, the threshold for businesses to comply with the exact same job protection component is 30 employees after previously negotiated compromises to protect small businesses. The bill shockingly sought to reduce that to only five employees. It’s up to now 15, after amendments. But that’s still too low.
The Murphy administration’s proposed Independent Contractor Rule, which would make it strikingly difficult to be classified as a gig worker, is still alive. This is despite 99% of the more than 9,500 comments in opposition; despite two dozen legislators from both sides of the aisle opposing; and despite the disastrous results of the same rule in California. If the Murphy administration adopts the rule, it will hit both New Jersey freelance workers and employers incredibly hard.
Now let’s step out of the holiday season and consider the landscape that New Jersey’s job creators must operate in all year round.
To put it bluntly, it’s more minefield than playing field.
New Jersey is the only state in the nation that is in the top tier of the four main business taxes: Corporate (we’re the highest), sales, income and property taxes.
These numbers, and continued negative outlier policies and blinding bureaucracy, have reduced our in-state Fortune 500 companies from 22 in 2018 to 15 in 2025. We’ve certainly seen some of our largest employers choose to grow outside of New Jersey in recent years due to the costs of running a business here.
And despite boasts from the Murphy administration that New Jersey has more businesses than prior to the pandemic, the fact of the matter is a large majority of these new businesses are sole proprietor registrants. This would also explain New Jersey having one of the top unemployment rates in the nation over the past year.
This month, NJBIA released its 67th annual Business Outlook Survey, once again showing an overall negative forecast.
Our smallest employers were certainly beset by increased energy costs and tariffs in 2025. But most glaringly, when asked if lawmakers had done enough to address business affordability in previous 12 months, 81% said, ‘No.’
Further, 77% said business affordability had declined over the past five years in New Jersey.
In keeping with the season of hope, we do believe that our approach to business in New Jersey can improve. Certainly, a good majority of our policymakers know we can do better for business. They do hear our concerns. And we’re optimistic the incoming Sherrill administration will work toward reducing bureaucracy for our job creators.
But what our businesses need this holiday season is the true gift of fair play – a gift that will keep on giving to set up a prosperous course for the year ahead.
Michele Siekerka is CEO of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association.
