A family leave bill that would require New Jersey businesses with at least 15 employees to hold positions open for workers who take up to 12 weeks of family leave cleared the State Senate Monday and heads to Gov. Phil Murphy.
The bill lowers the current threshold of 30 employees.
The governor has seven days to veto or sign the bill into the law. Someone familiar with the bill’s path (it started with a five-person threshold) but is not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said the governor is all but certain to sign it.
While progressive groups are pleased, business groups are beside themselves. They say it will be yet another rule or regulation that will hurt small businesses – and increase the state’s reputation as one that is not business-friendly.
Chris Emigholz, the chief government affairs officer at the N.J. Business & Industry Association, summed it up this way.
“Unfortunately, this bill is another classic example of Trenton being tone deaf to the concerns of our smallest employers,” he said.
Emigholtz says he can do the math and see that it doesn’t add up.
“When one employee in a 15-person business takes paid family leave, it means 7% of a small business’ workforce is gone for 12 weeks,” he said. “Unlike a larger firm that can more easily shift responsibilities among many workers, a small firm may need to hire and train a replacement worker to keep the business running.”
Tom Bracken, the CEO of the N.J. State Chamber, has been speaking out against the idea for some time. He’s bothered that the business community was not heard.
“I’m extremely disappointed at the continuing burden the Legislature is putting on the business community,” he said. “At a time when we need to accelerate our economy and provide incentives for people to stay here, this is the exact opposite of what we’re supposed to do.”
Bracken then raised a point he’s raised from the beginning: Who thinks this is a good idea?
“Nobody knows what drove this; there’s no empirical data to support it,” he said.
Emigholz said the potential damage to small businesses could be great.
“Under this expanded bill, many of our smallest employers will be required to not only protect a worker’s job, no matter what their performance level, but ensure that they come back to the same exact position they left before going on leave,” he said.
“If an employee doesn’t return to that same job, they would have a right to sue their employer under the bill. Those litigation costs would come at a time when small businesses are already challenged by increased wage costs, supply costs and energy costs.”
Emigholtz can only shake his head.
“In short, it isn’t right,” he said. “It is outlier policies like this that will continue the decline of our floundering business reputation and our high unemployment.”
