The NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development has issued proposed regulations implementing New Jersey’s paid family leave legislation. As you will recall, the new law gives all employees up to six weeks of paid leave to care for a sick family member or a child born to or adopted by the employee. Workers will begin making contributions to the fund on Jan. 1, 2009, and will be able to receive payment under the new law starting July 1, 2009. Workers covered by the NJ Family Leave Act (50+ employees) will also have their jobs protected while they are taking paid family leave.
Based on the increase in NJ’s minimum wage, the proposed regs raise the maximum weekly benefit for state disability benefits to $546 per week from the current $524 per week and raise the taxable wage base for purposes of employer contributions from the first $27,700 of an employee’s annual wages to the first $28,900.
The proposed regulations also declare that family leave benefits paid by the State are non-taxable. Family leave benefits paid to employees under an approved private plan are considered taxable during the waiting week, then considered non-taxable afterwards. However, if the leave extends to 22 consecutive days, or the employee is eligible for at least one day of family leave law benefits in three separate subsequent weeks, the initial seven-day period will be considered non-taxable remuneration. A little confusing, no?
The proposed regulations are located at 40 N.J.R. 5509(a) (available through http://www.lexisnexis.com/njoal/) Written comments may be submitted to the NJDOL by Nov. 14, 2008.
