Note:  NOW-NJ is a member of this coalition.

Coalition to push for

paid family leave

in New Jersey

By MICHAEL SYMONS, Gannett State Bureau, December 21, 2005

TRENTON -- A group pushing for paid family leave for New Jersey workers Tuesday launched a campaign to get such a program, long on the drawing board but never acted upon, approved by the Legislature next year.

A 1993 federal law allows workers in companies with at least 50 employees or in public-sector jobs to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave a year.

However, more than 40 percent of workers aren't covered and others can't afford to go without their paychecks.

"The people in this coalition understand the need to end the Catch-22 situation where parents can't take the time they need for their families without losing the income they need to support them," said Jon Shure of New Jersey Policy Perspective.

The plan outlined by the New Jersey Time to Care Coalition is similar to one in California that took effect last year but more generous, offering larger checks -- two-thirds pay, rather than 55 percent -- for up to 12 weeks, rather than six.

Backers say the worker-funded plan would help people balance work and family.

"When family members have a serious illness, the mortgage bill must be paid.  The heating bill is still due.  Food must be put on the table.  Many of us cannot afford to make the right choice, and we must keep going to work and paying those bills," said Mark Watson, staff representative for Communications Workers of America Local 1034.

Backers said the expansion would cost a minimum-wage worker 45 cents a week and a worker being paid $90,000 a year $2.77 a week.

A typical worker would pay about $1.35 more per week, or about $70 a year on top of the current $124.50 a year.

Businesses would not have to pay more.  But the New Jersey Business and Industry Association said the program would cost employers by requiring them to hire part-time or temporary workers to cover workers on leave.

"It would be a drastic shift covering every employee in New Jersey under paid leave," said John Rogers, NJBIA's vice president for human resource issues.  "At a time when we're not adding jobs, when our unemployment rate is increasing, it would put small employers at a disadvantage with other states."

Under the plan, workers could take up to 12 weeks off per year to care for a new child or an ill spouse or parent and still get two-thirds of their regular salary, up to $488 a week the first year.

California's law took effect last year.  In the first year, 150,000 workers, 1.3 percent of the state's work force, used the program, said Rutgers University researcher Eileen Appelbaum of the Center for Women and Work.

Supporters say it would be good for business -- workers wouldn't quit their jobs, small employers would gain a benefit now limited to larger ones, and large employers who now offer paid leave could shift some costs to the worker-funded government program.

"Any fear that business may have that if you have paid family-leave insurance benefits that people are just going to find ways to take it, just did not materialize," Appelbaum said.

The California Chamber of Commerce, which opposed the program because of concerns about cost and putting the state at a competitive disadvantage, said Tuesday that it's too soon to know the impact of the program.

"We have been worried that the system will be overrun with requests once people really know that it's out there," said spokeswoman Sara Lee.

Rogers said the market already has a shortage of skilled labor and that the state's cost to administer its temporary disability insurance program would probably rise.

Kelly Conklin, a partner in Foley-Waite Associates, an architectural woodworking company in Bloomfield, Essex County, strongly supports the paid-leave plan.

He is a trustee with New Jersey Policy Perspective.

"With our high cost of living in New Jersey, employers need as many incentives as we can provide to attract and keep loyal and productive workers.  This is a no-cost benefit for employers and a very low-cost benefit for employees that will give New Jersey business a universal advantage," Conklin said.

Similar proposals have failed without even getting to a committee hearing, including one in the current Assembly.

The coalition advocating the program includes about 30 organizations, including religious groups, labor unions and women's groups such as the state chapter of the National Organization for Women and the Association of Women Business Owners.

Reach Michael Symons at msymons@gannett.com.