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New Jersey Paid Family & Medical Leave: Do You Qualify?
New Jersey has run wage-replacement leave longer than almost anywhere, and a 2026 change quietly closed the biggest gap in it: job protection for people collecting benefits.
Check your New Jersey leave eligibility →- Own disability (TDI)
- Up to 26 weeks
- Family leave (FLI)
- Up to 12 weeks
- Job protection (NJFLA)
- Up to 12 weeks
- NJFLA employer size
- 15+ (since 7/2026)
Two benefits, and how they stack
Temporary Disability Insurance covers your own inability to work, including recovery from childbirth, for up to 26 weeks. Family Leave Insurance covers bonding and caring for a relative for up to 12. For a birth, these cover different periods, so a parent can draw TDI for recovery and then FLI for bonding, back to back.
The 2026 job-protection change
The pay and the job protection have long been separate here: TDI and FLI send money, while the New Jersey Family Leave Act protects the job. As of July 17, 2026, NJFLA reaches employers with 15 or more employees (down from 30), with a three-month, 250-hour test. And a new provision means that if you're collecting TDI or FLI and aren't already covered by NJFLA or federal FMLA, you now have job protection anyway, with no minimum tenure or employer size. That's a real gap closed. File through myleavebenefits.nj.gov.
The only way to know where you land is to run your own numbers: your tenure, hours, employer size, and reason for leave all move the answer. Leavely's free assessment walks through it in a couple of minutes and shows both whether you'll be paid and whether your job is protected.
Start your free New Jersey leave assessment →