State Says Few Workers Would Use Paid Family Leave

NJBIZ, Dec 3, 2007 by Goldstein, Scott

Though the maximum number of paid weeks in the bill was cut from 12 to 10 by Senate committees, both Roberts and Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) have said the number of weeks need to be further reduced before it could be considered by the full Senate and Assembly.

Gov. Jon Corzine said he supports paid family leave, but has not specified how many weeks he prefers.

Sen. Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), a co-sponsor of the bill and a union representative for Ironworkers Union Local 339, recently said he would compromise and accept six weeks of paid family leave.

Kirschner said small and large businesses already work with employees to give them the time they need to achieve a work-life balance. "They offer a combination of sick leave, vacation pay, personal leave, flexible scheduling and work-from-home arrangements," said Kirschner, who noted New Jersey would be the only state in the region with paid leave. "The economy is weak. This is not the time to put a huge new mandate on us that all our competitors don't have."

E-mail to sgoldstein@njbiz.com