New Jersey Sick Leave Starts at Employee One. Philadelphia's Starts at 10.

Who is covered

New Jersey’s Earned Sick Leave Law covers every employer with employees working in New Jersey. There is no small-employer carve-out. The New Jersey Department of Labor’s own FAQ puts it plainly: “There is no minimum number of employees that an employer must have.”

In Philadelphia, whether sick time is paid depends on whether you have 10 or more employees. In New Jersey, the question never comes up. One employee is enough.

The law also does not care where your company is based. NJDOL says it covers out-of-state employers with New Jersey workers. If your office is in Bucks County and you hire one salesperson who works from home in Cherry Hill, you are a covered New Jersey employer for that person.

Nonprofits are covered too. The law has been in effect since October 29, 2018, so there is no phase-in left to lean on.

If this is your first hire outside Pennsylvania, read our guide to your first hire across state lines as well. Sick leave is only one of the rules that changes when the employee’s work address does.

How accrual works

Employees earn 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work. Accrual stops at 40 hours in a benefit year. A benefit year is the yearly period you set for tracking sick leave.

New employees can begin using accrued time after a 120-day waiting period. They earn time from day one. They simply cannot take it during that first 120 days.

Unused time carries over into the next benefit year, up to 40 hours. As an alternative, you can offer to pay out unused time at the end of the benefit year. If you use accrual, the employee then picks a full payout or a 50 percent payout. NJDOL also allows you to front-load 40 hours at the start of the benefit year instead of tracking accrual hour by hour.

Front-loading is often the simplest choice for a small employer. You give the full 40 hours up front, and there is nothing to compute. Whichever method you pick, your payroll system needs to know which employees work in New Jersey and track their hours.

What else lands with your first NJ hire

Sick leave gets the headline, but it arrives with company. Here is what else turns on the day your first New Jersey worker starts.

The Law Against Discrimination. New Jersey’s anti-discrimination statute, called the NJLAD, applies to every New Jersey employer regardless of size. The statute’s definition of “employer” has no numeric threshold. That makes it broader than federal Title VII, which starts at 15 employees. Your handbook, hiring process, and complaint procedure should reflect NJLAD from day one.

The salary history ban. New Jersey law, at N.J.S.A. 34:6B-20, bars “any employer” from screening applicants on prior salary or requiring salary history to meet a set of criteria. There is no headcount threshold. You may ask about the structure of an applicant’s incentive or commission plan, but not the amounts. Penalties run up to $1,000 for a first violation, $5,000 for a second, and $10,000 for each one after that.

There are a few exceptions. If an applicant volunteers salary history without being asked, you may consider it. After an offer, you may ask for written permission to verify it. If salary information turns up by accident in a background check, you must discard it.

Workers’ compensation. Every New Jersey corporation, LLC, partnership, or sole proprietorship with one person performing services must carry workers’ compensation coverage or be approved to self-insure. NJDOL treats failure to carry coverage as a disorderly persons offense and potentially a fourth-degree crime. Penalties can reach $5,000 per ten-day period without coverage, and they are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. Call your insurance broker before the start date, not after.

Unemployment, disability, and family leave insurance registration. NJDOL says every business must first register with New Jersey using Form NJ-REG. Once you employ one or more people and pay $1,000 or more in wages in a calendar year, you are an employer under the unemployment law and file quarterly reports, the WR-30 and the NJ-927. NJDOL does not publish a registration deadline in days, so do not wait for one. Register when you make the offer.

Registration brings you into New Jersey’s Temporary Disability Insurance and Family Leave Insurance programs, known as TDI and FLI. For 2026, the employer TDI contribution runs from 0.10 to 0.75 percent on the first $44,800 of each employee’s wages. Employees contribute 0.19 percent for TDI and 0.23 percent for FLI on the first $171,100 of wages. There is no employer contribution to FLI. The 2026 maximum weekly benefit is $1,119.

You must post the TDI and FLI posters and give employees written notice of these programs at hire, on request, and when an employee gives notice that they need leave. Since July 17, 2026, an employee who receives TDI or FLI benefits also has the right to return to the same job, or an equivalent one, when the leave ends. NJDOL says there is no minimum employer size for this, so it covers your first New Jersey hire.

New hire reporting. New Jersey requires you to report every newly hired or rehired employee to the State Directory of New Hires. Your payroll provider may do this for you, but confirm it. Do not assume the Pennsylvania new hire report you already file covers a New Jersey worker.

Wage payment and records. New Jersey’s Wage Payment Law requires you to pay on regular paydays, give each employee an itemized wage statement, and keep wage and hour records for six years. That six-year window is longer than many employers expect. Set your retention policy accordingly.

Required postings. NJDOL publishes an Employer Poster Packet with the state’s required notices, including the Earned Sick Leave poster (MW-565), the FLI poster (PR-2), the UI and Disability poster (PR-1), and others covering wages, child labor, recordkeeping, whistleblower protections, and misclassification. You also need your workers’ compensation carrier notice, the Division on Civil Rights anti-discrimination posters, and the federal posters.

One newer item is easy to miss. The Worker Freedom from Employer Intimidation Act, often called the captive audience ban, was amended effective December 2, 2025 and requires its own notice. For a remote employee, post electronically and keep a record that you did.

How this compares to Philadelphia

Many Philadelphia-area employers already handle the city’s Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces ordinance. It is tempting to assume New Jersey works the same way. It does not.

Philadelphia’s ordinance is a city rule. It covers employees who work 40 or more hours a year inside city limits, based on where they work rather than where they live. If you have 10 or more employees, the time is paid. If you have fewer than 10, the time is unpaid but still protected. Accrual is 1 hour per 40 hours worked, capped at 40 hours a year, and new hires can begin using time after 90 days. Our Philadelphia paid sick leave article covers the details.

New Jersey’s law is a state rule. It has no paid-versus-unpaid line, accrues faster, and makes new hires wait longer.

The caps match, but the paths to reach them do not. If you run one sick leave policy for both groups, it has to meet the more generous rule in each column, or you need two policies.

Also notice the location test. Both rules look at where the work is done. A person who lives in Camden and commutes to your Center City office falls under Philadelphia’s ordinance for those hours. A person who lives in Northeast Philadelphia and works at your Moorestown site is your New Jersey employee.

Common mistakes for cross-river employers

Applying the Philadelphia 10-employee line to New Jersey. There is no such line in New Jersey. Your first New Jersey employee earns paid sick leave.

Using 1 per 40 for everyone. New Jersey accrues at 1 hour per 30. If your payroll system has one accrual rule for the whole company, your New Jersey employees are being shorted.

Assuming your Pennsylvania workers’ compensation policy covers New Jersey. Ask your broker in writing. New Jersey requires coverage for anyone performing services in the state, and the penalties for a gap are steep.

Asking about salary history on a shared application form. If your application asks for current or prior pay, that question is now a New Jersey violation for any New Jersey applicant. Remove it from the form rather than trying to remember who is where.

Forgetting the written TDI and FLI notice at hire. The posters are not enough. New Jersey requires written notice to the employee at hire, on request, and when the employee gives notice of leave.

Keeping records for only three years. Philadelphia’s sick leave records rule is three years. New Jersey’s wage and hour records rule is six. Use the longer one.

Missing the 20-day new hire report. If your payroll provider files new hire reports for Pennsylvania only, your New Jersey hire may never be reported. Check.

Checklist

Work through this list before your first New Jersey employee’s start date.