UPDATE:Murphy signs expanded paid family leave. Here's what the new law means for you

New Jersey’s paid family leave program is about to become more generous, allowing workers to take twice as much time off after childbirth or to care for a sick family member.

Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, announced that he would sign a bill into law on Tuesday that will also provide workers with larger payments during leave and allow them to care for more relatives beyond their immediate family.

On Twitter, Murphy called the measure “a huge win for working families and our economy.” It will be the first expansion of New Jersey’s paid family leave law since it was enacted a decade ago.

“No one should have to choose between earning a paycheck and spending time with a newborn child or caring for an ailing relative,” Murphy said.

The expansion will occur despite the objections of the state’s business community. Although companies do not pay into the system — instead, workers fund their own benefits through a small payroll tax — businesses say the changes will force them to pay more in overtime and incur other costs as they find replacement workers.

Other opponents, including several Republican lawmakers, have framed the changes as a new tax on middle- and high-wage earners, who will largely fund the enhanced benefits under the law. Annual payroll deductions, which currently average $33, could rise to about $100 for some workers, said Dena Mottola Jaborska of New Jersey Citizen Action, an advocacy group that supports the changes.

New Jersey is one of only a few states with a program that provides payments to workers who want to take time off after childbirth or to care for sick family members. Research suggests that such programs lead to healthier babies with better long-term outcomes and allow mothers to stay better connected to the workforce, leading to higher wages.

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Paid family leave programs can be especially important for low-income workers, who may not be able to afford to take unpaid leave or reduce their time at work to tend to a new child or a family emergency.

Since its enactment in 2009 under Gov. Jon Corzine, New Jersey’s program has drawn criticism from advocates for offering payouts that they say are too low for most people to live on and for applying to an overly narrow set of family situations.

Under current law, workers can receive two-thirds of their weekly wage, up to a maximum of $637, to bond with a newborn child or take care of a sick child, parent, spouse or civil union partner. The benefits last up to six weeks.

The new law, A-3975, will double the benefits period to 12 weeks — or 56 days for intermittent leave — and increase the maximum weekly payment to $842, according to the legislation’s Democratic sponsors. Those enhanced payments would begin in July of next year.

The law will also make benefits available immediately to workers caring for more types of family members, including siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, parents-in-law and those who are the “equivalent” of family, as well as victims of domestic violence or sexual assault and family members who care for such victims.

Workers at companies with 30 or more employees will be guaranteed to have a job to return to if they take paid family leave. The current law applies that guarantee only to businesses with at least 50 employees.

The expansion comes at a cost. The nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services estimated that annual payroll collections under the new law will increase by $278 million to $365 million.

The measure also allocates $1.2 million for outreach and better marketing of the program, which many workers still do not know exists. A 2016 Columbia University study found that 155,000 people had taken advantage of New Jersey’s program in its first five years, but many more would have done so had they been aware of it.

The Democrats who control the Legislature had previously tried to expand the program but could not win the support of Murphy’s Republican predecessor, Chris Christie.

Christie vetoed a bill to expand the state’s family leave program in 2017, citing “increased taxes” on workers and its “potentially significant impact” on businesses.

Email: pugliese@northjersey.com