Statement of Principles
We Need Family Leave Insurance in New Jersey Balancing the demands of job and family is a tremendous challenge for working people today. Under the current rules it’s often insurmountable. More women with children work than ever before. There are more single parent households. People who must work to provide for their families increasingly find themselves torn in two directions. Meanwhile, many businesses find it hard to recruit, train, and keep skilled workers. Something needs to be done—and the problem is just too big for people to solve by themselves. It’s time for workers, business and government to come together to create a winning situation for everyone. It’s time for New Jersey to offer family leave insurance. Since 1990, New Jersey workers have been able to take 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for newborns, foster or newly adopted children and seriously ill family members. But without a paycheck, too many men and women still can’t take essential time off. No one should have to choose between family and job. Family leave insurance would be a big investment in New Jersey’s workers and its economic prosperity. And it wouldn’t be hard to do. New Jersey’s existing Temporary Disability Insurance system (TDI) offers a perfect framework to build on. TDI already provides partial wage replacement to people who need time off from work for illness or injury. Expanding the current TDI into a family leave insurance system would require only that workers make a small additional payment into the TDI fund. Most workers would pay about 64 cents a week. In return, those who need it would get up to 6 weeks of paid family leave coverage per year. Like the current TDI system, family leave insurance would replace two-thirds of weekly wages up to a limit that would increase every year to reflect the cost of living. In 2008 the top benefit would be $524 a week. California already has a paid family leave insurance system very similar to what we’re proposing. Most industrialized democracies around the world have paid family leave too. Let’s give New Jersey workers the break they need to be productive employees and meet the pressing needs of their families. The time has come for Time to Care in New Jersey. Join the New Jersey Time to Care coalition and tell Trenton you’ve waited long enough! For more information, contact: Atif Malik, New Jersey Citizen Action, 973.643.8800 Karen White, Center for Women and Work, 732.932.4614
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		Yes, I and or my Organization endorse the NJ Time to Care State of Principles for paid family leave for New Jersey's workers

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