Original Story in Rutgers Today | Written By: Michelle Edelstein, MPH

The number of eligible claims and the duration of leave taken increased among both women and men following a 2019 policy expansion

Rutgers School of Public Health research found that New Jersey’s expansion of the Family Leave Insurance program in 2019 and 2020 was associated with a sharp increase in the use of family leave benefits among state residents.

Both the number of eligible claims and the duration of leave taken increased after the policy expansion among both women and men.The findings are based on an analysis of trends in the use of paid family leave benefits in New Jersey from 2014 to 2022.

These findings are detailed in a new policy brief, “Progress in Increasing Access to Paid Family Leave in New Jersey: An Evidence-Based Strategy for Improving Maternal and Infant Health,” which highlights the positive impact of legislation signed by Governor Phil Murphy in 2019, which expanded the state’s paid family leave program.

Before the expansion, New Jersey residents were permitted to take six weeks of Family Leave Insurance to care for a newborn, with a maximum benefit of 66% of the claimant’s wage. Now, residents can take up to 12 consecutive weeks of Family Leave Insurance benefits to bond with a newborn, newly adopted or newly placed foster child, and the maximum benefit was increased to 85% of wages. The legislation also added job protections and expanded eligibility to those who take leave. The legislation is part of the state government’s efforts to improve maternal health through First Lady Tammy Murphy’s Nurture NJ initiative, which seeks to ensure equity in maternal and infant health outcomes and to reduce overall maternal and infant mortality and morbidity throughout New Jersey.

Through Nurture NJ, the state has also taken additional action to raise awareness of family leave benefits, ensuring that families in New Jersey know the benefits to which they are entitled. This includes the Maternity Coverage Timeline Tool, which was developed in 2022 in collaboration between the Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOL) and the Office of Innovation to empower parents by providing them with a personalized timeline estimate of benefit coverage periods. Paired with DOL’s Access, Rights and Equity (CARE) grant program — which funds outreach, education and technical assistance programs to increase access to worker benefits and protections – family leave benefits are more in reach for New Jersey residents than ever before.

“We know from previous evidence that access to paid leave for pregnant women and their partners has many benefits, including supporting breastfeeding initiation and duration, increasing engagement with postpartum care and reducing the risk of postpartum depression, so seeing this large increase in access to paid leave is very positive for maternal and infant health in New Jersey,” said Slawa Rokicki, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Behavior, Society and Policy at the Rutgers School of Public Health who led the analysis.

“It is immensely rewarding that so many families in New Jersey have taken advantage of their paid family leave benefits in order to take care of a loved one. By increasing access and creating new tools to expand utilization of these critical benefits, we have made it easier than ever for families across the state to plan their parental leave. I want to thank the Department of Labor and the Office of Innovation for their essential partnership on this initiative,” said First Lady Tammy Murphy. “Supporting mothers throughout their pregnancies and into the early days of parenthood is mission-critical to our goal of making New Jersey the safest, most equitable place to deliver and raise a baby.”

“We’re truly seeing how paid family leave is making a difference for families in New Jersey, especially with the addition of innovative resources to help parents like the Maternity Timeline Tool, and our outreach work in our local communities through our CARE grant,” said Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo. “It’s exciting to watch our efforts pay off as we connect with so many workers, growing families, and employers.”

Expanded access to and use of paid leave during the prenatal and postpartum period has the potential to improve maternal health, promote healthy child development, and improve economic outcomes for families in New Jersey. The full policy brief can be read here.

The analysis is part of a broader evaluation of Nurture NJ being conducted by the School of Public Health and led by Leslie M. Kantor, professor and chair of the Department of Urban-Global Public Health.