New Jersey laundromats will soon receive materials to help ensure they are in compliance with State labor laws in 2024. Retail laundromats, like all New Jersey employers, are required to:

• Pay their employees at least the State minimum wage, which increased to $15.13 for most employees on January 1st, 2024
• Pay their employees an overtime rate of 1.5 times their regular pay rate when they work over 40 hours in a workweek
• Classify workers as employees appropriately
• Register in the new online system for working papers when hiring a minor under age 18
• Protect working minors by adhering to all State child labor laws
• Allow all their employees to earn and use sick leave to care for themselves or a loved one
• Display all required posters in the workplace where employees can see them

Laundromats will continue to be a Strategic Enforcement focus for the New Jersey Department of Labor in 2024.

Enhance your recruiting and retention of highly-skilled employees with STEM Loan Redemption. The New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (HESAA) will help qualifying employees payoff student loans by matching your company's contribution of $1,000 per year for up to four years. Eligible STEM professionals can receive a total of $8,000 towards their student loans.

Small businesses and nonprofits can now apply for working capital loans of up to $250,000 from the NJ Capital Access Fund.

Eligible businesses have been operating for at least 12 months with a revenue of $10 million or less and fewer than 50 employees.

Loans from the Fund offer flexible terms, including no minimum credit score or collateral requirements, terms from 36 to 60 months, low fees, and competitive fixed interest rates. Additional terms apply.

As of June 1st, 2023, employers hiring teenagers must register online to receive a unique 8-digit code and share that code with every minor they intend to hire. The potential hire can then visit the website to create an account and start their working papers application, entering the employer's unique code. Caregivers must review the details of the job and provide proof of the minor’s age. The NJ Department of Labor will notify the business once the application is approved.

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A recently passed law made a series of technical corrections, clarifications, and changes to the Corporation Business Tax Act (CBT) and Gross Income Tax Act (GIT). A series of Technical Bulletins from the Division of Taxation summarizes the new requirements and categorizes them by effective date.

A recorded webinar from New Jersey Clean Communities and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection explains the inspection process the State uses to ensure compliance with the plastic bag and straw ban at New Jersey businesses. For questions please call 1-800-537-7397(1-800-JERSEY-7).

Businesses in New Jersey must comply with rules and regulations, but under a new law that takes effect on June 19th, 2023, state agencies can suspend enforcement of penalties on certain first-time violations at their discretion. Penalties may be suspended only if the first-time violation doesn’t impact public welfare, cause employees to lose income or benefits, or present the risk of environmental harm. The temporary waiver provided under this new law is available to businesses with 50 or fewer full-time employees and subject to several important exceptions, including:

1. Violations of a criminal nature
2. Violations that were intentional or knowing acts
3. Violations that are grounds for the suspension or revocation of the owner’s authority to operate the business
4. Violations that are grounds for the business to be disqualified from bidding for State contracts
5. Violations of any State employment or labor-related law
6. Violations that are grounds for the issuance of a stop-work order
7. Violations of federal law that require the State to impose a penalty

If none of these apply to the first-time violation, agencies have the discretion to give the cited business up to 60 days to “cure,” or resolve, the violation. Failure to cure or resolve the violation will result in the business being assessed all fines and penalties available under the law upon the expiration of the cure period.

If your business has been cited for a first-time violation and you believe that it is eligible for a cure, contact the agency that issued the violation. State agencies will report annually on how they are using this discretionary authority.

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A new law is making changes to records keeping and reporting requirements for temporary help service firms and for the client companies that employ their workers. The law covers many people in temporary work assignments, with some exceptions. Two of these requirements are now in effect, as of May 7th, 2023. 

• These firms must now provide workers with a statement that contains certain required information in English as well as the language identified by the worker as their primary language.
• These firms and their clients may not retaliate, through discharge or in any other manner, against any worker who exercises their rights under this law.

The remaining key requirements take effect on August 5th, 2023:

• Temporary help service firms must be certified by the Division of Consumer Affairs within the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety.
• These firms must create certain records relating to their temporary workers and must keep these records for six years from their date of creation.
• These firms and their clients may not charge temporary workers for their transportation to or from a worksite, with certain exceptions.
• These firms may not obstruct their workers’ rights to seek employment elsewhere, including with their clients, and may not inhibit their clients from hiring those workers.
• Employers may not enter into a contract for temporary help services with a company that is not certified by the Division of Consumer Affairs. Employers are responsible for verifying the registration status of a temporary help service firm.

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Employers of all sizes are required by State law to provide full-time, part-time, and temporary employees with up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per year to care for themselves or a loved one. Employers can provide all 40 hours of the earned sick leave up front each year, or they can provide one hour of earned leave for every 30 hours worked.

Employees who work more than 40 hours in a week should receive 150% of their regular pay rate (time and a half) for hours worked in excess of 40.

Employers who do not comply may be subject to enforcement action.

Employers with at least 100 employees have obligations under the State’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) law. As of April 10th, 2023, several new changes to the law are in effect. Among the most significant changes: 

• Employees impacted by layoffs, closures, or relocations must now have 90 days advance notice.
• Employees must be notified whenever a mass layoff impacts at least 50 workers at a given worksite.
• Part-time employees now have the same protections under the law as full-time employees. They should be counted as employees when determining an employer’s WARN obligations.
• Employers must provide discharged employees with one week of severance pay for each year of service.

Employers subject to WARN requirements are strongly encouraged to familiarize themselves with the complete changes to the law.