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 NJ Becomes 2nd State To Mandate Paid Family
Leave For Gay Partners
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: May 2, 2008 - 5:00 pm ET
(Trenton, New Jersey) New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine
(D) Friday signed broad legislation that mandates paid family leave for same-sex
partners - making the state the second after California to have such a law.
Under the New Jersey law, workers can apply for up to six weeks off to care for a newborn or newly adopted child, or a sick parent, child, spouse or partner, and collect up to two-thirds of their pay, up to a maximum of $524 a week.
The new law explicitly includes married spouses, as well as civil union partners
under the Civil Union Act enacted in December 2006, and domestic partners
through the Domestic Partnership Act enacted in January 2004.
Today, same-sex couples in New Jersey have the option only of entering civil unions, not domestic partnerships and not marriage, yet. Same-sex couples who entered domestic partnerships before the Civil Union Act, who have not subsequently entered into civil unions, remain in domestic partnerships under state law.
Washington State, the only other U.S. state besides California and New Jersey with paid family leave, covers paid leave only to care for children. Massachusetts, which has marriage equality, does not have a paid family leave law.
Since 1993, unpaid family leave has been the law nationally, mandating 12 weeks to care for a newborn or newly adopted child, or a sick parent, child or spouse, but not same-sex partners, which federal law does not recognize.
"This new law is the latest indication that our state is ready to give same-sex couples the freedom to
marry," said Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality.
The group, along with other LGBT organizations in
New Jersey has been pressuring the legislature to enact a same-sex marriage law,
arguing that civil unions have created second class citizens in the state.
A commission established by the state to study
same-sex civil unions in New Jersey agrees with that argument.
In a report submitted in February the commission
found that gay couples in Massachusetts, the only state that now allows same-sex
marriage, do not experience some of the legal complications that those in New
Jersey do.
The commission held three public hearings last
year at which the majority of the testimony came from people who were in civil
unions and said they were still not being treated the way married couples are by
government agencies, employers and others.
For instance, the commission found that many
companies in the state that are self-insured - and therefore are regulated by
federal, rather than state, law - refuse to provide health insurance to the
partners of their employees.
While employers in Massachusetts could legally do
the same thing, most do not, according to the report.
The commission also finds that many people in the
state do not understand civil unions, which create a "second-class
status."
Garden State Equality says it has received complaints from 802 couples
that the law has failed to provide them equality as marriage would. That failure rate of nearly 1 in 3 includes only the couples who have come to Garden State Equality.
State lawmakers enacted the civil unions law in
2006 in reaction to a state Supreme Court ruling that year that found gay
couples were entitled to the same legal protections as married couples.
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