Advocates are pushing state lawmakers to expand the New Jersey Family Leave Act, as a new report said 1.7 million people still lack coverage.

Advocates this week attending a virtual press conference hosted by the NJ Time to Care Coalition highlighted the findings of a new report that revealed the wide gaps in coverage that are meant to give families time off after childbirth.

Currently, under the law, only workers at businesses with 30 or more employees are guaranteed to return to their positions after they take up to 12 weeks of family leave. Legislation passed in the Assembly in February would lower that threshold to 20 employees in 2024, 10 in 2025, and five in 2026.

New Jersey Citizen Action’s Work Justice Program director Yarrow William-Cole said the organizations are urging lawmakers to amend the law. “We are proposing 90 days at the employer and remove the 1,000 hours worked requirement, because it’s complicated and really unnecessary,” she said.

Business representatives said the changes may hurt more than help. Elissa Frank, New Jersey Business and Industry Association’s vice president of government affairs, said the changes will clearly impact small businesses.

“We don’t think there is a need to go down any further, really in part because this is really impacting our small business, those moms and pops on Main Street,” she said. “They’re really having a hard time recovering from COVID, and this is another regulation that will make it harder for them to continue to do business in New Jersey.”