New Jersey seems firmly entrenched in the top tier of the fierce competition to be the most employee-friendly state this side of California. With the Earned Sick Leave Act, NJ Mini-WARN’s mandatory severance requirements, required Labor Peace Agreements for cannabis businesses, and more, employers in New Jersey face an increasing, and often unique, set of statutory and regulatory requirements. These requirements often set minimum standards that well exceed the benefits required under federal law and by other (often neighboring) states. For businesses with employees in multiple states, the heavy regulatory burdens of operating in New Jersey present a challenge to developing consistent policies across the organization. Reconciling how to integrate these policies with the associated costs is a challenge many businesses face when they expand from New Jersey into other states or expand from other states into New Jersey.

Although this challenge once primarily fell on mid-size and larger businesses that were more likely to have multi-state operations, the expansion of remote work, especially since 2020, resulted in smaller businesses also facing this burden. Indeed, recent surveys suggest upwards of 20% of employees work remotely. This has allowed employers of all sizes to leverage employees outside of their immediate commuting range and fill their ranks with talent from near and far. It also means considering which states’ laws apply and integrating them across an organization.