The New Jersey Assembly Labor Committee today approved legislation that would expand New Jersey’s Family Leave Act by lowering the number of employees a business can have before it is required to offer family leave.

Under the current law in New Jersey, employers with 30 or more employees must offer employees the right to be reinstated after they take family leave to care for a child or an elderly relative.

This bill, which was approved by the full Assembly late last year but failed to get a vote in the Senate before the lame-duck session expired, would gradually lower the threshold to employers with five or more employees.

According to estimates from the Office of Legislative Services, the bill, if enacted, would enable more than 700,000 people to gain job protection.

The bill is scheduled to be heard by the Assembly Appropriations Committee on Thursday.