NJ Temporary Disability and Family Leave Calculator

New Jersey TDI and FLI

How New Jersey figures your weekly benefit rate

Temporary disability insurance and family leave insurance use the same formula. The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) looks at your base year, which is the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before your disability or leave begins. It divides your base year earnings by your number of base weeks to get your average weekly wage. In 2026 a base week is any week in which you earned $310 or more. Your weekly benefit rate is 85 percent of your average weekly wage, rounded down to the dollar, up to a maximum of $1,119 a week in 2026. The maximum was $1,081 in 2025.

NJDOL's own example follows Steve, whose first day of disability is Friday, March 6, 2026, so his base year runs from October 2024 through September 2025. He earned $18,200 over 45 base weeks, an average weekly wage of $404, and his weekly benefit rate is $343. The calculator starts with the same wages and base weeks, and a day of benefits is one seventh of the weekly rate, $49 in that case. You reach the $1,119 maximum once your average weekly wage reaches about $1,316.48, or about $68,457 over 52 base weeks.

Do you qualify in 2026?

You qualify for either program in 2026 if you worked at least 20 base weeks in your base year, or if you earned at least $15,500 in total during it. Both figures follow the state minimum wage: a base week is 20 times the minimum wage in effect on October 1 of the prior year and the earnings test is 1,000 times it, rounded up. If you do not qualify with the standard base year, NJDOL has other ways of calculating a base year. Most New Jersey employers must provide the coverage, either through the state plan or through an approved private plan, and a private plan must pay weekly benefits at least equal to the state plan. This calculator follows the state plan rules.

Source: NJDOL, Temporary Disability Insurance and Family Leave Insurance pages. The calculator accepts start dates in 2026.

Temporary disability: waiting week and total benefits

Temporary disability pays for up to 26 weeks when a health care provider certifies that you cannot work. The first seven days of each period of disability are a waiting period, but if benefits are payable for three more consecutive weeks, the first seven days are paid as well. In practice a disability that lasts four weeks or more is paid from the first day, while a two-week disability pays only the second week. Donating an organ or bone marrow is one of the exceptions: benefits are paid from the start.

The total you can receive for one period of disability is the lesser of 26 times your weekly benefit rate or one-third of your total base year wages. For a steady worker with 52 base weeks the one-third limit is usually the one that applies; below the maximum rate it works out to about 20.4 weeks of benefits. In the default example, one-third of $18,200 is $6,066, which is less than 26 times $343. Eight weeks off pays 8 times $343, or $2,744, because the waiting week is paid once the disability lasts that long.

Calculated with the 2026 NJDOL formula and the limits in N.J.S.A. 43:21-38 for pay spread evenly over 52 base weeks.

Pregnancy and a new child

For pregnancy, temporary disability benefits are usually payable for up to four weeks before the expected delivery date and six weeks after you give birth, or eight weeks after a caesarean delivery. A provider can certify a longer period when there are complications. Family leave insurance can follow for bonding with a newborn, a newly adopted child or a newly placed foster child, and it also covers care for a seriously ill or injured loved one. With the default wages, a 10-week pregnancy claim pays $3,430 and 12 weeks of bonding leave pays another $4,116.

Family leave: continuous or separate days

Family leave insurance has no waiting week. You can take up to 12 weeks in one continuous period in a 12-month period, with total benefits of 12 times your weekly rate, or up to 56 separate days, which is 8 weeks, in 12 months. Each day of leave pays one seventh of your weekly rate, and the total for a part of a week is rounded down to the dollar, so 20 separate days at $343 a week come to $980. Bonding benefits end by the child's first birthday, or 12 months after an adoptive or foster placement.

Taxes and payroll contributions

Temporary disability benefits are taxable for federal income tax and Social Security. Social Security and Medicare are withheld automatically, but federal income tax is not withheld unless you ask for a specific weekly amount when you apply, and your employer reports pregnancy disability benefits on your W-2 as third-party sick pay or other wages. Family leave insurance benefits are not taxed by New Jersey; you can ask for 10 percent federal withholding, and NJDOL posts a Form 1099-G each January. In 2026 workers contribute 0.19 percent for TDI and 0.23 percent for FLI on the first $171,100 of wages; NJ SDI and FLI deductions shows how those appear on your pay stub, and disability benefits tax covers the federal rules.

Applying and returning to work

You can apply on or after your first day of disability and have 30 days after your leave starts to file. If your doctor clears you to go back on a reduced schedule after at least seven days of full benefits, and your employer allows it, New Jersey can pay partial benefits so that your wages plus benefits equal your full weekly rate, generally for up to eight weeks. If you lose your job rather than your health, the NJ unemployment calculator estimates that separate benefit, and the New Jersey salary calculator shows your take-home pay when you return.