NEW JERSEY WHAT THE LAW ENTITLES YOU TO
Since the 2019 Wage Theft Act, New Jersey reaches back six years, adds up to twice the unpaid wages on top, and presumes retaliation within 90 days of a Labor Department complaint or a lawsuit. Its ABC test makes the company prove you are a real contractor. Here is what you are owed if you worked in New Jersey.
YOUR RIGHTS UNDER NEW JERSEY LAW
From the Wage and Hour Law, the Wage Payment Law, the Earned Sick Leave Law and the 2024 Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights.
$15.92 an hour for most workers as of January 1, 2026, rising to $16.48 on January 1, 2027. Seasonal employers and small employers (fewer than six workers) may pay $15.23, agricultural work $14.20, and long-term-care direct-care staff must receive $18.92. The cash wage for tipped workers is $6.05, rising to $6.61 on January 1, 2027.
One and a half times your regular rate for every hour over 40. New Jersey uses the federal salary level, $684 a week, and reads exemptions narrowly, so a title or a salary alone does not remove overtime.
New Jersey uses the ABC test. The company must prove three things: that you were free from its control, that your work was outside its usual business or away from all its locations, and that you run an independent business. If it cannot, you are an employee owed minimum wage and overtime, whatever your 1099 says.
Every employer must give you a statement of the deductions taken from your pay for each pay period. Employers with ten or more workers must also show the hours you worked when hours affect your pay.
Withholding for shortages, breakage, uniforms, tools or training is unlawful outside a short list of permitted deductions.
One hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year. It starts building on your first day; you can use it after 120 days.
If you are punished within 90 days of filing a complaint with the New Jersey Department of Labor or bringing a court action, the law presumes it was retaliation. The employer must then prove otherwise by clear and convincing evidence, a high standard. Complaints to the employer are protected too.
Since July 1, 2024, a household that employs a nanny, housekeeper or caregiver for five or more hours a month must give you a written contract. It must be in English and your preferred language and cover duties, pay, schedule, breaks and leave. You are owed a paid 10-minute break every four hours and a 30-minute meal break after more than five hours in a row. The employer must give two weeks’ notice before ending the job, or four weeks if you live in. If it does not, it owes pay for the missing notice. There are exceptions, such as serious misconduct.
New Jersey’s wage and domestic-worker laws protect all workers regardless of immigration status.
A new name does not always end the debt. The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development can enforce its orders against the new business. A court can also hold the new business responsible when the facts show it is the same business. Ask us.
WHAT A CASE CAN RECOVER
New Jersey’s wage laws reach back six years from filing for work after August 6, 2019.
On top of the unpaid wages, up to twice that amount again, except for a narrow first-violation safe harbor where the employer shows an inadvertent good-faith error, admits it and pays within 30 days.
Costs and reasonable attorney’s fees, in an amount the court sets, to a worker who wins.
The New Jersey Department of Labor runs a wage-collection process for smaller amounts. It has its own limits on what it can award; a lawyer helps you choose.
NEW JERSEY
Tell us where in New Jersey you worked, your hours and your pay. A lawyer reads every message.
Tell us what happened (718) 484-7510Legal information reviewed: September 16, 2026. Wage rates and legal rules can change; this page is general information, not legal advice.