Newark, N.J. (March 2, 2022) - 2021 was another busy year for both the legislature and the courts in the Garden State. Highlights of the biggest employment law changes are summarized below.

Amendment to Law Against Discrimination

New Jersey amended its Law Against Discrimination (LAD) and paved the way for new protections for those aged 70 and older. Designed to enable workers to retire on their own terms, the new law removed provisions of the LAD that had previously allowed employers to refuse to hire or promote those aged 70 and older. The new law also eliminated the ability of certain employers - namely in higher education and government - to require employee retirement at 70. Now, an employee who can prove they were unlawfully required to retire is also afforded all remedies provided by the LAD, whereas previously such an employee had been limited to recovery of only backpay and interest. Mandatory retirement provisions remain permissible as to any employee who is employed in a bona fide executive or a high policy-making position for the two-year period immediately before retirement, if that employee is entitled to an immediate, non-forfeitable annual retirement benefit from a pension, profit sharing, savings, or deferred retirement plan, or any combination of those plans, from their employer that equals at least $27,000 in the aggregate.

Amendment to New Jersey's WARN Act

The New Jersey WARN Act, an expansive business closing and mass layoff notification law, was also...

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