New Jersey workers who are out of work with an illness or injury that did not happen on the job can receive up to $1,158 a week from the state’s temporary disability insurance program in 2027. The state Department of Labor and Workforce Development lists that maximum for next year, against $1,119 in 2026. The ceiling goes up $39 a week, about 3.5 percent.
The figure is a cap on the weekly payment, and what a particular worker is paid depends on past earnings. For a New Jersey household, the practical question is how a recovery lasting several weeks gets paid for: four weeks at the 2027 maximum come to $4,632, against $4,476 at the 2026 maximum, and a worker who earned well below the top will receive less than either.
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What does temporary disability insurance pay for?
Temporary disability insurance, known as TDI, replaces part of a paycheck when a worker cannot work because of a non-work illness or injury. The state’s rate information page lists the 2027 maximum weekly TDI benefit rate at $1,158 and the 2026 rate at $1,119. The page is the state’s own employer rate table, last revised August 14, 2026, so it carries the maximums and the rates but not the rules for who qualifies.
How does TDI sit beside unemployment?
The same page sets the 2027 maximum weekly unemployment benefit at $937, up from $905. That puts the disability ceiling $221 a week above the unemployment ceiling next year, and both climb by roughly 3.5 percent. For a worker whose recovery is the reason for time off, TDI is the ceiling that applies, and unemployment sits in a different column on the same table.
The page does not list a maximum for family leave insurance, so no 2027 family leave cap can be quoted from it. That figure belongs to a separate part of the system, and the department has not put it on this page.
Who pays into TDI out of each paycheck?
Workers fund part of the program themselves. The 2026 worker TDI rate on the page is 0.19 percent, applied to wages up to $171,100. For 2027, the worker wage base is $177,100, and the department says 2027 worker rates “will be available later this year.”
At the 2026 rate, a worker earning $171,100 or more pays $325.09 into TDI over the year. If the rate stayed at 0.19 percent, the larger 2027 base would raise that top-earner figure to $336.49. The rate has not been published, so that second number is arithmetic and not a state announcement.
The department’s table is organized by calendar year, with a 2026 column and a 2027 column, and it gives no month in 2027 when the new maximum takes over. Workers who expect time off early in the year can ask the department which column applies to the date their leave starts. Until the page changes, $1,119 is the figure listed for 2026 and $1,158 the figure listed for 2027.
What do the numbers leave out for a family?
A maximum benefit of $1,158 is paid to a worker at the top of the earnings scale. A retiree working part time, or a household where one spouse is the main earner, may see a much smaller weekly deposit while rent, insurance premiums and medicine stay fixed. The state’s page settles the ceiling. It leaves the rest of the household budget to other programs, each with its own income limits.
Short on bills while out sick in New Jersey?
A disability payment of up to $1,158 a week replaces only part of a paycheck, and a New Jersey household on a smaller benefit can fall behind on heating, food and prescriptions before the first check even clears. Many of the programs that cover those costs have to be applied for and have their own income limits.
The Benefits Checklist is a guide to 11 benefit programs, among them Extra Help for prescriptions, SNAP food benefits at 60 and older and heating and cooling help, with the 2026 income limits and a 50-state phone directory. It does not cover TDI itself, so it speaks to the bills the state check leaves open, and a printable tracker comes with the download.
Get The Benefits Checklist for the bills a disability check leaves open →
More Financial Reading
- 21 Ways to Stretch a $2,087 Social Security Check
- 15 Places to Find Your Share of the $4.25 Billion States Give Back
- The New $6,000 Senior Deduction and 14 More Tax Moves for Retirees
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
