New Jersey will collect temporary disability and family leave insurance contributions from workers on the first $177,100 of their wages in 2027, according to the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development. This year the limit is $171,100, so the amount of pay that is taxed for these two programs grows by $6,000.
For most paychecks nothing changes, because the cap only matters to people earning more than $171,100. A worker above that line has already stopped paying for the year by late in 2026, and in 2027 the deductions will run for $6,000 more of pay before they stop. The state has not yet posted the 2027 worker rates, so the first January pay stub and the final one of 2026 are the two documents worth setting side by side.
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What are the two deductions?
Temporary disability insurance, or TDI, pays workers who cannot work because of a non-work illness or injury. Family leave insurance, or FLI, pays workers who take time off to bond with a child or care for a relative. Both are funded in part by contributions taken from employees’ pay, and the state’s rate information page lists them under a single “workers only” wage base of $177,100 for 2027.
What do the 2026 rates add up to?
The page shows a 2026 worker rate of 0.0019 for TDI and 0.0023 for FLI, which is 0.19 percent and 0.23 percent of pay. Applied to the 2026 base of $171,100, the most a worker can pay is $325.09 for TDI and $393.53 for FLI, or $718.62 together.
Those totals are arithmetic on the posted 2026 rates, and no 2027 rate exists yet. The department says 2027 worker rates “will be available later this year.” If the 2026 rates were carried forward unchanged, the top bill would come to $336.49 for TDI and $407.33 for FLI, a combined $743.82, which is $25.20 more than this year’s ceiling.
The new base is about 3.5 percent above the old one, roughly the same pace as the rise in the weekly benefit ceilings. A worker paid $177,100 in 2027 is charged on every dollar. The same pay in 2026 would have stopped being charged at $171,100, so the extra $6,000 is where any new deduction shows up.
Is the $177,100 base the same one employers use?
No, and the difference is easy to miss. The page lists a separate base of $46,400 for 2027, up from $44,800, that applies to unemployment insurance and the workforce funds for workers and employers, and to TDI for employers. Only the $177,100 figure is specific to the TDI and FLI contributions workers pay.
A worker earning $60,000 would therefore reach the lower base before the year ends for unemployment and workforce contributions, while TDI and FLI would continue to come out of every paycheck until the year ends. That is why a pay stub can show some deductions stopping while others keep running.
What should a household watch for in January?
The department’s page was last revised on August 14, 2026, and the rates beside the 2027 column are still shown as zeros with the note that they will be posted later. Until they are, a household can compare only the wage bases. Anyone who files for benefits in 2027 should know that the maximum weekly rates move too: $937 for unemployment and $1,158 for temporary disability, against $905 and $1,119 in 2026.
Building a 2027 New Jersey budget around these deductions?
A payroll deduction that runs on $6,000 more pay, at rates not yet posted, quietly trims take-home pay for higher earners in 2027, and a household that budgets to the dollar can miss it until the January stub arrives. Many of the programs that offset household costs have their own income limits and sign-up steps.
The Benefits Checklist is a guide to 11 benefit programs, among them senior property-tax breaks, heating and cooling help and SNAP food benefits at 60 and older, with the 2026 income limits and a 50-state phone directory. It does not cover payroll taxes or the TDI and FLI programs, so it speaks to the household-cost side of the plan, and a printable tracker comes with the download.
Set up The Benefits Checklist tracker before the first 2027 pay stub →
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
- 17 Medicare Money Moves Now That Part D Caps at $2,400
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
