NJ WARN Act Requirements: Notice, Severance, and Exceptions

The NJ WARN Act requires private employers with 100 or more workers in New Jersey to give 90 days’ written notice before a mass layoff, plant closing, or transfer of operations, and to pay affected employees one week of severance for every full year they worked for the company.¹ If the notice falls short of 90 days, each affected worker is owed an additional four weeks of pay on top of that severance. The law’s formal name is the Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act, codified at N.J.S.A. 34:21-1 and following.

When the Law Applies to Your Employer

Three things have to be true before the NJ WARN Act kicks in.

First, the employer is a private business with at least 100 employees working in New Jersey. Full-time and part-time workers both count toward that number, and the count sweeps in everyone associated with the company’s New Jersey operations rather than just the staff at one building.¹ The business also has to have been operating in the state for more than three years.

Second, the layoff happens at an “establishment.” That can be a single location or a group of nearby ones, such as buildings in the same office park. Temporary construction sites are excluded.² Remote workers who report to a New Jersey establishment count too, even if they live and work in another state, and they are entitled to the same notice and severance as on-site staff.

Third, the event is one the statute covers:

A termination of operations (a permanent or temporary shutdown of an establishment, or of a facility or operating unit within it).
A transfer of operations (moving an establishment or part of one, inside or outside New Jersey).
A mass layoff (a reduction in force not caused by a shutdown or transfer).²

For all three event types, the trigger is the termination of 50 or more employees at or reporting to the establishment within a 30-day period.¹ The current threshold does not include the “one-third of the workforce” qualifier that existed in the original 2007 version.

Employers cannot sidestep the law by splitting a large layoff into smaller rounds. If several rounds of terminations at the same establishment fall within a 90-day window and together cross the 50-employee threshold, they are treated as a single covered event unless the employer proves each round had a separate and distinct cause.³

The 90-Day Notice You Should Have Received

A covered employer has to deliver written notice at least 90 days before the first termination takes effect.¹ The notice must go to four groups:

Each affected employee whose job will end.⁴
Any union representing employees at the establishment.
The chief elected official of the municipality where the establishment is located.
The Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development.

The notice has to spell out the reason for the layoff or closure, the expected date of the first termination, the schedule for any later cuts, and the names and job titles of affected employees.⁵

The Severance You Are Owed

Every employee terminated in a covered event is entitled to severance equal to one week of pay for each full year of employment with the company.¹ This is a statutory right. It does not depend on company policy, and employees do not have to sign a release to collect it.

The weekly rate used in the calculation is the higher of two numbers: the employee’s average regular pay over the last three years, or the final regular rate of pay.¹ Using the higher of the two protects workers whose pay recently dropped or whose wages fluctuated.

The statute treats this severance as compensation earned in full at the moment employment ends, so it behaves like final wages owed on the last paycheck rather than a promise of future installments. If an employer already offers severance through a collective bargaining agreement or a company policy, the employee gets whichever amount is greater, not both stacked together.¹

What Short Notice Costs

If the employer gives fewer than 90 days of notice, every affected employee is owed an extra four weeks of pay on top of the years-of-service severance. The penalty applies per employee, so the exposure grows quickly with the size of the workforce. Any back pay already owed under the federal WARN Act for violating the federal notice requirement can be credited against the New Jersey severance obligation, which prevents a full double recovery.¹

The Narrow Exceptions

The definitions of termination of operations, mass layoff, and transfer of operations each carve out the same short list of catastrophic events that fall outside the law:²

Fire, flood, or natural disaster.
National emergency or act of war.
Civil disorder or industrial sabotage.
Loss of Medicare or Medicaid certification.
License revocation under New Jersey’s health care facilities licensing law.

A business downturn, the loss of a major client, or a failed financing round does not qualify. Unlike the federal WARN Act, New Jersey does not recognize a “faltering company” exception that would let an employer shorten the notice because giving it might scare off investors or lenders. If none of the listed catastrophic events caused the layoff, the full 90 days of notice and the severance obligation apply.

How This Compares to the Federal WARN Act

Both laws target sudden large-scale job loss, but the New Jersey version is tougher in several ways.

Notice period: 90 days in New Jersey; 60 calendar days under federal WARN.⁶
Employee count: New Jersey counts all employees, including part-time workers. Federal WARN generally excludes workers averaging fewer than 20 hours per week or employed less than six of the last twelve months.⁶
Severance: New Jersey requires one week per year of service. Federal WARN requires no severance, only notice.
Exceptions: Federal WARN includes a “faltering company” exception and an “unforeseeable business circumstances” exception. New Jersey has neither.⁷
Remote workers: New Jersey explicitly counts employees who report to a New Jersey establishment even if they work from home or out of state. The federal law focuses on employees at a single site of employment.

Employers with New Jersey operations usually have to comply with both laws at once, and the stricter New Jersey standards control almost every step. The federal 60-day clock runs inside the state’s 90-day clock, so meeting the New Jersey deadline satisfies the federal one.

What To Do if Your Employer Didn’t Comply

If you were laid off without 90 days of notice or without receiving the severance the statute requires, start by filing a complaint with the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, which oversees WARN compliance and can connect displaced workers with rapid response services. Talking to an employment attorney is worth considering too, especially if the employer disputes that the layoff was a covered event or claims one of the narrow exceptions applies. Because the statute treats the severance as earned wages, remedies under New Jersey’s wage payment laws may also be available.

1
Justia Law. New Jersey Revised Statutes Section 34:21-2
2
Justia Law. New Jersey Revised Statutes Section 34:21-1 – Definitions Relative to Prenotification of Certain Plant Closings, Transfers, and Mass Layoffs
3
New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. New Jersey Code 34:21-1 – Definitions Relative to Prenotification of Certain Plant Closings, Transfers, and Mass Layoffs
4
NJ.gov. Business Services – File a WARN Notice
5
New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act Notification Form
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Plant Closings and Layoffs
7
eCFR. When May Notice Be Given Less Than 60 Days in Advance