S 1116 New Jersey Senate · 2026-2027 Regular Session

Exempts poll workers wages from affecting unemployment compensation.

This bill exempts wages earned by poll workers during elections from being counted when calculating unemployment benefits in New Jersey. It amends the state's unemployment law (R.S.43:21-19) to exclude these wages from "annual payroll" calculations that determine benefit eligibility. This directly affects election workers who may later qualify for unemployment benefits, ensuring their temporary election work does not reduce their compensation. The policy change prevents poll workers' election wages from impacting their unemployment benefit amount under current law.

Issues: ✓ Labor & Employment

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 13, 2026 Last action Jun 30, 2026

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What changed between versions

Introduced → Reprint · 5 edits

MODERATE

This is a First Reprint of S1116 as reported by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee on June 24, 2026, with amendments. The substantive changes add a $1,000 annual cap on election worker compensation that qualifies for the unemployment benefit exemption, simplify the average weekly wage definition by removing an obsolete pre-1986 formula, and update cross-references to reflect renumbered provisions in R.S.43:21-4.

Scope change

The scope of the election worker unemployment exemption is narrowed by adding a $1,000 per calendar year compensation cap. Workers earning more than $1,000 from county board of elections in a year will no longer have those payments excluded from their unemployment benefit calculations.

ELIGIBILITY

A new proviso was added in two places (the employment exclusion for election workers and the remuneration definition) stating that the exemption from counting election worker pay against unemployment benefits only applies if the compensation paid by the county board of elections does not exceed $1,000 in a calendar year. Previously, all such payments were excluded without a cap.

DEFINITION

The definition of 'average weekly wage' was simplified. The old text contained two formulas: one for benefit years before July 1, 1986 (based on the most recent employer with at least 20 base weeks) and one for benefit years on or after that date (total base year wages divided by base weeks worked, capped at 52). The new text removes the obsolete pre-1986 formula and retains only the current calculation method.

TECHNICAL

The bracketed note about when the monetary alternative in R.S.43:21-4(e) applies was moved to a footnote and updated to reference 'subparagraph (B) of paragraph (4) or subparagraph (B) of paragraph (5)' instead of 'subparagraph (B) of paragraph (2),' reflecting renumbering of that section.

The cross-reference at the end was updated from P.L.2023, c.262, s.12 to P.L.2024, c.102, s.7.

SCOPE

Senator Moriarty was added as a co-sponsor of the bill.

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Full legislative history

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Committee

May 11, 2026

Committee

Referred to Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee

upper

Jan 13, 2026

Introduced

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Labor Committee

upper

2 primary · 4 co-sponsors