NJDOL Awards $2.5 Million in Grants to Increase Worker Benefits Protection
The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) has awarded $2.5 million through a fourth round of the Cultivating Access, Rights, and Equity (CARE) grant program to 26 organizations, including four collaboratives comprised of 15 organizations.
Launched in March 2022, the CARE grant funds outreach, education, and technical assistance to increase equitable access to New Jersey’s worker benefits and protections. Since its launch, CARE grantees have made direct contacts with over 200,000 workers and counseled thousands to help them secure the benefits and rights they are entitled to under the law. They have also reached more than 3,800 employers with information on their obligations and compliance.
This year’s program funding will cover initiatives to raise awareness and access to paid family and medical leave, unemployment insurance, and other work rights, including Earned Sick Leave, minimum wage, overtime, wage theft, misclassification, Temporary Workers’ Bill of Rights, and the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights.
“The NJDOL is committed to ensuring every worker in New Jersey can understand and access their work rights and benefits,” said Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo. “Through the CARE grant, NJDOL is proud to support organizations who are making a difference in the lives of workers, particularly those in underserved communities. These initiatives are crucial to fostering an equitable workforce where everyone is empowered to thrive.”
Awardees include community organizations, worker centers, social service providers, professional associations, libraries, maternal health programs, and faith-based groups that have demonstrated their ability to provide community-centered, culturally relevant, and language-specific programming, and link underserved residents and small businesses with government programs.
The CARE grant program reaches workers who need increased access to their rights and benefits, including low-wage workers, workers of color, immigrants, women, refugees, survivors of domestic/sexual violence, and young workers. The program also funds outreach and education to small and immigrant-owned businesses, and other employers that need resources and information on these laws and programs.
Grantees will build the capacity of their staff to provide information on worker benefits and protections through NJDOL training sessions, engage in outreach at community events, provide one-on-one counseling and application assistance to workers, conduct presentations and training programs, run social media and text campaigns, user-test outreach tools and applications, and more.