TRENTON Benefits allowing workers to take up to six weeks of paid time off to care for a sick family member, newborn or newly adopted child take effect today, more than a year after New Jersey became the third state in the nation to enact paid family leave legislation.

Of the state's four million workers, 38,200 employees are expected to take the paid leave each year, according to a state analysis. The program will allow workers to collect up to two-thirds their salary, capped at $546 a week.

The enacting legislation, sponsored by Sen. Stephen Sweeney, D-3, of West Deptford, was passed by the Legislature and signed into law in May of last year.

Businesses had fought similar legislation for more than a decade, citing the potential for abuse by workers and the cost of temporarily replacing employees who take time off. In their opposition, Republican lawmakers said a recession was no time for a new tax on employees.

But Democrats and labor leaders called it an important worker protection program - needed especially during a recession - that would keep employees from having to choose between their jobs and taking care of an ailing family member.

Kevin Smith, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Labor, said the recession will make it "an even harder decision" for workers to decide whether to access the benefits.

Under the law, only employees of large businesses would have job protection after taking time off under the program. Employees of businesses with fewer than 50 employees could be fired.

But Smith said state officials have not yet lowered their projections for the number of workers who will utilize the program. So far, 92 people have pre-filed applications for the paid family leave benefit.

"At this point, we still need to see how many people take it," he said.

Karen White, director of Working Families Programs at Rutgers University Center for Women and Work, said she doesn't expect the recession to have an impact at all.

"I think that those people that need to take the time are going to be glad to have access to it and will take it," White said.

On the contrary, she said, "there's no indication of large-scale abuses or hordes of people running out to access the benefit" in California, the only other state with an active paid leave program.

Just 1.5 percent of California's workforce has taken the leave since the program began in 2004, she said.

Still, business groups remain cautious.

Jim Leonard, senior vice president for the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, said he thinks its too early to tell how much an impact the economy will have on the program, although his organization plans to closely track its usage.

"One of the things we're concerned with is there is not going to be enough money," Leonard said.

Workers began paying into the benefit fund Jan. 1 with payroll deductions of .09 percent of their annual salary. Under the deduction, an employee making $10 an hour for a 40-hour week would pay 36 cents a week toward the program.

State labor officials said the amount in the fund has reached $36 million. It is expected to raise $64.5 million this year and to pay out $43.6 million in benefits over the final six months of the year, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services.

Next year, the deduction rate will rise to .12 percent to collect $97.6 million; $90 million in benefits are expected to be paid to workers.

More information about Paid Leave Insurance can be found at nj.gov/labor.