New Jersey State Department of Labor Decision

Umpires,

As many of you are aware, there has been a concerted effort by the New Jersey Department of Labor to reclassify amateur sports officials as employees.

This decision by the NJDOL does not need to be voted on by anyone in local government or the general public. While this is being legally challenged currently, the NJDOL has made their decision that amateur sports officials ARE employees, NOT independent contractors. If you do not live or officiate in the state of New Jersey, this will likely still affect you down the road if we are unsuccessful in defeating this decision by the NJDOL. Other States will certainly follow this model if it passes here in New Jersey. 

Reclassifying umpires as employees would mean that organizations like the TSEUA would have difficulty continuing to operate under these new burdensome administrative responsibilities. Taxes would be withheld from your game fees, along with contributions to unemployment, disability, etc. It would severely  limit your ability to work when and for whom you want to. One of the great perks of amateur sports officiating is our independent contractor status. You would no longer be entitled to the deductions that come with being an independent contractor (mileage, gas, tolls, uniforms, training, etc).

Aside from those issues above that affect umpires directly, the indirect harm will be to Middle Schools, High Schools, Travel Tournaments, Little Leagues and Colleges in the state of New Jersey. At best, this new classification will see costs to acquire officials rise 2x or 3x without seeing any increases to the fees actually paid to the umpires. At worst, these leagues and schools will have to find officials on their own and the officials would then be employees of the leagues and schools. Both scenarios would cause catastrophic damage to the current amateur sports world in this State.

While that is the very bad news, the good news is that Assemblyman Dan Hutchison of Laurel Springs, NJ has put forth a Bill in the NJ State Assembly to classify amateur sports officials as Independent Contractors, reversing the decision of the NJ Department of Labor and taking this issue off the table in the future.

This Bill in the Assembly is A4735 and the same bill in the Senate is Bill S4045, which is sponsored by Senator Kristin Corrado (R) and Senator Paul Sarlo (D) 

The full bill can be read here: https://pub.njleg.gov/Bills/2026/A5000/4735_I1.HTM

While this Bill has bipartisan support, it is currently "in committee" in the Labor Committee. We need public support for this bill to get it through and passed.

What can you do?

1. Reach out to the members of the Labor Committee and voice your support for Bill A4735, which classifies amateur sports officials as independent contractors. Those members can be found at the link below by scrolling down to the Labor Committee. The is in alphabetical order by committee

https://njleg.state.nj.us/committees/assembly-committees

2. Reach out to your local assemblymen and women to voice your support for Bill A4735. You can find your local rep at the link below:

https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/legislative-roster

3. If you are friends with me on facebook, share my facebook post spreading awareness of this issue in the community.

4. If you know anyone who is an a board member of another officiating chapter, an administrator at a school that has sports, little leagues, or sports leagues of any kind, let them know what is going on and encourage them to reach out to their local representatives to express their support for this bill.

I strongly encourage all of you to act now to help this bill get passed and save the future of amateur sports officiating and amateur sports in general.

If you have any questions on anything, please let me know.

Thank you

John Gallante

TSEUA/UTS