Governor Phil Murphy, Senate President Steve Sweeney, and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin announced an agreement on legislation to raise New Jersey’s minimum wage to $15/hour. The agreement is the result of months of deliberative and thorough negotiations between the Governor’s Office, Senate, and General Assembly to institute a $15/hour minimum wage, raising wages for over one million workers and promoting broad-based economic growth.
“Today, we are taking a historic step to provide more than one million New Jersey workers a stronger foothold in the middle class,” said Governor Murphy. “No one working a full-time join should ever live in poverty. Putting the minimum wage on a clear and responsible path to $15/hour is good for workers, good for our businesses, and good for our economy. A higher minimum wage strengthens all of New Jersey. I thank Senate President Sweeney and Speaker Coughlin for their commitment to this issue, and look forward to signing this legislation into law.”
“This is a progressive plan to elevate New Jersey’s minimum wage to $15 so that workers have a fair wage that allows them to support themselves and their families,” said Senate President Sweeney. “This plan will put New Jersey in the forefront of the national movement to build a high-wage economy.
“It will increase the wages for farm workers to $12.50 within five years, making it the highest wage for farm worker in the Northeast. The plan includes tax credits for employers who hire people with disabilities, which will support the further integration into the workplace of those with disabilities, giving them the opportunity for meaningful employment and providing employers with highly motivated workers. It also includes a ‘parity’ provision that will provide additional increases for small business and seasonal workers.
“As the increases take effect, we must be sensitive to the impact it will have on working people who are below the ‘safety net’ and could be at risk of losing benefits as their wages increase. We don’t want to see them harmed by lost benefits as they gain in wages.”
“Since the day I was sworn in as Assembly Speaker, I have pledged to do all I can to make New Jersey more affordable. By increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024 for the majority of workers we are achieving the goal of lifting people up to improve their quality of life,” said Speaker Coughlin. “We also took into consideration the concerns of our State’s valued small business community. I thank Governor Murphy and Senate President Sweeney for working with me so closely and tirelessly to ensure fairness for future generations of workers.”
Under the legislation, the base minimum wage for New Jersey workers would increase to $10/hour on July 1, 2019. By January 1, 2020, the statewide minimum wage would increase to $11/hour, and then would increase by $1/hour every January 1st until it reaches $15/hour on January 1, 2024, impacting over one million New Jersey workers.
For seasonal workers and employees at small businesses of five workers or less, the base minimum wage would reach $15/hour by January 1, 2026. By January 1, 2028, workers in these groups will receive the minimum wage inclusive of inflation adjustments that take place from 2024 to 2028, equalizing the minimum wage with the main cohort of New Jersey workers.
For agricultural workers, the base minimum wage would increase to $12.50/hour by January 1, 2024. No later than March 31, 2024, the New Jersey Labor Commissioner and Secretary of Agriculture will jointly decide whether to recommend that the minimum wage for agricultural workers increase to $15/hour by January 1, 2027, as specified in the bill. If they cannot come to an agreement, a third member, appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate, will break the tie. If there is a recommendation to disapprove of the scheduled increases or suggest an alternative pathway, the Legislature will have the ability to implement that recommendation by passage of a concurrent resolution.
One thing will be hard to find are movers! It’ll take them forever to catch up with the demand of fleeing businesses and in turn, residents.
Insanity!
When will they figure out that it’s the market demand that dictates value – NOT government!! Getting involved only ruins the process- like everything else the government gets involved in- especially NY and NJ
what will happen is that employers will fire some or all workers make the rest work longer hours or replace them with machines and will raise the price of their products
They should just pass a law making it illegal to be poor. That should improve the quality of life.
Amazing how they say “make NJ more affordable” and “raise wages” in the same breath. Who is paying for the increase?
At the end, all prices will go up, thousands will lose their job, and we idiots re-elect these people.
Of the million workers alot of them will lose their job. Some of them won’t be able to work overtime anymore because their bosses went be able to afford it so their paycheck will be less and of those whose paychecks will go up, alot of them will be kicked off programs because they now make too much so the benefit is minimized if not totally negated by cost of food and healthcare. Go look in Seattle it just doesn’t work. While the rest of us will end up paying for this with higher prices. So who does gain by this the government they will have to pay less for programs and they will get more income tax and it is good propganda.
So, you see, this is just a tax with a different name.
Who do you think is going to pay for the increase in the minimum wage? You are! Prices will go up, so you will be paying more for those items from companies who employee minimum wage workers. In other words you are robbing Peter to pay Paul. The only end results are as follows;
1. Things will just cost more
2. Since people are technically making more money the government will be charging more tax.
So you see, once again, the only one that wins is the government. and probably many people that need public assistance whether it be Medicaid or housing assistance will lose their assistance because now they will make too much money.
It’s time to get rid of these crazy Democrats.
Welcome to Seattle. Where communists never learn.
Some laws I’d like to see passed (or “What would happen if I ran things”):
1. ANYONE running for office must have a good understanding of economics, business administration, and how money is created.
2. Politicians cannot pay themselves more than their LOWEST-PAID constituents earn. (After all, they’re public SERVANTS, aren’t they?)
3. Politicians cannot exempt themselves from the laws they create.
4. Congressional and Senatorial personnel may only serve a maximum of 2 terms, the same as the President.
5. When NOT in session, Congressional & Senatorial leaders must do volunteer work in their respective jurisdictions, and only for non-profit organizations that they are NOT involved in, in any managerial capacity, or leadership role.
6. New legislation may only be implemented, one piece at a time. (No more “riders”, or hidden pork).
7. Current-term leaders, may NOT engage in fundraising, or campaigning, while “at work”. What they do on their own time is a different story.
8. Politicians may not accept campaign contributions from corporations, trade unions, or any other entity. Only American citizens, as individuals, may contribute, up to a maximum of $2,500.
Keep it going! What would you do differently?