$15 Minimum Wage Good or Bad for NJ?
On February 4th, Governor Phil Murphy signed a plan to raise New Jersey’s minimum wage from the standard $8.85/hour to $15/hour by 2024. By adding gradual increments of $1 every year ($10 by July 11, 2019, $11 by 2020, $12 by 2021, $13 by 2022, $14 by 2023, and $15 by 2024), New Jersey lawmakers hope to offset the possibility of sudden economic instability.
In a public statement, Murphy emphasized, “This is a big, big step forward for New Jersey...we’re changing the lives of millions of workers in this state. I can’t stress that enough.” The law would place NJ among rapidly modernizing states such as California, New York, and Massachusetts.
However, the plan still contains a few wrinkles. The minimum wage for farmworkers will only rise to $12.50 by 2024, and lawmakers are unsure whether that number will reach $15 in the future. Similarly, consumers are unclear on what the increased wages will do for the prices of goods that companies put out.
It’s important to remember that while higher wages might have brief, short-term setbacks, in the long-run they have the ability to boost NJ’s economy.
“No one working a full-time job 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," explains Murphy.
Still not convinced? A study reported in the New York Times (conducted by Daniel Aaronson, Eric French and Isaac Sorkin) found that despite a wage increase resulting in lost jobs for certain sectors of the market, “an almost offsetting number of new jobs [and] other businesses opened, which the authors argue were more productive.”
This is a big step for New Jersey - and they seem to be walking in the right direction.
