Roll-Back Of $15 NJ Minimum Wage Law Is Delayed: What's Next

NEW JERSEY – Plans to roll back New Jersey's $15 minimum wage law have been postponed, but lawmakers say they're ready to revisit the issue soon.

Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, under pressure from fellow Democrats, said he was pulling the roll-back legislation that the state Senate Labor Committee had scheduled for a vote on Thursday.

The legislation would have allowed the planned minimum wage increases to be delayed based on decreases in employment, retail sales and tax receipts.

Gopal, however, said he is not giving up on the legislation that New Jersey's business community had pushed for, fearing that gradually increasing the state's minimum wage to $15 by 2024 could harm small businesses and hurt the state's economy.

"I look forward to meeting with stakeholders in the weeks and months ahead on the positives and negatives," said Gopal, who co-sponsored the legislation with Sen. Kristin Corrado, R-Passaic.

Democrats such as U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, D-Camden, had pushed for a delay in voting on the bill.

“This is an irresponsible proposal that will harm both workers and businesses,” he said. “This proposal should be rejected by the Senate Labor Committee on Thursday and I’m calling on all New Jerseyans to make their voices heard today. It’s ($15 minimum wage) good for the economy, it’s right for workers, people support it and you promised to do it: Raise the Wage.”

Democrats also agued that they already approved several safeguards to lessen the impact on small businesses when Gov. Phil Murphy signed the minimum wage bill into law in February, including a gradual roll-in of wage increases.

The law increased the minimum-wage base for New Jersey workers to $10 an hour on July 1. By Jan. 1, 2020, the statewide minimum wage will increase to $11-an-hour, and then will increase by $1-an-hour every January 1st until it reaches $15 an hour on January 1, 2024.

Other safeguards, Democrats say, included:

• For seasonal workers and employees at small businesses of five workers or less, the base minimum wage will reach $15 an hour by Jan. 1, 2026. By Jan. 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 other New Jersey workers.
• For agricultural workers, the base minimum wage will increase to $12.50 an 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 an hour by Jan. 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 impose that recommendation by passage of a resolution.

Gopal's legislation also would have suspended the scheduled minimum wage if the state's tax revenue decreased by at least 2 percent from the preceding fiscal year.

Gopal had earlier introduced legislation to raise the minimum wage to $12 over three years and draft a state study to determine its impact on small business owners.

The bill would have set an initial minimum wage increase to $10.10 as of 2019. The bill would then increase the minimum wage as much as $1.25 in both 2020 and 2021, culminating in a $12 minimum wage.

The bill also provided for a number of exemptions designed to support local and seasonal businesses and requires annual economic studies to be conducted to evaluate the impact of the minimum wage increase over a 5-year period, he said.

"We must also consider the constraints on small and seasonal businesses who often rely on minimum wage workers. Our local mom and pop shops will not be able to afford the short-term $15 minimum wage that some of my colleagues are pushing for," he said earlier this year.