New Jersey Minimum Wage Going Up, But Not By Much

New Jersey's minimum wage will jump slightly by the new year, according to state officials. But don't expect it to be enough of an increase to pay off your holiday expenses.

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development announced that the state’s minimum wage will increase by 16 cents, from $8.44 to $8.60, on Jan. 1, 2018, providing what some consider a modest boost to many of New Jersey’s wage earners.

That means the average 40-hour-a-week worker will get an extra $6.40 a week — or $332 a year.

New Jersey officials, as mandated by the state Constitution, annually adjust the minimum wage based on the consumer price index statistics released by the U.S. Department of Labor. The 16 cent hike will be the first increase in two years because the state's cost of living did not change in 2016.

It fell far short, however, of what many state lawmakers and advocates really want: a $15 minimum wage, which Gov. Chris Christie vetoed last year.

Three years ago, New Jersey residents voted to raise the minimum wage to $8.25, along with annual adjustments based on the consumer price index.

Brandon McKoy of New Jersey Policy Perspective, a state think tank, welcomed the hike but said $8.60 an hour "remains far below what it takes for a worker to afford the most basic of needs on a daily basis in high-cost New Jersey."

McKoy said the 16 cent hike "accounts to an inadequate income of less than $18,000 a year for a full-time worker."

"It’s clearer than ever: gradually increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour is urgently needed to reduce income inequality and help hundreds of thousands of hard working New Jerseyans afford basic needs for themselves and their families," he said. "The sooner elected officials can recognize this need and work together to help our friends and neighbors who are struggling to get by on the current insufficient minimum wage level, the better of all of us – workers, families, and businesses – will be."

Christie has continued to oppose such a hike, saying a $15-an-hour minimum wage "fails to consider the capacity of businesses, especially small businesses, to absorb the substantially increased labor costs it will impose, killing jobs and erasing gains of more than 275,000 private sector jobs since 2010."

Patch file photo