Push for $15 Minimum Wage Comes to New Jersey

Date: February 04, 2016

A bill was introduced in Trenton on Thursday, February 4
that would raise the state minimum wage to $15.  Less than three years ago, Governor Christie vetoed a
bill raising the minimum wage, which lead to a ballot measure that constitutionally
changed the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.25 and
hour, tied to the CPI. Currently New Jersey’s minimum wage is $8.35

This radical wage hike has the potential to crush many small businesses who are adjusting to constantly changing regulations
and other labor requirements at the state and local level. Already,
New Jersey is known for having high numbers of residents leaving the state for better
jobs and lower taxes and an extreme minimum wage hike like this will certainly
only encourage more residents to leave the state and take their businesses with
them.

Not
only will this or any additional minimum wage hike in New Jersey damage small
business owners, but it will also hurt the very people it’s aimed at helping.
Examples of the detrimental effects of minimum wage hikes are abundant. Three
West Coast cities that raised their minimum wage are now paying the price in
job losses. Within the past year, about 2,500 restaurant jobs were lost in the San Francisco
metro
area
 along with 2,200 hotel jobs in the LA area.
Between January and June,
 Seattle lost about 1,300 restaurant
jobs
.
 


Investor’s Business Daily
 recently reported that job
gains at restaurants, hotels, and other and hospitality venues have fallen to
multiyear lows in cities that passed wage hikes of $10 or more. This is because
businesses with narrow profit margins and non-profits can’t absorb these major
labor cost increases. They have to find a way to make up the difference by
raising prices or scaling back their staff. If that doesn’t work they simply
are forced to close their doors. 

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