Sweeney and Norcross Announce Their Own $15 Minimum Wage Increase Plans

On Feb 9, 2016

A new plan to increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour was introduced today by Senate President Steve Sweeney. Meanwhile, US Rep. Donald Norcross introduced similar plans to raise the federal minimum wage to the same amount. Both men made their announcements at a joint news conference in Trenton.

Sweeney’s plan, which he hopes will be on the ballot in 2017 as a Constitutional Amendment, calls for a gradual increase in the minimum wage by $1 per hour per year. It differs from Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto’s plan, which would immediately increase the minimum wage, currently at $8.38 per hour, to $15. Sweeney’s version of the bill is expected to be introduced by Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald on Thursday.

The Norcross bill would increase the federal minimum wage, now at $7.25 per hour to $8 by 2017. After that, it would increase by $1 each year until it would reach $15.

According to NJBIA President Michele Siekerka, “Raising the minimum wage to $15, even with a phase in, will impact the state’s economic climate and be a direct hit on New Jersey’s small businesses. The current proposal represents an accumulated 79 percent rise in the minimum wage over the phase in period and would increase the cost of doing business at a time when the state is just recovering from the recession with three years of slow and steady growth. The mere mention of a minimum wage increase chills investment and job growth.

“The business community has just adapted to the recent constitutionally mandated minimum wage hike, now there is a proposal to go back to the voters just three short years after the Constitution was amended on this very same issue. Making law by constitutional amendment is simply not good public policy,” she said.

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