Today’s vote by the New Jersey General Assembly on a hike in the minimum wage shouldn’t surprise anyone: It was approved on a party-line 46-33 vote with Republican opponents trotting out the standard arguments.
Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R-Union) said the move would hurt the state’s economic recovery at a time when Gov. Chris Christie and lawmakers are “starting to turn around that notion that New Jersey is not the right place for their business.”
Business groups took the same tack, arguing that wage hikes would lead to lost jobs.
Stefanie Riehl, assistant vice president of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, urged lawmakers to vote down the bill today.
“Unfortunately, legislation raising the minimum wage does not increase the sales and revenues that businesses would need to pay higher wages,” she said in a statement. “I sales are not rising fast enough to accommodate forced wage hikes, employers will be forced to make tough personnel and operating decisions, such as reducing workers’ hours or cutting other costs.”
New Jersey Policy Perspective said the increasing the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 “would boost the state’s ailing economy while improving the lives of many of the state’s working families.”
NJPP says that the hike would increase the amount earned by low-wage workers by $489 million in the first year and generate $278 million in new economic activity, with more than a half-million workers feeling the direct impact. There are 307,255 workers making less than $8.50 an hour in the state.
“Raising the minimum wage is the right thing to do for New Jersey’s working families. It’s also the right thing to do for our ailing economy,” says NJPP president Gordon MacInnes. “Approving the proposed $1.25 per hour increase will ripple throughout New Jersey, producing an estimated $278 million in new economic activity. That’s what I call a smart investment.”
The Senate is expected to follow suit, but it is unlikely that the governor will approve the legislation. Expect a veto, which would be bad news for the state’s low-wage workers.
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Hank Kalet 
Why not just turn these low wage workers into slaves and be done with it? These corporate oligarchs whining and complaining about raising the minimum wage from the destitution level to the extreme poverty level makes me want to puke for the next 10 years. Notice how it is never ever the right time to raise the minimum wage? It's obvious that these business people regard their workers as scum, dirt and filth to be dumped upon 24/7.
The next thing these ingrate workers will be demanding is health insurance, paid sick leave, paid personal days and defined benefit pensions. Don't they realize that they are expendable peons to be discarded on a whim. If they get injured on the job, just fire their tushes.