A Higher Minimum Wage Would Benefit Working Women, Their Families and All New Jerseyans

Women, people of color, and their families are disproportionately affected by a low minimum wage.

• The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimates that close to half a million New Jersey workers would benefit if the minimum wage were raised to $8.25 per hour, including almost 275,000 workers making under $8.25 per hour and over 200,000 workers who earn just above $8.25 per hour. More than half of the workers who would get a raise are women (55 percent) and more than half are people of color (55 percent).[2]
• Parents comprise over a fifth of workers who would be affected by this minimum wage increase, and more than 230,000 children in the state have a parent who would get a raise. Parents who would see a raise contribute, on average, 41 percent of their families’ income. Nine percent of these affected parents earn the family’s entire income.[3]
• Contrary to common perceptions, many minimum-wage workers continue earning low wages for a significant part of their careers.[4] For families who struggle to make ends meet, a higher minimum wage would provide added economic security for years to come. 
• Comparing the change in costs of raising a family with the change in the minimum wage underscores this struggle: for example, while the cost of child care and health care in New Jersey rose by over 80 percent and 75 percent respectively from 1992 to 2011, the state’s minimum wage increased only about 40 percent.[5] Raising the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation would help prevent wages from sinking further relative to the cost of living.
• In New Jersey the typical woman working full time, year round is paid only 78 cents for every dollar paid to her male counterpart.[6] Since women are overrepresented among low-wage earners, increasing the minimum wage would help close this 22-cent gap.

New Jersey’s wage standards are lower than in other states in the region and across the country.

• Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have raised their minimum wages above the federal rate of $7.25 per hour, and ten states have indexed the wage to keep up with inflation.[7]
• Many of the states with a higher minimum wage have a lower cost of living than New Jersey, which consistently ranks among the five states with the highest cost of living.[8] This means the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is particularly inadequate in New Jersey.
• Wages for tipped workers in New Jersey are especially low relative to other states. New Jersey is the only state in the Northeast with a minimum cash wage for tipped workers of just $2.13 per hour, and a total of 32 states and the District of Columbia set the tipped minimum wage at a higher level, including seven that have eliminated the subminimum cash wage for tipped workers altogether.[9] While employers are responsible for making sure that their tipped employees are paid the minimum wage, many workers are paid less due to wage theft and other practices.[10]
• A Senate resolution approved by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee would put a constitutional amendment on the November 2013 ballot to raise the minimum wage to $8.25 per hour and adjust it annually thereafter based on a national measure of inflation. In January 2013, Governor Christie issued a conditional veto of a separate bill passed by the full New Jersey legislature, which would have raised the wage to $8.50 per hour and indexed it to inflation using a regional measure to calculate these ongoing increases.
• A separate bill passed by the New Jersey Assembly Labor Committee, A-2708, would revise the allowable tip credit so the tipped minimum cash wage would reach 40 percent of the minimum wage in the year of enactment and 69 percent in the following year. It would also create a permanent relationship between the minimum cash wage for tipped workers and the minimum wage other workers are entitled to by law.

An increase in the minimum wage would benefit New Jersey’s economy.

• Workers earning too little to get by cannot provide the spending boost New Jersey’s economy needs. Research has demonstrated that spending by households with a minimum wage worker can rise by about $2,800 in the year following an increase of just $1 in the minimum hourly wage.[11]
• EPI estimates that raising New Jersey’s minimum wage to $8.25 per hour would generate about $195 million in additional economic activity in the state in the first year following the increase, leading to the creation of over 1,700 full-time jobs.[12]
• Research contradicts the argument that raising the minimum wage harms business.  For example, one study found no negative employment effects resulted from different wage policies across contiguous counties,[13] and a Fiscal Policy Institute study showed higher rates of small business job growth in states with minimum and tipped wages above the federal level.[14]
• Good wages make good business sense: a study of several large retail chains showed that those who pay and train workers better and hire more on a full-time schedule are more profitable and enjoy higher sales per employee than competitors.[15] More generally, increasing wages for low-wage workers can reduce turnover, boost worker efforts, and encourage employers to invest in their workers.[16]
• Low wages also come at a cost to taxpayers, because many low-wage workers need to rely on public benefits such as food stamps, Medicaid, and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

A minimum wage increase would put money into New Jersey’s economy, creating jobs. It would also increase economic security for thousands of working families in New Jersey struggling to make ends meet and would help close the wage gap between women’s and men’s earnings.

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A Higher Minimum Wage Would Benefit Working Women, Their Families and All New Jerseyans