NJ Spotlight: NJ’S MINIMUM WAGES RISES TO $10 TODAY IN FIRST STEP TOWARD $15

Today more than 200,000 New Jerseyans are getting a raise to $10 an hour, the first in the state’s multi-year move toward a $15-an-hour minimum wage.

The Democratic-controlled Legislature passed and Gov. Phil Murphy signed the new wage into law five months ago as a way to provide all workers with a living wage in one of the highest-cost states in the nation. Last year’s ALICE report from the United Way of Northern New Jersey found that close to 40 percent of all households in the state, or 1.2 million, were either living in poverty or working poor and unable to afford such basic needs as food, clothing and shelter, with ALICE defined as Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.

The minimum wage for most hourly employees will reach $15 by 2024, making New Jersey one of only five states plus the District of Columbia to have enacted a $15 minimum. DC will be the first to reach that mark, next July 1, followed by California in 2022.

Read the full report here.