TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A bill to boost New Jersey's minimum wage to $8.50 an hour won a legislative panel's approval Thursday, after lawmakers heard from a worker who says she can't get by on $7.25 an hour and from business groups who say employers can't afford to pay more in this still-sputtering economy.
The vote by the Assembly Labor Committee was 6-2, with one abstention, after about two hours of testimony.
The proposal, which is being pushed as a priority by Democrats who control both houses of the Legislature, has yet to have a hearing in the Senate. It needs to be passed by both chambers and be signed by the governor to become law. Sponsors are hoping the $1.25 wage increase would become effective for 29,000 minimum wage workers on July 1. The law also calls for automatic future annual adjustments linked to the Consumer Price Index.
Republican Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday he hadn't made up his mind on the bill, but said he wouldn't consider signing it unless Democrats approached him directly.
Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver phoned the governor Thursday morning, saying she'll work with Republicans and Democrats to get the measure signed into law.
New Jersey is one of 23 states with a minimum wage that mirrors the federal minimum. Eighteen states mandate a rate higher than the federal minimum, four states have a lower rate than the federal standard, and five states have no minimum wage, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
Oliver, who was the first to testify on the bill she's sponsoring, said she feels duty-bound to fight for those who now earn $290 a week before taxes for full-time work.
Lakisha Williams, a 29-year-old wheelchair assistant at Newark Liberty International Airport, came to the Capitol from Newark on a day off to argue for the wage boost.
Williams, who has a high school diploma and has been at her minimum-wage job for eight years, told the panel she can't get by on her $7.25-per-hour job without government assistance. In addition to working 32 to 40 hours a week at the airport, depending on how much work is available, she said she receives rental assistance and Medicaid for herself and her 12-year-old daughter, a seventh-grader in Newark public schools.
In her years as a working single parent, Williams said she hasn't received a raise, though public transportation costs have risen slightly and the cost of food has risen dramatically.
"Sometimes, I sit my daughter down, I cry," she said. "I have to tell her, 'mommy's doing the best she can.'"
Joe Olivo, who runs a 44-employee printing and marketing business, said there's another side to the story.
"Any government-mandated increase in expenses should be considered in the context that many employers are still suffering from the downturn in the economy four years ago," he said. "Raising the minimum wage makes it difficult for companies like mine to compete with (out-of-state) companies with a lower wage base"
Olivo, whose family-owned Perfect Printing is based in Moorestown, said it's easy to demonize people like him who oppose increasing the minimum wage. "I don't want to keep anyone down," he said. "Sometimes you can hurt the very employees you're trying to help."
If forced to pay minimum-wage workers more, Olivo said his payroll would be taxed further because workers now earning $8.50 an hour would also expect a raise. The result, he said, is that some would be let go, probably starting with the four temporary workers he now employs.
The New Jersey Business and Industry Association echoed the opposition, saying small-business owners can't absorb a 17 percent increase in the minimum wage in the current economy.
A representative of Six Flags Great Adventure asked for an amendment exempting student workers.
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