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New Jersey Becomes Latest State to Enact a $15 Minimum Wage Law
With the signature of its governor on February 4, 2019, New Jersey became the latest state and the third largest to pass a minimum wage bill of $15.00 per hour. California and New York, which enacted similar laws in 2016 and 2017, are the only states with larger populations than New Jersey which passed such $15 minimum wage bills. Under the Law, the state’s current minimum wage of $8.85 per hour will increase to:
Each year thereafter, the minimum wage may increase further depending on the national consumer price index based on state constitutional provisions. The New Jersey law does provide a handful of exceptions, such as seasonal employers and small employers (those with 5 or fewer employees), but most of those exceptions merely extend the schedule for implementing the $15 per hour minimum by a few years.
Federal / State Update on Minimum Wage
At the federal level, the minimum wage has been $7.25 for nearly a decade. Meanwhile, in January a bill to gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $15.00 per hour was introduced by the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives. The bill has 181 co-sponsors in the House and 31 co-sponsors in the Senate.
In addition to the federal, various states such as Virginia, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Maryland introduced bills to raise the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour in January 2019. However, the Virginia bill was defeated by a narrow, two-vote margin in the state senate.