NJPP: Jan. 1 Minimum Wage Bump Will Boost 300k NJ Workers, State Economy
NJPP: Jan. 1 Minimum Wage Bump Will Boost 300k NJ Workers, State Economy
16-cent inflation adjustment is good news but lawmakers must do more to boost workers and the state’s economy
On January 1, 2018, New Jersey’s minimum wage will rise by 1.9 percent to $8.60 per hour, providing approximately 300,000 workers throughout the state with a small but welcomed pay increase, according to a report released today by New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP).
“It is good to see the minimum wage increasing next year to $8.60 per hour, but in New Jersey that still qualifies as a poverty wage,” said NJPP Policy Analyst and report author Brandon McKoy. “For the good of all residents and our economy, we need to increase the minimum wage to a level where workers can legitimately afford basic daily needs to provide for themselves and their families.”
A full-time worker at the minimum wage in 2018 will take home less than $18,000 for the year, assuming they don’t take any time off. According to analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a single worker in the Garden State needs to make $37,974 in 2018 just to earn a wage that can provide stability.
Key findings in the report:
- The January 1 wage increase will boost the pay of 300,000 low-paid New Jersey workers, or 7.5% of the state’s workforce.
- Of these 300,000 workers, 91,000 are directly affected (meaning they currently make between $8.44 and $8.60 per hour) and the remaining 209,000 are indirectly affected (meaning they currently make between $8.60 and $8.76 per hour, and will see an increase in their pay as employers adjust their pay scales upward to reflect the new minimum wage).
- The new minimum wage still falls very short of what it takes to get by. In fact, it covers just 41-57% of the basic household budget for a single adult full-time worker with no children.
- Four of every five workers who will get a raise (81 percent) are at least 20 years old, while most are working either full-time (45 percent) or between 20 and 35 hours a week (33 percent). Almost half – 44.6 percent – have attended or finished college, and an additional 30 percent have finished high school.
- The majority, 56 percent, are women and one in five – 20 percent – are parents. A total of 111,000 New Jersey kids have at least one parent who will benefit from the January 1 increase. When looking at race and ethnicity, 44 percent of affected workers are white, 30 percent are Hispanic, and 18 percent are black.
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