Minimum Wage Campaign

The Institute is a founding member of the New Jersey Raise the Wage Campaign, a coalition of organizations seeking to increase the state minimum wage to at least $8.50 per hour; to index it, so it maintains its purchasing power over time; and to implement a sub-minimum cash wage for tipped workers (New Jersey is one of only two states without one).

On July 11th, the Institute hosted a Raise the Wage Campaign event in support of these proposals. Former Senator John Edwards, who now serves as the Chair of the Half in Ten Campaign (which aims to cut poverty in the United States in half over the next decade), attended to lend his voice to the effort.

The last time the Legislature increased New Jersey's minimum wage, it declined to index it, preferring to leave future increases to the whims of the political process. Instead, the Legislature created a Minimum Wage Advisory Commission and required that the Commission report to the Legislature annually, starting in 2007, on the continuing adequacy of the state's minimum wage. The Institute, in partnership with New Jersey Policy Perspective and the Brennan Center for Justice, submitted a report to the Commission during the public comment period. In December 2007 the Commission issued its first report, calling for an immediate increase in the minimum wage and indexing (the report was silent on the tipped workers issue). Several bills were introduced in January in accordance with these recommendations, but none received even a hearing.

The Institute recently updated its 2007 submission to reflect intervening economic developments and submitted it, in partnership with our Raise the Wage partners, in advance of the Commission's 2008 report. We intend to continue our advocacy around these issues during the upcoming legislative session, in the first quarter of 2009.

In this picture, Senator John Edwards and Cornell William Brooks, Esq., NJISJ Executive Director, at the Raise the Wage Campaign Conference, hosted by the Institute.

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