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How would you like to work for $5.15 an hour?
Most of us have probably worked for less at some time in our lives-I know I did. But we're talking about now. And now trying to make it on $5.15 is hard to do. In fact, it is an insult to the dignity of work that we even think anyone should have to try.
New Jersey needs a raise.
The state's minimum wage of $5.15 an hour-unchanged since 1999-is the same as the federal minimum wage. That in itself is an embarrassment. After all, it costs a third more to live in New Jersey than the national average. And yet we're down there in minimum wage with the five states that have the lowest costs of living in the nation: Arkansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas and North Dakota. They might be nice enough places in their own right, but is that really the company we want to keep when it comes to paying people what they need?
If New Jersey's minimum wage had just kept pace with inflation over the past six years it would be over $6 an hour today. Even that doesn't buy much. In fact, what it takes to support a one-parent, one child family in New Jersey-no frills, just the basics-ranges from around $13 an hour in Camden County to more than $19 in Hunterdon, according to a recent study.
Fulltime work at minimum wage grosses you about $10,700 a year. Come to think of it, that is pretty gross. And while that's the pay for 40 hours a week, it would take 129 hours a week at minimum wage for someone to afford an average 1-bedroom apartment in Mercer County.
Some folks like to comfort themselves in the face of this outrage by claiming not that many people actually have to work for such a low pay and that a lot of them are teenagers who aren't supporting a family. Well, it's time to burst those bubbles. About 75,000 people work for minimum wage in New Jersey today, but if you add in everyone who would get a raise if the minimum wage rose to at least $7 an hour you would be talking about over 225,000 people. And three quarters of them are over 20 years old. That's too many people, making too little, to ignore.
One argument used against paying people enough to live is that giving them a raise would force companies to raise prices. That's just silly. According to work by the Brennan Center for Justice, if Wal-Mart gave each of its employees a $1 an hour raise and the company wanted to maintain profits it would have to hike the cost of each item by a half-cent.
Besides, you don't hear anyone complaining that prices have to go up in order for CEOs to get the huge increases they have enjoyed in recent years. Indeed, back in 1980 it took 97 minimum wage workers to equal the average salary of a CEO at a major U.S. corporation. Now it takes more than 1,220. And if the minimum wage had risen at the same rate as CEO pay since 1990, it would be over $14 an hour today.
If you're starting to get the picture, you're not alone. Many of our neighboring states also have seen the light. Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island and Massachusetts all have a minimum wage higher than the federal wage, and as this is written New York's legislature has passed an increase and is contemplating an override of Gov. George Pataki's veto.
There's a disturbing irony here. New Jersey spends millions of dollars a year competing with those states to get businesses to move here. But we seem supremely uninterested in making sure working people are paid enough to live here.
We can do better. New Jersey's minimum wage should be increased to at least $7 an hour. And, as is the law in some states, it should be tied to inflation so that yearly increases are automatic. Then, people working hard to support their families and build a future wouldn't have to wait for politicians to happen to get around to helping them.
A version of this piece appeared in the publication "NJBiz," where Jon Shure regularly contributes to the "Left-Right" exchange of views
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