Mother’s Day should be a time to recognize that moms have one of the hardest jobs in the world. So many work tirelessly every day for their families, investing in their children’s future around the clock by sacrificing their own needs for the betterment of their children. This full-time job doesn’t come with pay, benefits, promotions, raises, or much recognition.
On top of this, the share of American mothers who are working remains at or near all-time highs. This trend is commonly explained by striving white-collar women who aim to “have it all” by successfully balancing a hard-charging career and family. The story’s very different for low-wage working moms: stagnant wages have combined with rising costs for housing and other necessities to force more mothers into low-wage work simply to make sure their families have food on the table, a roof over their heads and clothes on their backs.
New Jersey’s current minimum wage is a paltry $8.38 an hour, or about $17,500 each year for a full-time worker who takes no time off. Simply put, that’s not even close to what it takes to make ends meet in high-cost New Jersey. Yet nearly 1 in 4 of the state’s working people are currently paid less than $13.16 an hour. That’s almost 1 million of our neighbors who are working but can’t even afford what the United Way of Northern New Jersey calls a “survival budget.”
In response to these dire conditions, lawmakers are pushing to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021.
This gradual minimum wage increase would give New Jersey workers who aren’t paid enough to get by, a crucial pay bump – a raise that would disproportionately help women. While women make up 47 percent of the labor force, 53 percent of the individuals who would benefit from the increase are women.
Of the 975,000 New Jerseyans paid less than $15 an hour, 515,000 are women and 277,000 are parents, so we’re talking about a lot of mothers. If we want to improve the lives of mothers in the Garden State and seek ways to not just recognize motherhood on one Sunday in May, then let’s phase in an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
One in five New Jersey children have at least one parent — most likely their mother — paid less than $15 an hour. A minimum wage increase would not just benefit women and mothers, but their children as well.
Mothers are an important driver of New Jersey’s communities and its economy. With higher wages, moms could afford better housing, improve the quality of meals served and save for their children’s future. This would create a more stable economy and brighter future for New Jersey.
Of course, business lobbyists argue that raising the minimum wage will cause businesses to close or cut the number of employees and their hours worked. But we’ve had this conversation for decades, and there’s no evidence that raising the minimum wage leads to widespread job losses or stunts economic growth. On the contrary, with greater purchasing power being put into the hands of women, mothers and other working people, community economies are often stimulated when the minimum wage goes up.
And it’s not only local consumer economies that benefit by wage boosts. Another often-overlooked benefit is that raising the minimum wage can boost a company’s productivity because workers have greater incentive to work harder.
So this Mother’s Day, put yourself in the shoes of the New Jersey mom who is trying to balance work and family, all while being paid far less than it takes to survive. What would make her life easier? Forget the sentimental flowers and chocolates and give a gift that will last: a crucial wage boost.
Amy Dunford is the Kathleen Crotty Fellow at New Jersey Policy Perspective, which advances economic justice and shared prosperity for all New Jersey residents through non-partisan, data-driven research, analysis, advocacy and strategic communications.
